With the launch of the Viewty round the corner there’s a bit of buzz about LG’s latest handset. TechDigest have a report after having a play with it in Seoul (with some video available here) and we’re glad that they were impressed with the video playback and the camera:

Us bloggers can bang on about Viewty being an iPhone killer, but LG isn’t overtly fuelling the comparison, saying it sees Viewty as more focused on photography than music, with its five-megapixel camera.

I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone here who uses the term “iPhone killer” – while we’re firm believers in the awesomeness of our own phone we also have a good deal of respect for the iPhone. But we’ve taken a different tack and decided to concentrate on using our screen for our camera – once you’ve directly edited, cropped or enhanced photos and video with a touchscreen interface you wonder how you ever coped with fiddling with buttons and menu options on your old camera or phone. That’s where the technology truly transforms – so while the Viewty has a fully capable (and pretty good) MP3 functionality we’ve not made it the centrepiece attraction like the iPhone has. So please, no more talk of “iPhone killer” – it’s a great phone but a different phone too.

By the way – the Viewty has been nominated by Pocket Lint for best mobile phone of 2007 – thanks for that, guys! Awards are expected to be announced some time next month.