Korea’s kooky cam-mob coming here

Pantech, the number two mobile company in South Korea, is priming its army of mobiles for global domination.

This week it’s showing off around 30 of its fanciest phones at 3GSM in Barcelona, as it gets ready to introduce its wares to the European market later this year.

We’re particularly taken by the PG-8000, above. With its wacky digital camera styling, it looks more like a camera with a token phone stuck on the back than your usual phone with a camera function.

Nicknamed the horizontal phone, it may take you a few moments to get your bearings, but it’ll be worth it. The wider design helps you get a better grip when taking photos and is also good for wide-screen videos. And, because it’s quite roomy, there are bigger buttons for the pudgy fingered.

Given it looks so much like a digital compact it’s a little bit strange that the camera is only 2 mega pixel when some competitors are ploughing the 5MP furrow. One look at the kooky design, however, and we can forgive its lack of megapixel ammo.

We’re currently trying to eek a launch date and price out of Pantech.

The Korean outfit has all sorts up its sleeve alongside the PG-8000, with a grand total of 18 phones potentially landing in Europe. Despite keeping a low profile over here until now, Pantech is the seventh largest mobile handset manufacturer in the world. With a planned 22-23 million handsets sold worldwide this year, it looks like it has nothing less than global domination on its mind.

For more info check out Pantech’s website.

06/03/06 update: The 8000’s due in September, though the price is still up for grabs.