LG unveils full-keyboard Prada II phone

LG Electronics, along with PRADA Group, have announced the second Prada phone with a new slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Confirming earlier reports, the upcoming update to the designer phone is -- due by the end of the year -- is nearly identical to the original, but features a slide-out full metallic silver QWERTY keyboard. The iPhone competitor also offers other new features such as additional on-screen, call and hang-up buttons and addresses other shortcoming in the first version by adding 3G compatibility with video calling, 7.2Mbps HSDPA for connectivity, and a new finer five megapixel camera with a Schneider-Kreuznach lens. The company said it also brings Wi-Fi support and a full HTML browser to surf the internet.

The original Prada phone, the first full touch-screen phone to reach the market in February 2007, has sold over one million handsets, according to the company. And like the original, the Korean electronics giant says the new Prada features microSD card-based storage and a 3-inch 400x240 screen; it offers broad support for media formats, including MPEG-4, H.263, and H.264 formats as well as music in AAC, MP3, WMA, and RealAudio.

The new Prada mobile will be available with a starting price of €600 though major mobile dealerships in Italy, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Netherlands in the 4Q of 2008.