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Apple, with the iPhone, isn't the only company placing an emphasis on touch screens for advanced mobile handsets. Another upcoming smartphone, the LG Prada, is nearly all display as well.

Prada is the first phone to use technology from Synaptics, demonstrated by the latter in a all touch screen concept phone developed with industrial design company Pilotfish last year. Called Onyx, the smartphone leverages Synaptics ClearPad technology, an optically clear display solution for creating a fully adaptive user interface.

The ClearPad input system eliminates traditional mechanical keys, just like Apple purports to do with the iPhone, adapting to present the information and controls a user needs at any given moment.

At the CTIA Warless tradeshow in Orlando last week we got our hands on both the Onyx and Prada.

As you can see for the picture above of Onyx, by the time I checked out the rather large device a lot of other people got their fingers on it as well. This brings up one of the open questions regarding an all or mostly touch screen smartphone: How long before fingerprints make the display unreadable? And, by extension, will you have to clean such as device often?

Just as Apple asserts with the iPhone, which implements its patented new Multitouch technology, Synaptics says phones, like the Prada, that implement its ClearPad input system have more intelligent displays than conventional touch screens.

ClearPad is supposed to accurately recognizes not only points and taps, but also shapes, complex gestures, and proximity to the user's finger or cheek. The company asserts this creates new possibilities such as assigning functions to two-finger taps, closing tasks by swiping an "X" over them, sending messages by swiping them off the screen, or answering a phone by holding it up to your cheek.

In addition, the Onyx prototype phone uses a dynamic UI, where applications are layered and opened simultaneously, allowing for a seamless flow of information between applications.

Prada, a Windows Mobile 6 Professional (Pocket PC Phone) smartphone, is a fairly small and definitely sleek and shiny. It measures only 98.8 x 54 x 12 millimeters and weighs a mere 85 grams. The smartphone's 240 x 400-pixel resolution touch screen measures 3 inches and supports 256K colors.

A thumb stick just underneath the screen replaces the standard array of buttons one might usually find there.

The GSM smartphone supports 3.5G HSPDA cellular-wireless networking (and maybe the even faster HSUPA type). There's also a FM radio, TV out, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a microSD slot and a 2 megapixel camera for picture and video.

Prada's Li-Ion 800 mAh battery is supposed to last 300 hours in standby and up to 3 hours of talk time on a single charge.

LG hasn't started shipping Prada yet. We'll let you know more as we gather additional details.