South Korea's Pantech is following Sony Ericsson's lead with a camera phone that looks more like a photography product, it said today. Pantech will offer the phone, dubbed the PG-8000, through Vietnamese cellco Glory Star.

The PG-8000 sports a 2in, 262,144-colour, 320 x 240 display intended to be viewed in landscape orientation. It's fed by a two megapixel semi-manual camera on the back. The camera has a flash and 16x digital zoom facility.

Alas, Pantech didn't say how much memory the device contains, or what format of memory card the phone uses to increase its storage capacity.

Alongside the screen is a navigation control that also allows users to access the phone's media features, including MP3 playback, video recording and the built-in FM radio. It supports 64-voice ringtones, and there's a text-to-speech facility too.

The handset is a tri-band (900/1800/1900MHz) GSM/GPRS device, with all the usual features. It's got Bluetooth for headsets and USB for computer connectivity too. Pantech said the built-in 820mAh battery is good for up to 210 minutes' conversation and up to 200 hours in stand-by mode

The phone measures 10 x 5.2 x 1.6cm and weighs 106.5g. ®

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