Vice President of Marketing Strategy Chang Ma took the Arena for a spin to show off the 3D S-Class User Interface, which he described as "Fast, fun, intuitive."

On the 3-inch, 480 x 800 pixel touchscreen display he flipped through a Rolodex-inspired rotating display of contacts, and twisted the hands of an analog clock around and around -- and around -- to advance an alarm by three hours, although it would have been far quicker to simply type the time he wanted.

His favorite, he said, was the FM radio tuner. Rather than a button for each available station, allowing a fast and intuitive choice, the Arena offers a picture of an old-fashioned dial that must be stroked left or right to change the digital frequency display. Ma rubbed the screen rapidly several times but didn't find his station.

The Arena's photo album appeared more practical, laying out photos taken with its 5 megapixel camera along a virtual film: stroke left or right to view photos taken the same day, and up or down to see photos from the previous or next day.

The phone can play DVD-quality DivX and Xvid movies, storing them in its 8GB of internal memory or removable Micro SD cards holding up to 32GB. It's the first phone on the market to offer Dolby Mobile, a new sound-enhancing technology from Dolby Laboratories, LG said.