New touchscreens for Samsung, LG

Samsung's Instinct

The semi-annual CTIA trade show gives mobile companies the chance to show off their newest wireless wares. Both Samsung and LG took the opportunity to show off hot new handsets that will be available soon for customers in the US.

Samsung made a splash with its iPhone competitor, called the Instinct. The 3G Instinct SPH-M800 has a touchscreen interface, is 12mm thin and has a healthy feature set, including the so-called Visual Voicemail seen on Apple's iPhone and two batteries, each of which is good for 5.75 hours of talk time.

The Instinct will also feature an on-board GPS receiver and A2DP stereo Bluetooth, as well as the increasingly popular threaded SMS functionality. The Instinct also sports a 2-megapixel camera, and while this may be competitive with the current generation of iPhones, it falls short of our increasing camera phone expectations.

The LG Vu

Following up the success of its touchscreen handsets the Viewty and the Prada phone, LG has been showing off its latest touchscreen, the Vu. It is one of the first phones to support the live mobile TV service from US operator AT&T and the mobile television technology MediaFlo.

Similar to LG's previous touchscreens the Vu features haptic feedback (vibrating feedback when touchscreen commands are registered). The Vu will support 3G network frequencies, and similar to Samsung's Instinct will only feature a 2-megapixel camera.

No word yet from either Samsung or LG regarding local pricing and release dates.