LG Electronics today officially launched the LG KP500 (nicknamed Cookie) for the Indian market.
I was completely taken aback when I saw the box with the pricing of this touch screen handset the LG KP500 cookie – Rs. 13,990. It amazed me that a large screen touch sensitive handset would cost so little. This could well be the cheapest totally touch screen handset on the Indian market, but what I’m sure you’d need to know is if it’s still worth even that price. Let me clue you in this entry level touch screen handset.
Form Factor
The KP500 has a large 3-inch TFT touch screen display featuring a 240 x 400 pixel, 256K color resolution. Just under the display are a set of 3 keys – Call take, end and a center shortcut menu key that can also be used as a sort of ‘End task – Task Manager’ option to close all active applications. The stylus is neatly concealed and located at the bottom but slides out from the side.
This extremely slim handset (11.9mm) has a microSD card slot on one side followed by a screen lock key and a dedicated camera key located below that. On the opposite side is where you’ll find a proprietary port for the handsfree, charger and USB and volume/zoom keys. A 3 megapixel camera is located at the rear. That’s pretty much it for the design; it’s simple, slim and quite stylish. Here’s how it does in functionality.
Features and Performance
Interface
Running on a Flash UI the KP500’s touch screen functionality is a bit erratic most of the time. Then again there have been times that it’s been an absolute pleasure to use. Hence erratic is as accurate a term as any. The handwriting recognition would rival any Windows Mobile device and probably end up being better. The accelerometer is possibly the worst there is though and saying this was erratic would be an understatement. Nevertheless the KP500 sports a QWERTY style virtual keyboard when in landscape that is quite responsive and easy to manage.
The menu set up is a neat division of features according to functionality. I quite like this. It’s all very easily usable with just your fingers rendering the stylus redundant most of the time. The only time the stylus is handy is for drawing, handwriting as an option for writing messages and the browser that sometimes makes it a bit tricky selecting options or links from the screen.
There are times when the navigation can get quite frustrating if you’re using your fingers. Scrolling can sometimes be an issue as the sensitivity is not consistent and trying to insert a contact into a message is a bit off too.
