Updated O2 is believed to be gearing up to launch Ice, a consumer-friendly 3G phone, with a view to shipping the handset early next month.

What little we've been able to glean about the device's specifications point to a basic candybar handset with a front-mounted camera for video calling and a 1.3 megapixel job for standard shots. Ice should sport a 176 x 220 display, and feature tri-band GSM/GPRS radio in addition to its 3G support.

Ice is said to incorporate Bluetooth and a MicroSD card slot - the phone has 32MB of memory on board. Given the name, we'd expect it to appear in an iPod-white design.

Update

And indeed...

Ice's release has been set for 4 September, we understand. It's due to appear around a month ahead of Jet, the carrier's business-oriented phone that's said to eschew fancy multimedia features in favour of a solid voice calling ability.

Both handsets are likely to be priced low and be available on both contract and pay-as-you-go tariffs. ®