Well, this is new. LG is really pursuing the idea that the smartphone is the most personal device that people own, with its new lineup of ‘Aka’ (pronounced Aw-kuh) handsets. Each of the four models has its own ‘personality’. The yellow model is a romantic called Eggy; the white, which speaks in slang, is known as Wooky. Soul is the black Aka that loves music and beer, while pink Yoyo is the lone ‘female’, that enjoys style and fast food (causing her weight to yoyo… really, LG?). The phones even have facial expressions, of a sort; they possess a pair of digital eyes on the front, which gaze out from above a three-quarter length sleeve. Their expressions change as users wave their hands near the front camera. The personality can be changed by swapping the phone’s coloured case, which holds the personality in a small chip.
As well as having a phone that glares at them while they go about their day, owners can also interact with the Aka line in a deeper way. There is a whole backstory about the characters trying to save the world from aliens. Links at the top of the 5″ display offer other ways to get involved. You can take a selfie with the phone’s character, in an augmented reality set-up, physically tag other Aka owners and earn points for buying accessories. In terms of the specs, the phones are midrange models. They have 1280 x 720 resolution and run Android 4.4.4 on a 1.2GHz quadcore processor. Each has 16GB of storage and 1.5GB of RAM.
