Right around this time last year, we actually had lofty hopes that Motorola would get its handset business in gear and shock us all with an ultra-potent, completely refined smartphone. Here we sit today, still waiting. Still, we can't pass up an opportunity to throw Moto's hardware design team a bone, as the ROKR ZN50 is downright sexy from any angle. The music-centric, full touchscreen slider packs a 3.2-inch panel (427 x 240 resolution), automatic screen rotation, shake to switch tracks, a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, Bluetooth stereo headset support, SRS WOW HD audio tech and a battery good for 30 hours of audio playback. There's also a T-DMB TV tuner, 4GB of inbuilt memory, a microSDHC card slot, 3.2 megapixel camera, an e-dictionary and support for 7.2Mbps HSDPA. Sadly, it seems as if the phone is being reserved for the Korean market, but seriously, can you imagine this hitting North America with Android loaded on? Motorola: you're this close.

[Via Unwired View]

To say that the Chocolate was a hit for LG would be similar to saying the PlayStation 2 went over well for Sony. Indeed, the outfit's best selling handset ever (21 million units worldwide) holds a special place in the hearts of suits and shareholders alike, so it's hardly a shock to see the company issuing a next-generation version of the device. Slated to fall into LG's Black Label series, the phone -- which is simply dubbed the 'second generation LG Chocolate' for now -- will be fully unveiled in August, with bits and pieces to be strategically dropped during the run-up. The only real hint at features that we're given is the following: "The new LG Chocolate will be a disruptive force in conventional mobile screens in an effort to maximize usability while inheriting the original minimalist-inspired style and iconic design of its predecessor." Haptics? OLED? A portal into the future? Only time will tell.

Update: The typically reliable Tweakers.net has come through with a few more details, namely that this here phone will become the first of its kind with a 21:9 aspect ratio display (much like Philips' 56-inch Cinema HDTV). We're also told that the model number will be BL-40, the screen resolution will be pegged at 800 x 345, the display itself will be over 3-inches diagonally, the inbuilt camera will be 5 megapixels and HSDPA will be included. Now, if only we knew how the UI would handle...

[Via Engadget Spanish]

This phone vaguely reminds us of the Samsung Memoir for some reason, but rest assured, it's Pantech through and through and it's being sold thousands of miles away. The SKY IM-U460K "Love Actually" will see action on South Korean carrier KTF, rife with global roaming capability, HSDPA, an integrated DMB tuner (par for the course with domestic Korean handsets), a 3 megapixel primary cam, and microSD expansion. The big feature here, though, has to be the 3-inch QVGA display that shocks and delights onlookers with a biggie-sized dot matrix display that's just low-res enough to be more retro chic than annoying. As with all of Pantech's SKY-branded goodies, we'd expect to see this one outside Korea... oh, right around the same day that Apple licenses iPhone OS to third party manufacturers.

It's taken a little longer than they'd hoped, but RIM and SK Telecom will finally begin offering a localized version of the venerable BlackBerry Bold to South Korean customers this week. The move follows last year's scrapping of policies that all but banned foreign handsets from being offered by local carriers, which could theoretically be a boon to manufacturers in one of the world's most advanced mobile markets -- assuming anyone's able to crash through the stranglehold that local favorites Samsung, LG, and Pantech have. It's unclear how big of a deal a device with an English QWERTY keyboard could really be in Seoul, but hey, options are always a good thing, right?

Somewhere in the past year, Samsung and LG spontaneously decided that mobile UIs should rotate in three-space as though each screen is a face on a cube. Other than sheer visual bedazzlement, there's not a lot of practical value to that -- but that's not stopping Pantech from getting into the game. It's coining its 3D interface "TruEmotion," and the first handset to take advantage of it will be the IM-R470S launched by Pantech's SKY division in Korea. The phone features a 3.2-inch VGA touchscreen and -- if we had to guess, anyway -- it probably supports T-DMB reception, but you'll need to be local to pick it up when it launches in July.

Pantech's domestic market sub-brand, SKY, has been kicking around for a solid ten years now -- and to celebrate, they've cooked up a unique model. Actually, the IM-U440 Hommage isn't really any more unique than your typical Korean slider, but it's pretty cool nonetheless; the headlining feature seems to be an array of 112 multicolor LEDs directly below the display that undulate in a seizure-inducing way according to the phone's current mode. You've also got the typical TV tuner, dynamic noise reduction (a la Motorola's CrystalTalk), and microSD expansion. Look for it to launch on SKT and KTF.

[Via Mobile-Review]

On the surface, the new SCH-W760 looks like a totally typical midrange Korean domestic market slider: 3 megapixel camera, DMB reception, Bluetooth, and a semi-notable 2.8-inch AMOLED display. You know, the usual. A closer look reveals one very interesting feature, though -- it features a front cam sensitive to infrared spectrum so that you can hold grayscale video calls in complete darkness. Beyond scaring the poo out of friends with your spooky, grainy, low-res visage and holding the occasional video conference from the confines of an unlit closet, we have absolutely no idea what practical value this offers -- but look, ridiculous features are what exotic new handsets are all about. Well played, Samsung. The W760 hasn't yet been officially announced, though it'll apparently be coming to SKT, so keep an eye peeled (and bring a flashlight).

