Simply put, the LG Prada is the epitome of elegance and style. It fits the very definition of a fashion phone, and is quite possibly one of the most attractive handsets we’ve ever seen. Decked out in a lightweight piano-black shell, the Prada has a minimalist design, with smooth rounded corners and a touch of silver adorning its sides. It looks like a miniature version of a fancy plasma TV or a piece of high-class contemporary art. The design focus extends even to its packaging; the phone comes in a trendy black box fit for jewelry, plus a hard leather case with an embossed Prada logo. We would advise that you keep it in the case most of the time, since the Prada’s black finish attracts fingerprint smudges like a magnet. The phone is also marvelously compact at 2.13 inches wide by 3.89 inches tall by 0.47 inch deep and weighing in at a scant 3 ounces. Because it’s so slim and lightweight, you will have no problem slipping it into a pants pocket or a small clutch purse for a night out on the town.

Speaking of the touch screen, you’ll need to use it with your finger to navigate the phone, as the Prada does not come with a stylus. Also, since it’s almost entirely touch screen with just a few keys, you’ll need to get accustomed to dialing and texting without any tactile feedback. Surprisingly, this went a lot better than we thought. The screen’s sensitivity was just right, and we had no problem dialing numbers with the virtual keypad. Texting messages was a little trickier, though, as the Prada does not provide a virtual QWERTY keyboard; rather, you have to text messages with a virtual alphanumeric keypad just like on a normal phone. If we concentrated hard enough, we managed to text normally, but it did require a bit of precision on our part and there were many times when our fingers slipped and we pressed the wrong key by mistake. Again, it wasn’t too difficult, but it does require a bit of a learning curve. And of course, you won’t be able to dial by feel.

The LG Prada phone is truly unique and thus has no direct competitors. With its touch-based user interface it outranks all current fashion mobiles.

When it comes to product packaging LG already have a tradition of offering their products in high-quality retail packages that are visually attractive as the handsets themselves. The LG Prada phone makes no difference to that rule. The Prada phone retail box is a black cube and the contents are positioned on different levels inside the box.

Key Features:

• Exclusive design and slim form factor
• Full touch-based Flash user interface
• 3″ TFT display with a WQVGA resolution (400 x 240 pixels)
• 2 megapixel camera with auto focus
• Shoots video in WQVGA resolution
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP stereo support
• microSD memory card slot
• Office documents viewer
• FM radio
• Standard 3.5 mm audio adapter