Hands-on with the Vu, LG's touch-screen TV phone

This sleek, jet-black handset delivers smooth and sharp live video via AT&T's new MediaFlo service, but like the sexy Prada phone before it, the Vu fails to take full advantage of its touch-screen abilities.

Or at least, that's what I thought after taking some hands-on time with the Vu, finally unveiled for the U.S. here at CTIA in Vegas.

First off, I should point out that the Vu is one of the most eye-catching handsets here at the show. Like the older LG Prada phone, which I reviewed last year, the Vu is compact (4.3 by 2.2 by 0.5 inches) and featherweight (just 3.1 ounces), and its jet-black, featureless face (save for Call, Back, and End buttons) is certainly arresting.

This HSDPA-equipped phone is one of the two new handsets that'll work with AT&T's new live TV service, and video on the Vu's three-inch display looked great—sharp and smooth, free of the murkiness I've seen on other MediaFlo-ready phones. Unlike the Samsung Access—the second of AT&T's two MediaFlo handsets—the Vu comes with an external antenna, although you don't have to extend it to watch TV.

But unlike the iPhone or Samsung's just-announced Instinct (and, unfortunately, like the old LG Prada), the Vu's interface doesn't make the most of its touch-screen abilities. While you can tap icons (which respond with a little vibration) and type out messages on a virtual QWERTY keypad, you can't flick through lists of songs or contacts, and you can't directly tap links on Web pages. [Update: Actually, you can tap links on Web pages—it just might take a couple of tries to do so. Also, while you can tap and drag to move a Web page, the dragging motion controls the Web browser scroll bars, not the page itself; so if you drag down, the page moves up. Ugh.]

Still, the Vu acquits itself well feature-wise, complete with a 2MP camera, AT&T's Video Share (for one-way video conferencing), POP and Web e-mail, XM Radio channels, access to on-demand video clips and full-track music downloads, stereo Bluetooth, and microSD memory expansion (up to 8GB).

The Vu is set for release in May; no word on pricing quite yet.