LG polishes up Shine

South Korean vendor LG Electronics launched the second device in its Black Label portfolio on Wednesday, the ‘Shine’.

Flushed from the success of its Chocolate phone, which launched almost one year ago and has so far sold 7.5 million units worldwide, LG hopes the second in the series can follow the same path.

LG will start production of the Shine, also known as the KE970, with a better run rate than the Chocolate and will sink more advertising revenue into a promotion fronted by illusionist David Blaine.

Already available in Korea, the Shine has sold more than 200,000 since November, with more than 3,500 units a day still being sold.

The Shine is a full metal bodied slider phone with a reflective 2.2″ screen.

Foregoing the touch sensitive buttons of its predecessor, the device uses a scroll wheel to access the menu.

The unit packs a media player with multi-codec support for MP3, WAV and ACC++ files and a 2 megapixel camera. The device supports GPRS and EDGE network compatibility and Bluetooth and USB connectivity.

Speaking with telecoms.com at the launch event, an LG executive said that the next device up would be the much hyped KE850, branded by Prada. Stealing a march on the Apple iPhone with its own tough sensitive screen, the Prada phone will be unveiled at 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona next week.