Eyes-on with the LG Touch Watch Phone

The hottest phone at CES this year? The Palm Pre. The next hottest? LG's scene-stealing watch phone. Even MC Hammer's been by to see it. And by the way—it might be coming to North America after all.

The just-unveiled watch phone is drawing big crowds at LG's booth, including news crews, scores of curious CES-goers, and a few celebs (Drew Carey and Jimmy Fallon)—indeed, I had to wait my turn while LG Electronics CEO Yong Nam took another gander.

Unfortuantely, I wasn't allowed to strap the now-famous, 3G-enabled watch on my own wrist, but I was allowed to watch an in-person demo—save for a few times when the LG guy shielded the display from view due to "proprietary" technology issues. Oh well.

Anyway, what I saw I liked. The Flash-powered interface looked peppy, and there are a variety of watch faces to choose from—analog, digital, you name it, and you can switch out the face with a swipe of your finger. As I mentioned in my previous post, you can make calls over a Bluetooth headset or speaking over the built-in mic, which apparently can pick up your voice even if your wrist is dangling by your waist.

The Watch Phone also has a music player complete with a pulsating graphic equalizer, but there's still no word on whether the finished product will include a Web browser (the engineers are still working on it, I'm told). In the top corner of the watch face is a tiny camera for video telephony—again, no details yet on how many megapixels.

Finally, one last tidbit—the Touch Watch Phone may indeed be coming to the U.S., with a carrier to boot. (No word on timing or pricing, naturally.) So, Dick Tracy fans … stay tuned.