When screen shots were first leaked a couple of months ago of the LG Doubleplay Gingerbread handset with side sliding keyboard, many consumers and tech analysts asked the same question, “What the heck is this thing?” The side sliding four row QWERTY keyboard slides out from under the display on the left side of the handset when it is held in portrait mode, but the first thing you notice is a 2 inch screen smack dab in the middle of the keyboard. The keyboard is split to the left and to the right of that screen, with all keys in traditional QWERTY layout.
The top row of the keyboard to the left of the display houses the Q, W, E, R and T keys, which are also the numbers one through five. The Y, U, I, O, P keys, which are also the numbers six through nine and zero, are to the right hand side of the display. Below that top row of keys are the three rows of keys smartphone QWERTY keyboard users are familiar with.
The just released LG Doubleplay 4G for T-Mobile has a purchase price of just $99 with new two year contract.
Smack dab in the middle of those two separate groups of keys is a 2 inch display which offers 8 quick launch buttons titled Messaging, Group Text, Music, Photos, Browser, E-Mail, Social+ and Calendar. These capacitive touch screen buttons offer quick launch access to popular activities and applications without having to move back and forth from the main display to the QWERTY keyboard.
As with most side sliding keyboards, the design makes texting and keyboard intensive duties much easier, and will appeal to those smartphone users who find themselves chatting frequently, or preferring a physical keyboard over a virtual one. The main display is 3.50 inches and is a capacitive multitouch screen offering 320 x 480 pixel resolution. The secondary screen offers 320 x 240 pixel resolution, and is also a capacitive display.
Buy the all new LG Doubleplay 4G for the T-Mobile network for only $99.
The processor on board is a 1.0 GHz QUALCOMM Snapdragon chip, and is supported with 512 MB of RAM memory. Continuous talk time runs to 3.3 hours, and standby time is approximately 12 days. The LG Doubleplay has a five megapixel camcorder, and it offers LED, face detection, autofocus, digital zoom and geo tagging features. The camcorder records in 1280 x 720 pixel resolution (720 HD). The LG Doubleplay launched on November 2 and is exclusive to the T-Mobile wireless broadband network for a retail price of $99 with a two-year activation.
