Hands-on with LG's Prada Phone

The hype for the LG Prada phone (or, officially, the KE850) has been steadily building for the past couple of months, so it was something of a shock to actually hold the jet-black iPhone competitor in my greedy paws here at CTIA. As advertised, the KE850 is practically featureless from the front, save for the "call," "end" and "clear" buttons that run along the bottom, and the phone was surprisingly thin and light. Touch the jumbo-sized screen and the understated, Flash-powered icons slide into view.

Navigating the Prada phone's menus was easy with the touch-sensitive screen; within seconds, I was zipping around the various screens with ease. The unit on the show floor lacked a SIM card, so I wasn't able to test any data features, but I did try the messaging interface...and came away disappointed. Unlike the Apple iPhone, the KE850 doesn't pop up a virtual QWERTY keypad for texting-all you get are number keys. It's a baffling choice on LG's part, given that it's only a matter of tweaking the software. I should also point out that the screen of my test model looked pretty dinged up, so if you were hoping that the Prada phone's display was somehow impervious to, say, the coins and keys in your pockets, think again.

So, for the big question: any chance the KE850 will make it to the States? Probably not, I'm told, or at least not in its present incarnation, although a version minus the Prada branding could arrive in the U.S. later this year.