Made with some fine craftsmanship from materials such as steel, aluminium and scratch-free glass, the S1 and T1 models also come packed with a remarkable range of helpful features. It can be used as a universal remote control allowing you to control various appliances in your house, an FM receiver and transmitter, an HDMI desk station enabling you to use the phone as a source for HDTV or regular television so you can see pictures or movies. It can be used as a browser device with Lumigon’s new bluetooth keyboard.

The main difference between the T1 and S1 is that the T1 has a keyboard that can be exposed by sliding the screen up and the S1 is touch-screen. Later this year we can expect the E1, which impassioned Lumigon founder Lars Graveson describes as, “the most beautiful phone I have ever seen during my entire 10 year career in mobile business.” And Mr Gravesen should probably stay securely sealed in his office, less he should stumble upon some variety of nature or a pretty girl and collapse under a gush of poetic fervour.

Having been two years in development, the T1 and S1 are handsome phones, though, and this is likely to be their biggest selling point. A great deal is going to be made of it being Scandinavian, possibly phrases like “ergonomic design” will be tossed around. The design is stylish enough to stand up for itself, though. Their two tone visage possesses the kind of retro charm that may last till mid-way through the decade if not beyond, before we get bored of minimalism once again and grapple for a phone covered in giant pink flowers and its own detachable satellite dish.

Spec-wise, the phones run on Google’s latest operating system, Android 2.1 and Lumigon’s own P-GUI software implementation for added user-friendliness. For speed freaks, it contains Freescale’s i.MX51 processor, usually reserved for applications requiring an advanced HMI.

In an already over-crowded phone market, it will be interesting to see whether Lumigon’s creations will be able to make themselves heard over the super-brands like Nokia, Blackberry and iPhone. The S1 and T1 are sufficiently smart and crammed with enough impressive hardware to put their competition to shame, but the question remains is the phone market open enough to accommodate a new brand?

[Source: Lumigon’s T1 & S1 Android-powered phones]