By Martin Vedris
SYDNEY, NSW: It’s a watch, it’s a phone, no it’s both. Imagine how quaint this might sound in 200 years, but we can now make video phone calls from a wristwatch with the release of the LG Electronics Touch Watch Phone, but be careful who might hear you.
It was a sell-out in the UK when it was recently released there and now the LG Touch Watch Phone is coming to Australia. No local phone carriers have yet committed to plans for the phone at the time of writing.
For anyone with Dick Tracy envy and $2,299 cash to spare though, this phone will be available in Australia from December.
It is relatively compact with its slim 13.9 mm profile and curved glass face and metal casing. It allows text messaging, and video or voice calls, and sticks to its traditional watch roots by offering a time keeping function.
The phone’s touchscreen is 1.43 inches or 3.63 centimetres and it utilises LG’s Flash Interface.
The specs are impressive — the 7.2 Mbps 3G HSDPA compatibility enables high-speed data transmission, making it capable of video calls using the built-in camera.
By making it fairly slim and compact, quite good looking and touch-enabled, LG has solved just about everything on this phone except one idiosyncrasy with wristwatch phones: everyone can hear your conversations. By using a Bluetooth headset you can keep the conversation private however, but having to lug around your Bluetooth earpiece and boom makes it all a bit fiddly.
Despite these minor drawbacks, our early adopters, technophiles and sci-fi fans are sure to want one. I’m waiting for Nike to bring out the shoe phone myself, I just need to work on my hamstring flexibility.