14 DAY TRIAL // One of the most successful touchscreen phones released until now, LG Viewty, will soon be available for the US market too, after being released in Europe several months ago.
The American version of Viewty will be slightly different than the original one. While the European handset, known as LG KU990, offers 3G connectivity, the new version (KE990) only comes with tri-band GSM support, hence no HSDPA. Besides this, there's only one single other difference, but a good one: the phone's camera now has a lens cover, for protection against unwanted scratches.
Working now on 850 / 1800 / 1900 GSM networks, LG Viewty seems to be fit for an American release via T-Mobile, the single US carrier that doesn't have (yet) a 3G network. If coming at T-Mobile, Viewty will be among the most advanced phones available through the fourth largest US carrier, which can only mean its subscribers will be a bit happier than they are now, having a new (and great) phone that they can pick up.
LG Viewty has become a highly popular phone since it combines advanced features with a simple but elegant look. The handset packs a 5 Megapixels photo camera with flash, auto focus, Schneider-Kreuznach lens and video recording at 120fps (in QVGA mode), a 3 inch TFT touchscreen display with 240 x 400 pixels and 256k colors, music and video players, FM radio with RDS, Internet and email capabilities, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, Java MIDP 2.0, document viewer and microSD card support to expand the internal memory.
Besides being released in the US, the 2G-only Viewty will probably also go to China (under the name of LG KE990c) and other countries that don't have 3G networks yet. Obviously, the 3G-less handset will come cheaper than the original version, but there's no info about how much exactly it will cost. Anyway, we should expect a retail price around $500.