Magic Carpet Ride with AT&T and Pantech Aladdin Slider Phone

And the deluge of new phones for AT&T continues. We already know about the new Android phones from HTC and Motorola, but those aren’t the only new phones heading to the iPhone-touting carrier. One of the more interesting phones on the horizon is the Pantech Aladdin, a vertical slider with a QWERTY keyboard.

In some ways, you could say that the Pantech Aladdin is almost a vertical version of the LG Rumor. You get a regular numeric keypad when the phone is in its closed position, but you can pop out a QWERTY keyboard from the bottom when it comes time to text. The stacked appearance of the two keyboards is definitely interesting.

This could ultimately be more useful and user-friendly than a design like the Motorola Hint. Aside from its unique form factor and bright red faceplate, the AT&T-bound Pantech Aladdin also gets HSDPA, a 2.2″ QVGA screen, 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0, microSD, threaded SMS, and aGPS. Look for this some time this year.

Also pictured is the LG Monaco, a Windows Mobile 7 smartphone that’s meant to hit the higher end of the spectrum. You get a 3.2″ WVGA touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY, HSDPA, 5 megapixel autofocus camera, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, microSDHC, a Pico projector accessor. The Monaco probably won’t go live until 2010.

Source: BGR