LG KF600 Review

Here is my latest mobile phone handset review, that of the LG KF600 brought to you by a company that is focusing on producing stylish mobile phones that have well implemented and developed features.

Your first impressions of this product is that from looking at how the box is presented - a folding out cube that has clearly been influenced by Apple’s iPod packaging!

The next thing that strikes you once you pick up the handset is the fact that it has two smaller screens rather than one larger one - there’s the main screen, which is purely for standard display purposes and the other one located below it which is for the touchscreen operation is known as the ‘InteractPad’.

LG developed the The InteractPad “to offer a more dynamic and optimised interface to users” by adjusting the displayed functions depending upon which menu screen you are in. I personally found this a little odd to begin with, but soon got used to using this InteractPad. It becomes quite intuitive in my experience, especially given my thumbs naturally rest over this part of the phone which makes it easier to use than some other phones where all the functional buttons are with the number pad which means you have to adjust how you hold a mobile phone handset.

However, in producing a mobile phone handset like the LG KF600 that has a traditional number pad and also a (mini) touchscreen, LG seem to have tried to combine the best of both worlds in terms of operating this phone. I personally am really starting to like using touchscreens on mobile phones, however I believe the LG KF600 would have been a better mobile handset if it had not tried to combine the two types of interfaces. That said, I must say that the software interface of the touchscreen is well implemented, is functional and looks rather cool when you press it, with or without the optional vibration feedback.

The main screen was one of the first things to strike me when I started using this mobile, compared to most mobile phones released these days, it really does seem small and claustrophobic in use - perhaps the screen size had to be sacrificed due to the cost of including the touch screen feature?

The full list of specifications are as follows:

Dimension: L*W*D (mm) 101.2 x 50.7 x 14.4
Standby Time, Max (hrs) - More than 300 hours
Talk Time (hrs) - More than 3hours
Weight with Batt. Standard (g)
Camera - 3 megapixel
Image/Video Capture - 320×240 (QVGA), 640×480 (VGA), 1280×960 (SXGA),
1600×1200 (UXGA), 2048×1536
Internal Memory - 25MB
External Memory - Micro-SD socket (up to 2GB)
Built-in FM Radio
MP3 Player
Bluetooth

The 3 megapixel camera is a very good feature of this mobile phone, it produces high quality pictures and has a range of various photography options in terms of modes and also editing - I just wish that I could see the photos a little better on the phone, since the size of the main screen does limit what you can see to a certain degree, also you’re not going to impress anyone with your pictures by trying to show them off on the KF600’s small-ish screen - but at least you can transfer them to your computer via a USB cable easily enough.

There’s no 3G capability or Wi-Fi on this handset, however I can forgive this as I don’t believe that the target market for this kind of mobile phone would necessarily miss those features.

The KF600 does come with numerous different themes as standard to customise the look and feel of your mobile, all of which contain high quality graphics and very good animations, click on the image below to take a closer look at some of the styles on offer.

Overall, the LG KF600 is a solid feeling phone, perhaps a little chunky compared to today’s slimmer phones, but at least you know you’re holding it and can get a good grip of it since it certainly fits in my hand well enough! I’m not quite sure it could compete with some other phones such as the Viewty on looks and some more advanced features, but what it does have, it does well. It wouldn’t be my first choice in LG phones as I still prefer the Viewty over the KF600, but I’d be quite happy having this as a secondary or emergency handset.