LG KF600

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Navigation pad works like a charm Handwriting recognition works great Camera quality is quite good Poor battery life No support for video caller tunes Audio out is too low

View Specifications

When I first saw the KF600 in the flesh, so to speak, I was impressed with the kind of technology it employed and its sleek looks and feel. But now that I’ve tested it, it’s a whole new ballgame as I put it through its paces. Here, then, is my opinion of LG's KF600.

Form Factor
I love the design of the handset. This sleek slider is smooth, sexy and though it's a bit heavy at 107g, that’s no bad thing. It provides a comfortable feel with a slight macho touch. It has a superb 2 inch display with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels and 256K colors. The unique feature with this phone is the lower touch-sensitive 1.4 inch display that sports the same resolution and color.

Instead of using normal navigation systems like most handsets, LG has gone with a touch-sensitive (with Haptics) virtual interface for navigation and accessing various options. It's called the InteractPad. The first handset to have a feature like this was Samsung’s U900 Soul, though that's not as vibrant.

While I quite like this navigation option, which may take a bit of getting used to if you have fat fingers, I’m tempted to toy with the idea of LG bestowing the KF600 with a full-length display. It would increase the size of the viewing space. The bottom portion could still be made touch-sensitive. Then again, would the handset be able to support that technology? Hmm... maybe, maybe not. All told, the InteractPad is a very intuitive system and works with virtually no hitches.

On one side of the handset is a proprietary USB/handsfree/charging port. Under that is a dedicated camera key that can also be used to unlock the navigation pad. A music player shortcut key is located on the other side, just below the volume/zoom keys. The most disappointing thing with the design is the lack of a hot-swap slot for the microSD card, though oddly enough it has one for the SIM. There’s also a stylus that can be attached to the handset via a string and, like the Viewty’s, this one too looks rather like a lipstick.