It's official: LG Arena 3D phone to debut at MWC

Over the weekend, LG corroborated industry rumblings about the rollout of a potential iPhone rival at Mobile World Congress (MWC), also claiming that the Arena's 3D "S-Class" interface will set it apart from all others.

"The direct, intuitive and dynamic S-Class UI will be unlike anything that has appeared in a mobile phone before," said LG's Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, in a statement issued on Sunday. "With rich 3D graphics, touch senstivity and exciting multimedia capabilities, it will truly make Arena a fully loaded multimedia phone."

The Arena's S-Class interface will provide a cube-based layout with four customizable home screens and touch-based 3D menus.

Other features of the phone to be introduced at the MWC show in Barcelona this month will include DivX and Dolby technologies; HSDPA 7.2 connectivity; Wi-Fi, A-GPS, and "far more," according to LG's statement.

"We will announce more specifics about Arena and its features along with some surprises during a press conference at the Mobile World Congress."

As previously reported in Betanews, buzz about an impending Arena phone began to circulate earlier last week after a device with that name appeared on a phone retailer's brochure in the Netherlands.

LG has also been rumored to be working with AT&T on a Neon-branded edition of the KS 360, a text messaging-friendly phone previously available on the Orange and O2 networks in Europe.