Tips, commonly described as leaked information, are always enthusiastically in the blogging world, and especially so in the mobile industry. Our colleagues at GSM Arena received one such tip, and it is certainly interesting enough to pass along here: LG’s first triple-SIM mobile phone seems destined for a test run in Russia.

The three-SIM design is not the highest number seen in the mobile phone industry; the Otech’s F1 mobile phone with quad-SIMs took that honour in October last year. Otech’s four-level design enabled all four cards to be active at the same time and not toggled on and off, paired with another. The drawbacks to that design – poor battery life and four signal strength displays that contributed to a very confusing display – led to a quite, unremarkable slide into sales oblivion.

LG attempts to revive the beyond-two-SIM concept with the LG A290 with a Russia release in early February. Depending on market response, the triple-hitter may be distributed to other countries.

Let’s take a quick look at what we’ve learned of the LG A290; none of this information is official; it’s not even officially announced yet.

Dimensions: 113.5 x 51 x 13 mm
Display: 2.2 inches / TFT screen / 176 x 220 pixels at 128 ppi
Battery: 1500 mAh; life unknown.
Camera: 1.3 MP / 1280 x 1024 pixels / Video: Yes, probably VGA.
Connectivity: 2G (All three SIMs): GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900. / Data: WLAN, None / GRPS, EDGE, and Bluetooth, Yes.

Features: Single-camera design. Standard phone keypad configuration. 1,000 phonebook entries. WAP 2.0/xHTML browser. Document viewer. Standard Organiser package.

Remember: This is a test model in a limited market. Other market models may have expanded or different specifications and capabilities. Once the model is actually released, more complete information may become available.

What do you think of a three-SIM design? With today’s technology and SIM programming, do you think this will be a best-seller? Considering users are just now getting used to dual-SIMs, do you think it’s overkill and unnecessary, or perhaps is it introduced too soon?