At the World Mobile Congress 2009, LG Electronics announced the launch of LG ARENA (LG-KM900). The company unveiled the first transparent design phone, the LG-GD900, a new smartphone, LG-GM730, the Touch Watch Phone, and its eco-friendly mobile phone equipped with a solar panel battery cover.

ARENA is packed with top-of-the-line multimedia features and a totally new 3D UI of the next generation. The intuitive 3D S-Class UI – S for superior - makes its debut with ARENA and will be featured in other premium LG models launching later this year. Intuitive touch-based 3D menus take the fuss out of searching through contacts and multimedia content, perfect for anyone more comfortable with a traditional analogue experience. Reel Scrolling lays out menus as if they were on a film reel, providing icons for each choice that are so easy-to-understand no further explanation is needed.

ARENA’s S-Class UI was designed from the very start to leverage the advantages of touchscreens to eliminate unnecessary menus and steps. At its core is a cube layout that provides four customizable home screens that provides fast access to all features by flipping the cube with the flick of a finger. With multiple faces, the cube allows for four times more shortcuts than a single screen, making menus easier to access.

Also created with fast access in mind are ARENA’s Elastic Lists, which make it easier to browse through contacts and other catalogued information. When touched, list items stretch like a rubber band to provide more detailed information, options or easy editing. This eliminates the extra step of switching to a new screen, saving time and making it easier to browse to other choices as well.

Fast yet smooth 3D transitions between menus are made possible by the perfect pairing of LG’s S-Class UI and a AMD processor.

ARENA’s dynamic graphics are evident in the phone’s Floating Image Gallery. When held upright, the phone displays photos neatly in rows. But turn the phone on its side and the photos cascade off the screen and reappear much larger. Sliding a finger from top to bottom, shows photos taken on different days. Dragging a finger from left-to-right shows photos taken on the same day.

ARENA is the world’s first globally released handset with Dolby Mobile surround sound. This technology unleashes the power of surround sound for movies and video and delivers rich, resonant sound for music. A range of equalizer presets to fit all genres and individual tastes make the experience even better. A built-in FM transmitter means ARENA can play music wirelessly through a car or home stereo. A standard 3.5 mm audio jack means ARENA can be paired with any headphones.

LG ARENA’s large 3.0-inch full touchscreen display has WVGA resolution, which is four times sharper than QVGA. ARENA can record 120 frames per second slow motion video to catch every detail. It can handle hundreds of music and movie files with 40 GB of storage, including 8GB of internal memory and a micro SD slot. The battery provides up to 30 hours of MP3 playtime and 300 hours of standby time. The phone also features a five megapixel camera. ARENA’s audio, video and photos can be shared on social networking sites, thanks to 3G HSDPA 7.2 networks and Wi-Fi.

The phone also supports Google Mobile Service which includes Google search, Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube and Google Blogs. A-GPS and geo-tagging are also possible. ARENA’s multi-touch capabilities greatly enhance the web surfing experience.

ARENA will initially be available in Europe in March and then globally.

The company used materials and stylistic elements found in watches from top manufacturers to ensure that people will be comfortable wearing it for any occasion. The Watch Phone has a curved tempered glass face, high quality metal casing and is a mere 13.9mm thick.

The Watch Phone is the first touch watch phone in the world to feature 7.2 Mbps 3G HSDPA compatibility, enabling high-speed data transmission and video phone calls using the built-in camera. It is fully capable of sending text messages, making phone calls, and, of course, keeping accurate time.

This is all achieved using the phone’s touchscreen interface on its 3.63cm (1.43-inch) screen and LG’s intuitive Flash Interface. Voice recognition features, which can be used with or without a Bluetooth headset, make it easier to place calls and look up contacts. Text to Speech (TTS) reads text messages and other information out loud for even greater convenience. The phone also includes stereo Bluetooth and a built-in speaker for playing back music files. A large phonebook and scheduler help with organization.

In addition to video calling, The Watch Phone has other features including its Flash Interface, MP3 player, Voice Calling, Text messaging and Text to Speech. The phone will be available in Europe at the end of this year. Orange will be the first to bring the Watch Phone across its European footprint later this year.

LG’s green initiative has not stopped at phones. The company’s LG HFB-500 Bluetooth solar car kit, first introduced at this January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, gives customers hands-free mobile use in a fully rechargeable solar unit. In addition, LG is introducing green packaging to its entire line of 2009 mobile handset models. The eco-friendly packaging saves natural resources and promotes easy recycling by printing with soy inks and using recycled paper and cardboard without laminate coating. LG will also expand the use of its eco-friendly product manuals, produced with soy ink and recycled paper, to a broader range of models in 2009.