Hands on with Sprint’s LG Marquee and Kyocera Milano

Sprint announced the LG Marquee on Wednesday, a budget-friendly $99 Android smartphone that will be available on October 2nd, and we had a chance to get up close with it last night during a press event in New York City. The backside of the Marquee looks nearly identical to the back of the Samsung Focus on AT&T; its rear panel has nearly the same topography but has a nicer faux chrome finish. The Marquee powered through Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) with ease thanks to its 1GHz processor, but the real star of the show is its 4-inch NOVA display which was noticeably brighter than the displays on most comparable phones. The handset also comes equipped with a 5-megapixel camera, a 2-megapixel camera for video chat and support for sharing its 3G connection with up to five other Wi-Fi enabled devices. Unfortunately it doesn’t support Sprint’s WiMAX network, which means it has stiff competition on Sprint’s store shelves where it is joined by the Motorola Photon 4G and the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch. Its more affordable $99 price point will certainly make it an attractive option among 3G phones, however. We also had a chance to briefly check out the Kyocera Milano, a $49.99 Android smartphone. We liked the compact design and the keyboard felt decent. The Milano was very basic and reminded us more of a feature phone than a smartphone, but it does run Android 2.3, has a 3.2-megapixel camera and a 3-inch display with a relatively low 320 x 240-pixel resolution. Be sure to check out the gallery of both phones below.