LG's new Prada phone struts down the runway

You'd think a fashion touchscreen phone like the LG Prada would've demanded a makeover after more than a year on the market; instead, the new Prada comes to the party in last season's outfit (quel horror!), albeit with a slide-out keypad and some upgrades under the hood.

Set to arrive in Europe before the end of the year (no specific word on U.S. availability, but I'm sure it'll go on sale here as an import), the new Prada looks almost exactly the same as its predecessor—that's to say, it's a sleek, black slab of plastic, almost featureless except for a Prada logo and the silver Talk, Back, and End buttons below the touchscreen.

The big difference this time around: A slide-out QWERTY keypad for those who'd rather not bother with tapping out messages on a virtual keyboard. LG hasn't released any size/weight specs for the Prada deux, but I'm guessing that the new keypad will tack on several millimeters and maybe an ounce or so to the handset's girth.

In terms of wireless feature, the new Prada gets some badly needed updates, including Wi-Fi and HSDPA support (good for tapping into the speedy 3G networks of AT&T and T-Mobile). The built-in camera also gets a boost to a full five megapixels, up from just two megapixels in last year's model.

And how about the Prada's touch interface? Last year, I wrote that "time and time again," the first Prada phone "misses opportunities to exploit the possibilities of its touchscreen interface" (for example, by failing to surface touch controls for "speakerphone" and "join calls" while you're on a call). Unfortunately, there's no word on whether the new Prada gets a UI makeover; let's hope it does.

Of course, the original Prada phone wasn't cheap (we're talking Prada, after all), and neither is its successor: Think 600 euros, or about US$810. Yikes.

Related:
Press release
Hands-on Review: LG's Prada Phone [Yahoo! Tech]