14 DAY TRIAL // The third ranked Asian handset manufacturer, Korean-based company LG, throws on the market another device that will probably make you drool. The new LG KF600 is the right successor of both Chocolate and Shine series that received so many awards in the past. Unfortunately, all the prizes received by LG's mobile phones were referring to design and none to performance or functionality. The embedded firmware looks like it is the main drawback of LG's handsets and is becoming more and more annoying. Apart from the fact that LG always tries to introduce innovative technologies into its good-looking devices, it did not bother to supply a viable firmware. Thus LG's cell phones have a limited target, which doesn't bother if their new acquired handsets are slow performers and feature some of the worst bugs (never to be corrected). The new LG KF600 is no exception to this strange policy of the Korean company, but at least introduces something absolutely new and promising for the mobile phones future development ? haptic feedback.
Announced in February 2008 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, LG fans did not need to wait too much for its release, as the phone has been made available after only 1 month, in March. The slider can be bought for USD 480$, but the price may vary greatly depending on the location.
Design
LG KF600 has a Chocolate-like form factor featuring polished finishes and glossy materials. These compounds used for manufacture are making the slider look very classy and in no way cheap. Still, it has a major drawback as it attracts fingerprints like a magnet. In fact, you will be spending more time trying to clean it than actually using it but, oh well, beauty demands sacrifices. Anyway, I believe it is worth losing some time cleaning the beautiful LG KF600, since it features some nice specs and a very nice design.
LG KF600 measures 101.2 x 50.7 x 14.1 mm and weighs 107 grams (including battery), kind of big and heavy, but at least it is slim for a slider. The right side of the handset features the camera phone key and the USB port, used for charging or listening to the music. Unfortunately, this is the same LG proprietary port that has been included onto all of LG's phones, and not the common miniUSB, which I believe would have been more appropriate. The left side of the slider features a dedicated MP3 player key and a dual volume key. The front of the phone has been covered with a highly durable glass that protects the screen from scratches. The surface features the same mirror-like effect that made LG Shine unique.
That is until it catches enough fingerprints, so you will not be able to see anything. Anyway, the main attraction of the slider could be considered the lower part of the display ? the InteractPad. Covered with the same protective glass, the InteractPad replaces any other external controls so that you will be forced to browse the menus by using this touchscreen pad, which features haptic feedback. The idea of adding touch sensitive controls to slider phones is not new for LG (remember the Chocolate series), but the InteractPad with haptic feedback could be considered innovative. The technology behind the 'haptic feedback' concept is relatively new and this seems to be the first phone on the market that includes it. Unfortunately, the implementation of the technology is not that great, so you will probably notice some lags when using the touch sensitive controls.
I am still not convinced that the phone has been implemented with 100% 'haptic feedback' technology, but I do not have any other device to compare with. From what I have read, I understand that the user should feel like he/she really pushed the pressed button on the touchscreen display. LG KF600 does not really feels that way, but touch sensitive control has been considerably improved compared with the Chocolate series' handsets. Nevertheless, the experience with the InteractPad is so cool that you are tempted to start touching the upper screen also, but alas, the display is not touchscreen. I believe it is better this way, as the screen is so small that adding touchscreen capability would have made the display almost unusable without a stylus.
Owners that cannot get used with the touch sensitive controls might as well take advantage of the large internal keypad. It features a nice pattern, as you can see from the screenshots, which strongly resembles a chess board. The keypad is very easy to use, spaces between the keys are pretty large, so the possibility of mistakenly pressing another key has been eliminated almost entirely. The last piece of technology included into the slider can be found on the back ? the 3.15 Megapixel camera with flash. A small speakerphone has been placed to the right of the camera module. Overall, KF600 looks much better than its Chocolate and Shine predecessors and freshens up LG's new line up of stylish handsets.
Display and Camera
Clearly, LG KF600 features a marvelous TFT display that supports 262k colors and QVGA 240 x 320 pixels resolution. Pity that it is only 2 inches wide, otherwise it would have been perfect. The secondary external display measures about 1.5 inches wide and supports 260k colors and 176 x 240 pixels resolution. It is mostly used to control the device as it features touch-sensitive keys. One major drawback of both screens is the inability to use them under the sunlight. This pretty much hurts people from those sunny countries (e.g. Greece, Spain), but will probably go unnoticed in England.
There is no doubt about it: the 3.15 Megapixel camera is actually the strong point of this stylish slider. Finally, LG made it good for once and embedded a camera module that really takes more than decent pictures. The camera features autofocus capabilities and LED flash, which helps with night pictures.
The controlling interface of the camera features various options that you can use. The maximum resolution of the pictures (2048 x 1536 pixels) can fill the internal memory pretty fast, as the size can vary between 250KB and 500KB. The camera behaves very well even in poor light conditions, but you can still expect some noise in such cases.
Speed is one thing that LG's KF600 camera does not excel at. While not the slowest camera module on the market, taking a picture fast can become a pain or nearly impossible if you only have 2-3 seconds to capture a moment.
Movies can be recorded using 2 different resolutions ? 176 x 144 or 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA). Do not put your high hopes on LG KF600 as it is still far from a dedicated movie-recording device. Overall, I consider the camera a nice surprise coming from LG, having in mind their older handsets which kind of disappointed me in terms of picture quality of the camera.
Menu and Software
Above all, customization of the interface is the most interesting feature of the stylish slider. Having a Flash UI (user-interface) really makes a difference, especially if it is backed by a touchscreen display (which is not the case with KF600). Still, keep in mind that the layout of the menus did not changed too much and if you owned one of the latest LG's handsets, you will get used with this one pretty fast.
