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LG Arena officially lands on AT&T for $199
No surprise the LG Arena has finally arrived on AT&T after we saw those spyshots earlier this year -- although it is packing AT&T Mobile TV, so that's a nice touch. Everything else is as predicted: 3-inch WVGA screen, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, GPS, and WiFi. Of course, you will be spending $199 on a two-year contract for a poorly-reviewed year-old featurephone when this hits on February 26, so that's probably a mistake, but at least the gratuitous spinny-cube effects of LG's S-Class UI will keep you distracted as you wander aimlessly through the wreckage of our once-proud civilization. There is also a web browser.
LG Arena destroyed, just because it was fun
It doesn't matter how many times we force ourselves to sit down and watch them -- torture tests of the newest, hottest phones always make us flinch (and ultimately vomit, if we endure them for long enough). As tough as it is on us, though, it's ten times tougher on these poor miracles of modern mobility, getting run over, left in puddles of rainwater, frozen, stepped on repeatedly, dropped, submersed in wine (for some reason we don't fully understand), blasted with dust, and tumbled in dryers. mail.ru hasn't published its full report on the Arena's ability to survive the insane battery of worst-case scenarios, but they've published a preview video -- and it doesn't look pretty for our S-Class friend. [Via Mobile Phone Helpdesk]
LG Arena KM900 gets reviewed, called an iPhone clone
We didn't think the LG Arena KM900 was any great shakes when we briefly got to play with it at Mobile World Congress, and it sounds like our initial impression was right on the money -- GSM Helpdesk just reviewed the touchscreen handset and more or less called it a weak iPhone clone. Ouch. The S-Class 3D UI drew particular scorn for being "cumbersome," and the browser was "sluggish" and "uncomfortable," taking some 30-40 seconds to render pages. There were some positives, though: the camera was solid, and the Dolby Mobile-enabled media player impressed, but overall the phone scored a 7 out of 10 on potential alone -- let's hope LG can improve things next time around.[Via Slashgear]
T-Mobile UK nabbing LG Arena KM900 in black
Just ten days after the LG Arena (or KM900, if you're the proper type) launched officially in Europe, T-Mobile UK has already moved in to snag some thunder with an exclusive color: black. Not like black handsets are hard to find or anything (in fact, we already knew this phone was shipping to someone in black), but we all know how giddy the world gets when something gets labeled as rare. Reportedly, the formal color name will be Titan Black, and outside of the new hue, everything else will remain the same. Check it later this month for free on Flext 40 and Combi 40 plans.
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LG Arena launches in Europe
Well, that didn't take too long, now did it? LG has announced that its high-end touchphone du jour, the KM900 Arena, is starting to ship in Europe after a February announcement at MWC. The 7.2Mbps HSDPA, WiFi, WVGA display, 3D UI, and 5 megapixel cam are all lustworthy specs for a device in this class, and it shows -- LG proudly proclaims that carriers around the world have already pre-ordered a million units. Americans can keep on dreaming for the time being, but Europeans should look for the Arena to start filtering into stores any day now in their choice of silver and black.[Via SlashPhone]
LG Arena KM900 unboxed far away from trade show crowds
We already saw every angle of LG's newly launched Arena (or KM900, if we're being formal) at Mobile World Congress last month, but there's just something calming about witnessing an unboxing free of nearby gawkers and devoid of spiraled cables tethered to alarm systems. Seriously, you can't grasp the significance of it without giving the read link a visit, so here's what you do: click, indulge, then return and admit that we told you so.
LG Arena rocking SanDisk's 8GB iNAND flash drive
For most, the fact that LG's Arena has 8GB of internal storage space is enough. It holds just under eight full gigabytes of miscellany, and it does so without complaining. But for us -- the nerds in the crowd -- knowing that those eight luscious gigabytes are actually on an 8GB iNAND embedded flash drive just makes getting up out of bed a great deal easier. Said drive can act as both the boot and data storage drive, eliminating the need for a separate boot device and mountains of stress. Mmm... NAND in a cellphone, how calming is that, broseph?
