LG Prada II: Fashion touchscreen phone gets Qwerty keyboard

We reviewed the original Prada phone more than a year ago and loved its style but weren't happy with its lack of support for 3G. On Monday, LG announced the second generation of the phone, and guess what? It will support 3G and more.

Design-wise, the new Prada will look almost identical to the original, with one major difference: a Qwerty keyboard that slides out from under the handset. The keyboard is very thin and, we're told, won't make the phone much thicker.

The keyboard is definitely a welcome addition for those who like typing on the phone. You can, of course still, use the touchscreen to manage calls the same way you would with the original phone.

Apart from 3G support, the new Prada's features include video calling capability, a full HTML browser, a 5-megapixel camera and Wi-Fi capability.

The new phone will be available with a starting price of 600 euros (about $820) in the UK during the fourth quarter of this year. -Dong Ngo