Pantech ships iPod-like phone

South Korean phone maker Pantech has launched a mobile phone with an iPod-like clickwheel control it describes as a "revolutionary touch-wheel sensor". The company said it was pitching the product, which goes on sale today in Hong Kong and Taiwan, at "digital generation" music fans.

The PG-3600V is a slider phone with a 1.9in, 262,144-colour display mounted above the clickwheel, which "enables easy navigation by allowing users to sweep the wheel key with their fingers", Pantech said. The control not only operates the phone's music player, but is used to zoom the phone's 1.3-megapixel camera and to track through MPEG 4 videos recorded on the handset.

The unit has video editing software on board and 512MB of memory to store content. There's a memory card slot to add more. The device features all the usual phone features, including stereo audio-enabled Bluetooth.

The PG-3600V measures 10.2 x 4.7 x 1.8cm and weighs 94.1g. ®