T3 in South Korea: Video hands-on with LG Shine

Posted by T3 Online on Fri 27 Oct 2006

Next-gen mobile special! We visit LG's R&D labs and leave thumbprints all over LG's most deluxe phone to date...

LG's R&D headquarters isn't a cool place. Yes it's superbly professional, clean and very South Korean, but not exactly the type of environment that you'd expect to spew forth some of the coolest handsets in the world.

So when LG's Executive Vice President for Mobile Handsets, Skott Ahn, reveals and hands me the upcoming LG Shine phone I'm a little unprepared and stand there for a sec aghast at how frighteningly cool this mirrored lump of mobile actually is.

See, Skott Ahn was the man single-handedly responsible for the Chocolate phone. He tasked his designers with building the handset equivalent of an iPod; he wanted a product that like the iPod would transcend international tastes and please everyone in terms of style. He chose a final design - didn't consult anyone - and the rest is history. Luckily he adopted a similarly cavalier approach with the creation of the deluxe LG Shine, and again he's nailed it.

You pick up the Shine and much like Nokia's devilishly classic 8800 it feels weighty, sophisticated and as if it was lovingly pieced together by stubbly Italian craftsmen. All the mechanisms, like the way it chunkily slides open and shut feel spot on, as does the RAZR-styled keypad.

Unlike the Chocolate phone, the Shine doesn't have a touchscreen - a good thing as its mirrored stainless steel shell is a furious collector of thumbprints - instead relying on a wide scroll wheel that clicks satisfyingly round with every nudge. It's an extremely robust and precise way to navigate the menu screens, although being limited to an 'up-down' mechanism can feel a little restrictive.

The Shine really is as stunning in the flesh as all the shots suggest. But check out our exclusive video below to see it in action...

LG Shine hits UK shelves early 2007. MIKE COOPER