LG's quirky AKA smartphones

The company clearly has an eye on personalization with its latest range of handsets aimed at younger owners.

The-phone-s-personality-changes-when-it-is-put-in-a-different-case-Photo-AFP

The company clearly has an eye on personalization with its latest range of handsets aimed at younger owners.

Owners can already customize smartphones in terms of notification tones, cases and wallpapers, but why not their personality? The LG AKA aims to do just that. Slide the handset into one of four different three-quarter-length cases and its facial expression and behavior will suitably change.

That's because the AKA has big animated eyes that stare at you over the brim of the case that give you an idea of how it's feeling but also let you know when a message or other alert is incoming and how long you've got until the battery needs a recharge.

The four brightly colored cases have different names -- Eggy, Soul, YoYo and Wooky -- and each will cause the handset to change its facial expression.

Announced this week, the handsets are only currently available in LG's native Korea and, as well as attitudes, also pack the laser auto focus camera technology from the company's flagship LG G3 smartphone. However, away from imaging the focus is on fun rather than top of the line features and the AKA handsets sport 720p resolution 5-inch displays and respectable levels of processing power and RAM -- enough to make them more than simply a gimmick.