Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the first LG Canada Blogger Night where the company presented three new smartphones (including the LG IQ which has yet to be announced but expected by the end of the year). The event allowed us to get plenty of hands-on time with the new LG Chocolate (BL40), the LG Eve and the aforementioned LG IQ (the first and third being exclusive to TELUS Mobility).
The event kicked off with an overview of the three devices. The balance of the evening was spent playing with the new devices and participating in a series of challenges to win CA$5,000 for the winner’s charity of choice.
One disappointing piece of news that I learned is that LG has no current plans to provide updates to Google Android 1.6 or 2.0 for the LG Eve (running Android 1.5).
As for the LG IQ, despite there not being an announcement, earlier specification rumours have been confirmed. It will be powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional with LG’s S-Class user interface. It will also come with a 3.2-inch WVGA touchscreen display, a 4-row slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth 2.1, a 5MP camera, a microSD card slot, d-pad doubling as a biometric scanner, and a 1,500mAh battery. It will also come with an optional pico-projector (around the CA$150 price point) that attaches to the IQ after you remove the battery panel and worked surprisingly well.
On a personal note, I will bring a better camera next time. It was quite dark and my pictures did not turn out very well.