First of all, the LG GD900 Style isn’t really a transparent phone. LG is touting it as the world’s first transparent phone, but really it’s just the slide-out keypad that’s transparent. Still, it’s an interesting “feature” (maybe more of a gimmick).
As expected, LG brought the LG GD900 Style to CTIA Wireless 2009. We had a chance to get up close and personal with the LG GD900 Style, and it’s all-glass keypad and touchscreen. The transparent keypad is apparently tough as nails, being made out of tempered glass. And, even more surprising was the tempered-glass touchscreen display – that’s right, the LG Style rocks a capacitance touchscreen, just like the iPhone 3G and the T-Mobile G1!
Slide the 3-inch touchscreen display upwards and out slides the transparent multi-touch (more on that in a bit) keypad. Flip the LG Style over and you’ll see a monster 8-megapixel camera adorning the backside of the slider.
The LG Style makes good use of LG’s S-Class 3D UI, with its fancy swipe-to-navigate interface. Swipe left or right on the all-glass capacitance touchscreen and the S-Class 3D UI “Cube” rotates to reveal different faces of the cube. Each face of the “cube” represents an application category, with each application represented by a widget icon. The S-Class 3D UI is easy enough to navigate and may prove to be a worthy competitor to the king-of-UI-overlays, the HTC TouchFLO 3D UI.
Having a capacitance-based touchscreen and touch-sensitive keypad allows the LG Style to support multi-touch features like pinch-to-zoom. But, the touch-interaction isn’t just limited to the display – multi-touch gestures are supported on both the touchscreen display and the keypad. The LG GD900 Style allows the user to navigate through the UI using swiping motions on the transparent slide-out keypad. The keypad also goes beyond simple multi-touch with its support for finger-gestures. Simply trace a “W” (or whatever movement you choose to program) on the keypad and the LG Style will launch the web browser. Trace an “M” and you get the music player. It makes sense.
Pricing and availability aren’t yet available. But, go ahead and enjoy the hands-on photo gallery below!