LG Joins Android Party With GW620 [Android-powered LG Smartphone Hits UK]

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South Korea’s LG has decided to finally get in on this Android thing. Roughly 15 months after the first release of Google’s Android, LG is just producing their first Android-equipped smartphone. The phone, the GW620, will be released exclusively in the UK with Virgin Mobile and T-Mobile as the carriers.

The GW620 is also being billed as the “LG Intouch Max” by Virgin Mobile, and it’s also the first Android phone for that carrier as well. As for the phone itself (first covered by us last year), it comes equipped with a 3-inch HVGA resistive touchscreen. It will feature a slider design with a slide-down QWERTY keyboard.

For a camera, it will feature a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash. Unfortunately, it seems that LG’s engineers have been working on this thing since Android first came out back in October 2008 because they’ve only bothered to include Android 1.5 on the phone – which means you’ll miss out on all the new Google apps that come with Android 2.x and higher.

Apparently, LG, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile are all a bit confused on when the phone is coming out. LG originally said the device was coming in December 2009 – it didn’t, but that’s fine, we’ve seen delayed gadgets before. Unfortunately, T-Mobile UK’s web page listed the phone as coming in February 2010, even though users could buy the phone right on the same page. After being mentioned in the high-profile CNET UK did the error get fixed.

Both T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile are giving the phones away for free with telcom service packages. We’ve seen a lot better Android phones, but the attraction here is the cost – free. If you live in the UK and want to get in on the Android craze for free, then the LG InTouch Max is for you.