The moment you start using the Flash UI you will experience a strong urge to touch the screen, but sadly, LG did not want to put in a touchscreen display. LG KF600 is in fact a hybrid, as it still features half of a touchscreen display, which can be mostly used for controlling the menus. In standby mode, the InteractPad displays 6 shortcuts (only 4 customizable) that give users fast access to various sub-menus or commands. The type of vibration can be chosen from 3 different intensities, although neither is good, but the strongest.
The layout of the menu is the same specific to all of LG's handsets, so you get nothing new except the Flash UI. You can make your phone look much better by using one of the 8 pre-installed themes, some made by Keith Haring. These look very fresh and will be displayed on both screens, pity that you do not have more than eight. You can even customize the fonts or the style of the dialed numbers.
Besides the basic tools (Alarm, Calculator, Memo, Stopwatch, Unit converter, World clock, Calendar), the phone also features an Office document viewer.
The phonebook of the slider looks standard and accepts 1000 contacts. There is a catch here, as you will not be able to see only contacts included on the SIM nor only those from the phone's memory. They are all mixed, but at least you can identify those from the SIM as they have been marked with a specific sign. Unfortunately, together with LG's firmware, you also get the same bugs that have not been corrected yet. The all time famous 'clock delay' bug makes your standby clock delay for 1 or 2 seconds when showing the right time. There is also the 'disastrous' file manager, which mixes the files from the internal memory with those from the external memory card. Further, you cannot create any folders (in fact you can, but they are not recognizable) on the internal memory, so you have to put any files in those folders that come with the original firmware.
Another drawback of the firmware is the inability to use the GSM capabilities while the phone is synchronized with a PC. Moreover, the Java emulator fails to work with all Java compatible software. Fortunately, this is regardless of the file size, so even if it is not based on luck I did not managed to find a logical explanation to this 'bug'. Some applications will work, while others will give you a bad error message (java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError).
Communication
LG KF600 supports GPRS and EDGE connectivity, both class 10. Data transfer speeds are average, but it is clear that this handset has not been made for browsing because of the small screen and lack of 3G connectivity. In terms of messaging, the slider is compatible with a wide range of type messages: SMS (500 max.), MMS, EMS, email (no SSL support), and Bluetooth (2.0) messaging.
Apart from these, you get something new ? handwriting recognition. Of course, this is only available on the InteractPad screen, but it works great and is very useful if you are fed up with the standard keypad. The triband (GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network compatible slider has a good GSM signal reception. Sound is pretty loud and clear, so this is another good point scored for LG's KF600.
Processor and Memory
LG KF600 features a mid-low ARM9 family processor, which runs at speeds of up to 170 Mhz. This could have been better, especially since LG included a Flash UI that asks for a better CPU than those usually embedded in low-end handsets. Perhaps the problem of powering a much better processor scared the Korean company, which is not reckoned for its batteries.
Basically, it's less speed for longer battery life ? I say it's a good choice, as the CPU manages all the basic operations with no problems. The phone comes with 25 MB of internal memory, but can be upgraded through the microSD slot card, up to 4GB.
Unfortunately, the memory card is not hot-swappable, so you might want to avoid pulling out the memory card too often.
Multimedia
LG KF600 targets youngsters and could not lack in rich multimedia capabilities. Besides Camera and Video camera, Multimedia category includes also an MP3 player, a Video player, an FM radio and a Voice recorder. The headset that comes with the phone has been changed and will easily fit into your ears. In terms of sound quality LG KF600 scores above average, especially when the 'rich in options' Equalizer is used. Unfortunately, you will not be able to create other settings for the Equalizer and choices are limited to 10 predefined modes.
Music can mostly be stored on the external memory because the phone is low on internal storage space. MP3 player is compatible with MP3, WMA, AAC and AAC+ file formats. The FM radio lacks RDS function, but features autoscan ability, which automatically memorizes any base stations in range. Reception is average and sound is pretty loud. Music player and radio can both be ran in the background if you want to use other applications. Overall, LG KF600 seems to be the best attempt from LG to enter the 'multimedia competition', which is mostly controlled by Sony Ericsson and Nokia.
Battery
LG KF600 features an 800 mAh Li-Ion battery, which depletes faster than you might have imagined. The official numbers stated by LG ? 480 hours of standby mode and 4 hours of talking ? are again overrated, but I sensed an improvement compared with other LG's handsets. Usually I got about 2-3 days of use with about 20 minutes of talking everyday. It might take longer, around 4-5 days if you only use it for 1-2 short calls per day.
Impressions
The slider does not look ordinary at all; even at first glance, it shows its exquisite forms and lines. LG KF600 is a hybrid handset that combines touchscreen control with standard handling. This implies some time to get used to, but in the end, it proves to be more user-friendly than other LG devices that lack touchscreen control. The Flash UI also adds to the unique experience that the phone offers to the owner. Overall, KF600 seats near the top of LG's handsets line up in terms of design and functionality.
The Good
LG KF600 amazes through its design and customization, which will certainly entertain every user for a long time. LG shows that takes into consideration all the feedback that comes from its customers and KF600 is the living proof. We can already feel the advantage of having good quality camera and rich multimedia functions. The idea of splitting the screen in 2 and giving it different uses makes the idea innovative and adds to the originality of the device.
The Bad
While LG KF600 is one step ahead of its predecessors in terms of functionality and performance, there are still some things that need to be improved. The file management and the MP3 player interface should be the first on the list. Maybe starting to manufacture a few mobile phones that feature an operating system is also a good idea, as LG's firmware is too limited in functions.
Sales package
LG KF600 handset Battery Li-Ion 800 mAh Charger 230V/EU Headset with remote control USB Cable 3.5mm adapter CD ROM with software User Guide
Photo: Tudor Raiciu for Softpedia.com