LG Kf600
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Lg KF600 VENUS 689216 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles £44.04 |
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Lg KF600 VENUS 688660 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles £29.36 |
Pros
Looks good, Dual screens, Keith Haring themes.
Cons
No 3G, Tri-band only, Fingerprints galore, Memory card beneath battery.
RATING:
LG Kf600 Prices
Pay Monthly
Pay As You Go
DEAL |
PRICE |
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LG KF600 VENUS 401 (TMOBILE) Affordable Mobiles |
£159.95 |
SUMMARY:
A funky tri-band slider phone with dual screens, 3 MP camera, music player, FM radio and Keith Haring animated themes. It looks good. The LG KF600 was introduced as a "mind-reading interactive phone". Aha, a Derren Brown wannabe...LG Kf600 Review
The LG KF600 is a funky tri-band slider phone with dual screens, 3 MP camera, music player, FM radio and Keith Haring animated themes. It looks good. The LG KF600 was introduced as a "mind-reading interactive phone". Aha, a Derren Brown wannabe...
LG sales pitch is "smartly touchable, more usable... a phone so intuitive, it seems to read your mind". Sadly, the KF600 has no telepathic powers, but it does have the InteractPad™ - a 1.5-inch touchscreen beneath the main 2-inch screen (not touch-sensitive). More on this in a moment.
Design
The LG KF600 is quite wide and it's slim for a slider phone. Weight is average - 107 g. Quick tour of each side:
Left: Volume rocker, music key (MP3).
Right: USB port and camera key.
Top: Lanyard holder is top right. Do people use straps?
Bottom: Microphone.
Back: 3 MP camera, LED light/flash, loudspeaker and antenna plug.
The battery cover is a doddle to remove. The microSD card slot (supports up to 2 GB) is beneath the battery. Not hot-swappable - booooooo, hisssssssssss. No memory card was included in the box.
Slider: Slide the front up to reveal the keypad. Slider mechanism is smooth, not quite as solid as some of the Nokia phones we've tested.
Keypad: Big flat keys. Easy to press. Could have done with a bit more tactile feedback, but we think they're fine.
2-inch 240 x 320 pixel 262k colour screen: Decent. A bit difficult to see the screen in the sun. The whole of the shiny front display - top and bottom screens - is prone to greasy fingermarks. A forever grubby look.
1.5-inch InterActPad ™ : This 1.5-inch touchscreen sits beneath the top screen. This screen has context-specific virtual luminous keys. The keys/icons change when you navigate to different parts of the software. For example, start the music player, and the screen will display the music player controls. ie: the keypad changes to fit the task in hand.
LG call that mind-reading.. hehehe.
The InterActPad ™ replaces the traditional static key options. The keys respond well when pressed. Tap a key, the icon enlarges, you get a click sound and the phone vibrates a little (haptic feedback).
It can possibly take a little while to get used to the interface. If you're used to a full touch-screen interface, you'll likely get the urge to tap the icons on the top-screen (not a touch-screen doofus). Doh!
One large touch-screen is better than this dual-screen approach. A mobile phone needs lots of screen real-estate - dividing it up into two is not optimal, because many applications don't require additional screen space control areas.
For example, scrolling across a photo - just finger-swipe the main screen, why bother finger-dragging over a smaller image to the right of the screen. The 2nd screen is simply wasting front panel real-estate. We would rather have a 3.6-inch screen and bring up options if required. Watching a video - watch it on 1 big screen, if you need video player controls, tap the screen and overlay controls.
Well done LG for experimenting. This isn't a high-end phone, so you can't expect a full touch-screen. Next best thing (perhaps) is a small secondary touch-screen offering context-specific keys.
Keith Haring Animated Themes: 8 Dynamic themes, 5 by Keith Haring. The animated wallpaper interacts between the 2 displays. Nice.
Features
3 MP Camera
3 megapixel camera with LED flash, auto-focus, macro mode, white-balance, image stabiliser, quality settings and QVGA (320 x 240) video capture.
Image quality: It's OK. It's not as good as the camera-focussed 3.2 and 5 MP camera phones. Shots taken in plenty of light are OK.
Music Player
Album art, playlists, 10 graphic equalizers, shuffle, repeat... The earphones are fine. Use the provided 3.5 mm adapter to connect your own super headphones.
Other Features
FM radio: No RDS. Simple. Auto-searches for stations.
Web browsing: View full HTML pages. A big 3.6-inch screen would be better. As would 3G download speeds - there's EDGE only.
There's also a document viewer, organiser tools, mini games, gallery, image editor, and a voice recorder.
Summary
Unique experimental design. The touch-screen might take a while to get used to. Not as good as a phone with one big touch screen, but the contextual keys are intuitive and easy to use. The LG KF600 looks good, and the Keith Haring themes give the phone that extra bit of uniqueness and character.
You can buy the LG KF600 for under £180 on PAYG, or get it free on an 18-month contract. You might consider the better-featured big touch-screen LG Viewty - April 2008, and it costs only £20 more on PAYG.
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Lg KF600 VENUS 689216 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles £44.04 |
|
Lg KF600 VENUS 688660 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles £29.36 |
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TAGS: fashion, slider phones
3 Comments
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Hi i got this lg kf600 with a lg prada n about 25 other phn of ebay they all have boxes nothing wrong with them at all but the best phone i like most of all is the kf600 if u need help or such just ask.
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