LG Arena KM900 hands-on with video interface tour
We've been waiting to get our grubby mitts on the LG Arena KM900 and try out the S-Class 3D UI for ourselves, and well -- it's a nice featurephone interface, but it's not exactly revolutionary. The widget interface is nice, and we're into the picture-based contacts screen, but the icon-based home screen just feels cluttered, especially when viewed in the expanded horizontal orientation. It'll be interesting to see how LG refines these elements in its upcoming onslaught of Windows Mobile phones -- we wouldn't drop back to a featurephone for this stuff, but we'd be plenty interested in seeing more phones like the GM730 with this interface. Video after the break!Read - Engadget Spanish coverage of the KM900Read - Press release%Gallery-44902%
LG's flagship KM900 S-Class UI caught on video
Are you the type who falls deaf in the presence of the latest gadget? Add a girl and your mouth falls agape from the loss the muscle control required to speak? Good, we've got the video for you. A site in Sweden is showing off LG's new Arena KM900 flagship phone along with a first peep at its dynamic 3D S-Class UI. While we're not seeing any of that promised multi-touch here, the cubic interface is interesting and makes good use of the KM900's 3-inch, 800 x 480 pixel WVGA display and dedicated media chip. It's also expected to hit in April for 4,500 Swedish Krona or $535 US if our translation of that image (lower-left) is correct. Worth it? Hit the read link for the video (in Swedish) and let us know.[Thanks, Martin]
LG Arena KM900 hangs onto limelight, reveals multitouch capabilities
At this rate, LG isn't gonna have any secrets left about the Arena KM900 when it takes the stage for its Mobile World Congress press conference on Monday. The company's released a few more snippets via its Korean site, chief among them being multitouch capabilities for image and web page zooming. Other details include a dedicated multimedia chip and designations for each of the four sides of the interface's 3D cube: phone, widgets, shortcuts, and multimedia. One of our favorite lines, which is almost certainly made funnier by the machine translation, is that this UI is the culmination of 100 years of interface research. We'll have more on the KM900 -- assuming they don't reveal everything before then -- next week in Barcelona. [Via Unwired View]
LG Arena (KM900) pops official, brings along 3D S-Class UI
Rather than waiting for the KM900 to get lost amongst hundreds of other handsets set to vie for attention at Mobile World Congress, LG has decided it best to go ahead and make its newest touchscreen handset official a few days early. The so-called Arena, which will take the crown as LG's "flagship phone for 2009," is hoping to wow onlookers with its dynamic 3D S-Class user interface. According to Dr. Skott Ahn, president and CEO of LG Mobile: "The direct, intuitive and dynamic S-Class UI will be unlike anything that has appeared on a mobile phone before." We're not quite sure we believe all that just yet, but there's little doubt this bugger will be keen on multimedia. Other specs include integrated Dolby / DivX technology, support for HSDPA 7.2Mbps, WiFi, Assisted GPS and "far more" amenities that should be uncovered in Barcelona. Excited yet?[Via UnwiredView, thanks Staska]
LG Arena KM900 press photo leaked... by LG
Guess LG UK apparently can't wait to show the world the new Arena KM900 -- it's published a high-quality press photo on its corporate blog ten days before the official reveal at MWC. This is also our first glimpse of that "S-Class 3D interface," and it's... definitely a spinning 3D cube with some icons on it. No further confirmation on those details we'd heard, but we'll see if this thing is more than just another touchscreen dumbphone wannabe when we get our hands on it. [Via Unwired View; thanks, staska]
LG Arena KM900 gets further detailed
We've already gotten a pretty good look at LG's curiously familiar Arena KM900 phone, and we're now starting to get some more details as well, although LG is still managing to keep a few things under wraps for the presumably imminent announcement. Apparently, this one will boast GSM/UMTS/HSDPA connectivity, along with a high-res 3-inch 800x480 display (no word on resistive or capacitive), and some form of mobile TV, although specifics on that are a bit light at the moment. The phone also apparently measures just 11.5mm thick, which makes it a smidgen slimmer than the iPhone and, as we had heard before, it could be out in Europe as soon as next month -- on T-Mobile Germany for starters, it seems.[Via Unwired View]
LG Arena KM900 touchscreen phone shows itself in print
We got a whiff of this one last month courtesy of the FCC, but it looks like LG's new Arena KM900 touchscreen phone is now fully making its way out into the open, with the above image and some specs to go along with it surfacing in advance of MWC. As you can see above, this one bears a little resemblance to the Samsung Omnia, and boasts a 5-megapixel camera (plus a secondary one for video calls, it seems), built-in GPS, WiFi, and what's described as an "innovative S-Class 3D interface." Unfortunately, complete specs are still a bit of a mystery, but the phone is apparently on track to hit Europe as soon as March, and it seems a pretty safe bet that LG will have more to say about this one at MWC later this month.
