These are leaked pictures of a new Dopod mobile TV phone, as yet unannounced by the company, that Taiwanese site Sogi calls simply the "Dopod TV Mobile". Not unsurprisingly, the Dopod TV Mobile is a phone designed around mobile TV (no, really!). More surprisingly, however, the design of the phone seems to be entirely novel.

Until now, Dopod have been primarily known for releasing phones that have been, er, 'influenced' by popular designs from other companies (such as Apple's iPod), but the Dopod TV Mobile seems to be a genuinely, and not half bad, attempt at an original design.

More details and pictures of the Dopod TV Mobile phone after the jump.

Dopod TV Mobile

As soon as you see the Dopod TV Mobile, you're left in no doubt as to its primary function. A big button on the right-hand side clearly shouts "TV", and possibly enables you to change TV channel. The purpose of the phone is also evident on the rear of the case, with "TV" writ large just under the lens for the 1.3 megapixel camera.

The camera's button lies just beneath the TV button, whilst the keypad features music-specific buttons letting the user access its music features. The Dopod TV Mobile uses Windows Mobile 5.0, and comes with USB, an MP3 player, MPEG-4 video, amongst other features.

Although a completely new design, the Dopod TV Mobile does share a few similarities with other handsets. The keypad, for example, bears more than a passing resemblance to the Nokia 7610, while the overall shape is reminiscent of the Nokia 6600. Despite this (or maybe because of it), the Dopod TV Mobile is still a good looking phone, and cetainly looks ergonomic and extremely usable as a mobile TV device. No news yet on its release date or where it's likely to be released (somewhere in Asia certainly, other markets, maybe not), but it's good to see another handset-manufacturer emerging to take on the big guns of Nokia et al.

More details (in Chinese) and pictures of the Dopod TV Mobile from Sogi.com.tw.