The LG KP500 is nicknamed the Cookie. It's billed
as an affordable touchscreen phone and in fact there are some amazing
deals out there to tempt you. But before you rush off to buy one,
join us in a tour of the Cookie, and let's find out what's missing
compared to the more expensive rival touchscreen phones.
Let's start by looking at what you do get.
You get a genuine touchscreen-driven phone (not just one with touch-sensitive
buttons) that is controlled by pressing virtual buttons and icons
with your finger or the stylus that's supplied with the phone. Pioneered
by the iPhone (and others), touchscreen
is the hottest trend in mobile phones in 2008, and it's hard to
underestimate the amount of fun that you can have pressing virtual
buttons on a screen. Especially for people like us, who don't get
out enou
gh. In the early days touchscreen phones were often tricky
to use, but these days they're all pretty easy once you've got used
to them. We don't think that the Cookie will pose any trouble, although
some may find the stylus a nuisance. Anyway, great fun to use! The
KP500 also has a built-in accelerometer, which simply means that
it senses which way is up and automatically rotates the display.
The virtual QWERTY keyboard slides into view when you turn the phone
to landscape mode, which looks very cool. The accelerometer is also
used when playing games, so you can tilt and turn the phone Wii-style
to control movement. You can shake and flip the phone at other times
to control various functions. It's all great fun, as long as you
don't mind being stared at by passers-by.
The Cookie is more compact than most touchphones.
It's about 20% smaller than the iPhone
3G and several millimetres thinner than its big brother, the
LG Renoir. And weighing just 89g,
it's probably the lightest touchscreen phone ever. We can't think
of any lighter ones off the top of our head anyway. But, and this
bit is important, LG have cleverly made the phone smaller without
reducing the size of the screen. At 3 inches across, it's a big
display by any standards, and when it comes to touchscreen, size
really does matter! A bigger screen makes it easier to use, and
the Cookie is definitely an easy phone to use.
So, the ergonomics are good, and the screen is
good. What else is good? Well, it has a media player that plays
most popular digital music formats. It also has a stereo FM radio.
It's got a good web browser. It supports email and has a document
viewer installed. Connectivity includes USB and Bluetooth, and the
operating frequency is quadband GSM, so you should be able to use
the phone anywhere in the world.
Now let's take a look at what's missing.
The camera is not as good as the 5 or 8 megapixel
cameras seen in LG's high-end phones. It's limited to 3.2 megapixels,
and there's no autofocus but this is reasonable when you consider
the price. The memory is also more limited at 48 MB, although you
can add a microSD memory card to bring this up to 8GB. It's not
3G and there's no WiFi, so web browsing probably isn't a good option,
despite the big screen, which is a shame.
Inevitably there are trade-offs between price and
features. We feel that LG have got the balance just right with the
Cookie. By removing the features that most people won't miss, and
by installing an average camera, they've not on ly slashed the cost,
but have also made the phone more compact and easier to use in many
ways. As long as you won't miss high speed web browsing or the camera
quality, you can have all the benefits of the latest touchscreen
phones for a fraction of the cost. For example, on contract you
can expect to get the LG KP500 with half-price line rental for the
duration of the contract, or a freebie such as a Nintendo Wii Fit,
an XBOX 360 or even a couple of hundred quid cashback! With deals
this generous, it's very hard to find fault with the Cookie.
, and developers are getting antsy.
