Our Review of the LG KF600
The LG KF600 (or Venus as it's sometimes known) has various features that could be considered as innovative. With the touchscreen fad that is currently gripping the industry in the wake of the iPhone, to come out with a mobile phone that seems to go back to the future is a bold statement.
The LG KF600 or Venus as it's sometimes known is similar to its KF700 Virgo counterpart in that is a slider phone which comes with a combination of touchscreen elements for the multimedia features, and a more traditional numeric keypad for more basic functions such as calling and texting. Touch-sensitive phones seem to be LG's forte. After the huge success of the Chocolate, which responded to the touch with its signature red inner glow, LG then dolled itself up for the catwalk with the LG Prada, a sort of proto-iPhone for fashionista market, which paved the way for the equally fetching Viewty.
With the KF600, LG have come up with an interesting design for their forthcoming touchy feely product. The KF600 handset comes in the form of a typical slimline slider, with the main numerical keys hidden underneath, but comes with two front-mounted displays. When the phone is opened, the multi-function softkey touchscreen on the lower part of the front – called the 'InteractPad' – is activated.
The InteractPad is essentially a multi-functional virtual context sensitive keypad, or in layman's terms, the little touchscreen display changes and shifts depending on which of the KF600's media tools you are using at that time. For example, when viewing pictures, the InteractPad is used zoom in and out, rotate and send MMS images to your mates, and when playing music, play, pause and skip keys are displayed. When scrolling through your contacts in the phone book, the small display even reproduces a virtual approximation of the glowing red keys which appeared on the LG Chocolate, which is a nice touch. It is also worth mentioning at this point that the KF600 comes loaded with a number of themes based on the work of New York artist/activist Keith Haring, perhaps most famous for his iconic 'Radiant Baby' design (see below).
With all the innovation going on it's lucky that LG have not held back on features on technological features for the KF600. As the display on the KF600 is split in two the top main display is a 2.0" TFT-enhanced screen which can handle some 262K colours in a resolution of 320 x 240; the resolution of the InteractPad touchscreen part weighs in with a 240 x 176 resolution – this puts the KF600 in iPhone territory in terms of screen size.
The 3.2 Megapixel camera on the KF600 comes with autofocus, and so packs more visual punch than Apple's offering, and it is also capable of recording video. The music player on the KF600 works well, capable as it is of playing all of the major file formats (MP3, AAC, AAC+ and WMA). Plus, as all of the play, pause and skip controls are handled by the InteractPad, this means that there is more room for things like track times, artists names, song titles etc on the main screen. The music player allows you to create playlists, and gives you ten equaliser presets, although unfortunately, you can't create your own presets which is a bit of a bummer.
The secondary InteractPad display changes and shifts depending on which of the KF600's media tools you are using at that time. When viewing pictures, the InteractPad is used zoom in and out, rotate and send images to your mates, and when playing music, play, pause and skip keys are displayed.
Thanks to the microSD card slot you can expand the memory to 8GB, which is just as well, as if you were planning to load a stack of MP3s onto the KF600, the 25MB of internal memory would fill up pretty quickly. Connectivity options include the now standard Bluetooth (v2.0) for wireless file transfers and USB (also v.20) for wired connections. Web browsing is available on the KF600, but if this is what you're after then its best to look somewhere else; whilst GPRS and EDGE allow for fast downloads and web pages look pretty good on the main display, it has to be said that mobile surfing isnt where the KF600's talents lie.
Battery life gives you some 480 hours of power when the phone is not in use, and a total of 4 hours of talk time; there is no noticeably large drain on power when using the multimedia features, but daily charges are advised as a precautionary measure.
In real terms, this makes the LG KF600 a sort of weird hybrid between a touchscreen and a normal slide mobile phone. It is an innovative idea as people are still wary of touchscreens when it comes to tasks such as texting or entering information. With the KF600, LG have managed to find a compromise between the two, keeping everyone happy.
Pros
Innovative dual-control touchscreen interface.
Cool Keith Haring 'Radiant Baby' designs.
Expandable memory.
Cons
Not the most powerful phone out there.
Our Rating
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The KF600 has its drawbacks; the lack of 3G compatibility is a surprise given the recent trend in handsets is to be HSDPA compatible. But overall the KF600 will suit almost everybody.
