LG Black Sapphire Phone

LG became the first cellphone designer to overturn Motorola's virtual monopoly of style-oriented phones in North America with its Chocolate music phone. It will soon have an opportunity to prove itself again with the anticipated release of the MG810, known more readily as the Black Sapphire. The phone recently started shipping in Brazil and bears the hallmark of the Chocolate's checkered number pad and red-on-black controls while exchanging the slider design for a RAZR-like flip-phone shell with external music controls. Inside, the phone is largely similar to the existing Chocolate and has a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, FM radio, and AAC/MP3 playback on 128MB of built-in memory (no immediate mention is made of a microSD card slot). GPRS data support is part of the design, which indicates that the Black Sapphire is a GSM phone and will debut with carriers other than Verizon (which uses CDMA and thus EVDO for broadband). LG has not announced its plans for a North American introduction; expect the phone to retail near the Brazilian price of $465 US without a contract. Complete photos of the new phone are after the jump.

By Electronista Staff