LG’s Aka phones feature virtual pets, including a female with an eating disorder

Remember the 90s, when virtual pets were a massive thing? LG does, and its latest Aka phones come with their very own built-in creatures, although we’re pretty sure that the female character will stir up some negative feelings…

In the fast-paced world of the smartphone, it must be difficult for manufacturers to make their devices unique enough to stand out amongst the many others on the market. However, LG has added a quirk to its newest series of devices which is quite unlike anything else we’ve seen.

LG has given the four devices in its Aka range a unique virtual character, each with different personality traits, hoping to appeal to the various different users who buy their devices.

The four characters, called Eggy, Wooky, Soul and Yoyo (three males and a female apparently, although we’re not sure if they have virtual…bits) are pre-loaded onto the devices, which come in corresponding colours.

Eggy, the yellow device, is apparently a love-struck little soul, although he looks like a bit of a sinister bugger from the screenshot above. Meanwhile the black device belongs to Soul, a music lover, and the white device, or Wooky to you and I, speaks in slang. Chances are good that one will appeal to kids, and make adults want to crush the phone underfoot in very little time.

LG may have alienated their female market somewhat though with Yoyo, the pink device. Her character trait is apparently her tendency to overeat and her wildly fluctuating weight (hence her name)…not the most positive female image that LG could have gone for and one which is likely to provoke some ire should the devices fetch up on Western shores at any point (jump to 1:06 in the video to see YoYo’s onscreen widget. She can be seen running on a treadmill chasing a burger suspended infront of her face).

The Tamagochi-style characters may seem like a rather childish quirk, but the device itself is pretty solid, offering a 5-inch 720p HD display, a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 16GB of storage, 1.5GB RAM, and a 2,610mAh battery.

It’s not yet clear whether the Aka range will make it to the rest of the world or if the devices will be a Korean exclusive, and we can’t help but feel that such a quirky device might do far better in the Asian markets, especially when you consider the almost £300 price-point (500,000 South Korean Won).