Lots of Korean soul in German IFA 2007. The IFA in Germany just ended this September, leaving a lot of attendees with high expectations for some of the new Korean mobile phones and PMPs revealed there and highlighted here in this roundup. Check out the LG KU990, LG KS20, Samsung SGH-i620, Samsung Yepp YP-P2, Samsung YP-S5 and Samsung T10.

LG KU990

Looks like the flavour of the hour is touch-screen, all perpetrated by no other than the iPhone. As anticipated, this phone from LG would also look like the iPhone, with, of course, the same kind of touch capabilities. The Koreans got up a rather awkward-sounding name for it though : Viewty. More likely this epithet hints at its large viewing display and the beauty – note the poetic rhyming – of its design. Earning more beauty points is its super-fast connectivity with HSPDA and the exceptionally high 5-megapixels of the Schneider-Kreuznach lens that auto-focusses at ISO 800. You won’t suffer any blurring with anti-shake and videos run smooth at 120 fps.

LG KS20

Yet another one, an iPhone wannebee. The KS20 looks like the other LG, KU990 but has a smaller display, 2.8 inches, just 0.2 smaller. The lens’s megapixel is also smaller at just 2. But thankfully the connectivity is still HSPDA. Those without it can settle for GRPS, EDGE or UMTS. The KS20’s applications run on Windows Mobile 6. Other constants are Wifi and Bluetooth. You can plug in your TV into its TV Out and listen to FM radio. Memory is so-so with just 128MB, so you’ll find use for the microSD slot.

Samsung SGH-i620

The first impression spectators got from the i620 is an almost squarish phone with a not too big display and a control wheel. This changed when the bottom slid out, to reveal, not the standard 4-column-3-row number-only keypad, but some tiny pill-like buttons forming a QWERTY thumb board. It’s like the phone has a Blackberry hidden beneath. Messaging should be a breeze with HSPDA and also tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900 MHz). Other features are the ubiquitous Wifi, both b and g, and Bluetooth, together with microSD, flash and a 2-megapixel camera.

Samsung Yepp YP-P2

Yep, it’s a Samsung DAP or digital audio player that can also play video. This makes the Yepp YP-P2 more akin to a video iPod, also with a navigation wheel, but it’s a virtual one, with a blue glow. And it also looks so much like an iPhone, but without the calling bit, with a 3-inch display that is very touch-sensitive. The embedded memory is sized at 8GB, and there are Bluetooth, FM and speaker and mic. This Yepp stands quite thin at 100 x 52 x 9.2-mm.

Samsung YP-S5

Samsung is certainly doing its bid to take some of the market already dominated by iPods with its own new sleek MP3 players. Another one, the YP-S5 is not going the beaten path with the iPod-like wheel. Samsung is doing the 4-direction wheel but in a virtual way and with glowing blue lights. A blue that Samsung is also going in the direction of is Bluetooth. This one is rather unique, as not only does it do the usual connecting to devices and headphone. It also doubles as a Bluetooth dialer. Audio will certainly be better with proprietary sound technology, Digital Natural Sound engine (DNSe.), particularly so from the 1.5 W stereo speakers. The YP-S5 will be available soon in 2 GB, 4 GB and 8 GB memory versions.

Samsung T10

Yes, no apologies, more MP3 players from our Korean friends: the T10. It looks like the YP-S5 on the outside, though, with the same sort of display and virtual wheel. The big difference is the UI or user interface. The very cartoon-like UI is a bid to corner the kiddie market – start them young! It is certainly thin enough, 0.3 inch, for little hands, and 4GB built-in memory should do for most kiddie or even today’s pop songs. It even comes with big-boy type Bluetooth, voice recorder, FM and text reader.