Hands-on with the LG Vu and AT&T Mobile TV

Soon after we heard the announcement of the LG Vu, we rushed over to the LG booth to take a look at it live and in person. The screen is indeed impressive--it measures 3.0-inch diagonally and displays 262,000 colors, and has a touch vibrating feedback (or haptic feedback) similar to that on the LG Glimmer and the LG Voyager. Its menu interface is almost identical to that of those phones as well. The four shortcut icons on the bottom of the standby page correspond to the main menu, AT&T Mobile TV, the contacts list, plus the on-screen dialpad.

LG Vu's on-screen QWERTY keyboard

(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET Networks)

The device itself measures 4.25 inches by 2.16 inches by 0.51 inch and weighs around 3.16 ounces, which is a bit more lightweight than we thought it would be. It even feels that way, due to its plastic yet glossy black casing. Using the phone was quite intuitive, and we especially liked the phone's texting interface. You can either text via the aforementioned onscreen dialpad, or a cool onscreen QWERTY keyboard laid out in landscape mode. The individual keys on the keyboard even magnify when pressed, ala the one on the iPhone. It's a bit of a copycat move, but we like it all the same, even more so with the vibrating feedback.

LG Vu showing the Tonight Show

(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET Networks)

Features, as you know, include access to AT&T Video Share and AT&T Mobile Music, a 2.0-megapixel camera, a MP3 player, plus mobile email support. We have to say, we were very pleased with the performance of AT&T Mobile TV. It's really fast--as soon as we hit the TV button, we were watching a show. The channel guide is easy on the eyes, and is simple to navigate. The video quality was rather mediocre though; a little like watching terrestrial TV. But it's good enough for on-the-go watching I think.

LG Vu's AT&T Mobile TV channel guide

(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET Networks)

We only had a few short minutes with it, so we won't have the full on scoop for you for a month or so yet. Watch out for it around May when the Vu will debut at the same time as the Mobile TV service.