MWC 2009: LG overview

The LG booth is definitely a must-see at this year's Mobile World Congress. The crowd it gathers is hardly a surprise, considering the number of hot devices LG have announced. The main star at the booth is our namesake - the LG KM900 Arena. Running on the brand new S class interface, the handset really promises unprecedented user experience and loads of eye candy throughout the menu.

LG Booth

LG also announced quite a large pack of handsets at the start of the Mobile World Congress. While none of them manages to outdo the LG KM900 Arena, which was officially unveiled last week, there certainly are some interesting names.

As part of a demo at the LG press conference, LG CEO Scott Ahn videocalled Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer on his LG GD910 wristwatch phone. The answer of what the Microsoft CEO might want in exchange for this favor came a while later - LG promised to release no less than 50 phones running the Microsoft OS until 2012.

The main accents of the LG conference

The first step to fulfilling that promise is the announcement of LG GM730 - a slim WinMo-running handset. The fully touch-operated GM730 comes with a 3" WQVGA screen, A-GPS, Wi-Fi and a 5 megapixel camera. USB and Bluetooth connectivity are also on board and the device still manages to keep its girth within 11.9mm.

LG GM730 runs WinMo 6.1 Professional with a touch of S class UI

LG GD900 Crystal is definitely the most curious handset of the bunch, offering an unprecedented see-through keypad. The manufacturer is refusing to reveal most of its specs, which suggests it's still a very early prototype. The fact that it was only displayed behind glass at the LG booth also kinda confirms that. We were quite disappointed since we were eager as you are to check what a transparent phone feels like (or at least what it's like to have a look through one). Well, we guess we will have to wait a little longer for that. The phone should be released in May so it shouldn't be too much of a wait.

LG GD900 wasn't available at the booth

Yet another disappointment for us was the pretty limited information about the 8 megapixel LG GC900. The handset was there for everyone to see alright, but was only displayed behind a window and only a small portion of its specifications was officially confirmed. Obviously LG are now focusing the whole attention on the S class UI and the KM900 Arena while the other exciting announcements will be kept for later.

The slider LG KT770 runs on Symbian S60 3rd edition UI and comes with FP2 preinstalled. It offers a 5 megapixel camera, a 2.8" WQVGA screen, and 3G with HSDPA connectivity. The internal memory will be 1 or 2 GB and is expandable via the microSD card slot.

LG KT770 offers Symbian S60 3rd edition UI

LG also announced their eco-friendly phone (still unnamed) that has a solar panel at the back for charging its battery. It is yet another handset kept in a glass cage at their MWC 2009 booth.

LG solar-powered phone

Finally, LG announced a bunch of low and lower-mid-range phones, designed to address the emerging markets and users on a tight budget. You can check out their specifications here.

So completing the list of official announcements we move on to exploring the handsets first-hand. The LG KM900 Arena was quite naturally topping our priority list so once we set foot in the booth we started looking for a sample good enough for a brief hands-on.

Luckily such units weren't too hard to find and here we are bringing you our first MWC 2009 LG hands-on. You will find our first impressions of the LG KM900 Arena and a load of live photos of the UI on the next page.