Phones sporting physical QWERTY keyboards are becoming a rarity in today’s market, with most smartphones opting to use onscreen touch keyboards. LG hasn’t given up quite yet, or so their latest leak claims. Above is the LG LS860, codenamed “Cayenne”, one of the first decent looking physical keyboard-equipped phones we’ve seen in awhile. Sporting specs very similar to Sprint’s new LTE phone, the LG Viper, the LS860 rocks a 4-inch WVGA screen alongside 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S2 processor. Ice Cream Sandwich is running the show, and LTE is also said to be onboard.

The “Cayenne” is not necessarily a high-end phone by today’s standards, but with QWERTYs becoming harder to find in even mid-range phones, LG might be onto something. Sprint will be the carrier of choice, and perhaps this phone will launch alongside Sprint’s new LTE network. It’s only a matter of time before the 4G network will go live, and Sprint is turning out to have a good selection of devices already available. A QWERTY phone would complete the lineup, a perfect fit for the LS860.

BriefMobile