Careful, LG -- we know you've got a good thing going with your reasonably-priced Cookie line, but don't overdo it, okay? After the original KP500 and the alternatively-spelled Cooky, LG's now rolling out a purely CDMA-based variant as the KX500, ripe for battle in the Asia-Pacific region's 1x networks. It's got a WQVGA display, handwriting recognition (especially important in those markets), a 3 megapixel cam, built-in FM radio, 92MB of onboard storage, and microSD expansion. If those specs have you worked into a tizzy, you can look for it on shelves across the region starting later this month in black.

[Via Unwired View]

Korea Telecom really wants to get you on the WiBro tip. The aptly-named (if a wee bit uninspired) Egg is essentially a router for connecting WiFi devices (such as the Nintendo DS or iPod Touch) to the company's wireless broadband network. According to the Korea Times, both KT and SK Telecom (the country's two main WiBro operators) have mere 170,000 WiBro customers total, "making a mockery" of its "most wired nation" aspirations -- so they can certainly stand to expand their customer base a little bit. Subscribers to the company's flat-rate data plan will get the device for free (trust us, they've paid enough). Or you can pick one up for yourself at the Apple store in Samseong-dong or Myeong-dong, the next time you're in Seoul. This guy should be hitting the shelves sometime in May for ₩220,000 (that's about $163).

[Thanks, Stafford]

At the time of their announcement a couple years back, Motorola seemed like it was trying to go for the upper end of the feature phone market with its RAZR 2 V8 and V9 models -- but somehow, that doesn't seem to have translated to the new V10 over in Korea. Visually, there's definitely some new design language here, but the basic concept is the same -- it's a clamshell with a giant secondary touchscreen up front -- and the specs seem mostly un-bumped with a 2 megapixel cam, 2GB cap on microSD expansion, and EV-DO. It'll be on Korean shelves in the next few weeks -- we're just thinking Moto should've come to the table with something a little more technically distinctive to earn a +1 bump in the model designation over the V9, no?

[Via Unwired View]

We can't think of any better way to imply that a phone's boring than by calling it the "Suit" -- and indeed, that's probably a pretty appropriate description for LG's latest domestic market model. The SV710 Suit is apparently designed specifically with the needs of the average businessman in mind, featuring built-in expense and travel reporting apps, an LED clock up front, and all the stuffy corporate politicking you can cram into a 14.7mm-thick shell. You'll also get a 3 megapixel camera with video recording, five totally awesome games (for those rare moments when you're not crunching numbers or packing your briefcase), and the distinct privilege of paying somewhere between 400,000 and 500,000 won (about $300 to $375).

South Korean telecom firm KTF has just announced a cleaning robot which can be controlled by a 3G cellphone. The robot -- called the CW100 -- was built in collaboration with Microbot, and is a "smart" vacuum (much like a Roomba). The CW100 uses an onboard video camera to send live images of what it's "seeing" to the mobile phone, and the user can then remotely control it using the keypad. The bot will be sold for KRW 500,000 (about $370) in conjunction with a data plan that runs KRW 5,000 (about $3.70) per month. Sounds pretty affordable and awesome to us -- as long as it doesn't run over the family cat. Check out another photo after the break.

[Via Unwired View]

Getting back to the candy theme, are we, LG? Unlike the Chocolate series, though, LG's Lollipop is targeted exclusively at a lower-cost, younger audience with its relatively meager 3 megapixel autofocus primary cam (plus a 1.3 megapixel front cam for video calling), 400 x 240 display, and wild array of some 220 LEDs up front that can light up the thing like a Christmas tree if you're so inclined. Other features include HSDPA (naturally), microSD expansion, and a lovely selection of colors: blue, pink, and titanium. It'll be available this month on major South Korean carriers for around 500,000 won ($369).

[Via Unwired View]

We first caught wind of Samsung's SCH-W740 way back on Halloween of last year, and at long last the handset has gone official over in South Korea. Matching up with LG's Renoir, Nokia's N86 and a slew of other emerging 8 megapixel phones, the W740 packs a pretty stellar camera along with a 3.3-inch touchscreen, HSUPA, Bluetooth 2.0, an e-dictionary, T-DMB TV tuner and loads of haptic feedback. As for the camera itself, it features face detection, scene modes, a Xenon flash and a smile shutter for good measure. Word on the street has it surfacing soon for ?900,000 ($660).

Samsung's not hurting for killer full touchscreen hardware right now, so when it starts spouting off about 3 megapixel dumbphones launching strictly within South Korea, you'll have to excuse us for tempering our excitement. The W750 Haptic Pop is -- as its name implies -- a haptics-enabled handset with a 3.2-inch display measuring 432 x 240 pixels, T-DMB tuning capability, an emergency alarm to scare off baddies, and to use Samsung's own machine-translated words, a "cute new standby screen." That's all well and good, but it looks like Sammy's positioning this as a fashion phone, because they're really pushing the changeable backplates -- of which we count nine to choose from on the product's details page. Still, yeah, we'd gladly take an OmniaHD in just one color. Any color you want, Sammy.

[Via Mobilewhack]