Last week the folks at the Microsoft Innovation Centre got their hands on a prototype of LG's latest and great smartphone codenamed Panther.

This Windows 7 based smartphone has been rumored to be around for a bit now and the MIC guys were allowed to test it to test Windows 7 applications in Singapore on an actual device as opposed to an emulator.

Some early observations from their test run from the source link:

• This is definitely still a prototype device, and there are still quite a few rough edges to be fixed. The device OS is still being updated with new builds almost every other day.

• Even the packaging and box is expected to be different before the final product ships. For example, the current box is not even using the correct Windows Phone 7 logo.

• Despite it's prototype status, the phone appears to be more or less feature complete and incredibly responsive and fast. The animations are all very smooth.

• For the time being, you need a special build of the desktop Zune software (Dorado) to sync with the device; the current released version of desktop Zune software won't work.

• The camera works pretty well, and the resulting photo is sharp, as you can see below:

The call sign of the phone according to a photo of the box is the GW910, but with this being a prototype anything can change. No word yet on launch date or pricing.