Reviews and tests / LG KF600 Preview

SMAPE  Reviews and tests  LG  LG KF600 Preview

From this year on, the LG company takes a change in the development strategy, which is already identifiable from the latest releases - KE990 / KU990, KS20 and a number of others. In essence, the company is following a path resembling the one that Samsung used to follow, but LG are keeping a faster pace. The latest KF600 is something in between Samsung E950 and U600 as far as its estimated prestige level and positioning are concerned, but sports much more impressive looks due to Keith Haring's distinctive touch on the design and the exterior screen, which is the first to use the TFT technology among all sliders (Samsung generally stick to OLED).

LG KF600 is a slider handset with a soft touch coating and metallic framing. The sole color variant available is black, unlikely to get the female part of the audience interested. The build quality is remarkably high, the model doesn't yield to the more expensive U900 by Samsung in this way – the parts are tightly fitted together, the material quality is impeccable and the surface coating is very resistant to mechanical damage – after a month in use, only one small scratch appeared on the front panel. The sliding mechanism is quite all right though the parts slide a bit too jerky after the initial impulse is applied – the Samsung invention slides smoother to the touch.

The controls block is entirely based on the touch technology and in fact is a second TFT screen (1.49", 176x240, 256K colors), separated from the main one with a thin 'bridge' itself carrying a number of interesting functions. Unlike Samsung who use the extra screen as something hardly more than a navigation and service panel allowing to browse menus and access the multimedia functions, the LG product uses the element even in gaming and Java applications.

KF600 comes with eight preinstalled user themes, all of them animated and each of them with a unique design feat. Even Nokia's attempts at interface theme design fail pitifully as compared to the way LG combines the contents of both screens in a sophisticated yet appealing ensemble. The two games utilizing the touchscreen goodness are one about mastering the slingshot and the other going in for trampoline jumping and such kind of acrobatics.

The sensor panel displays an average level of ergonomics, U900 Soul still keeps the first place in the competition in this aspect. All the elements are static and have rather limited active area which leads to stray keystrokes, a certain inertness can be felt. The keypad is hardly comfortable to crown it all, its good looks come at the price of poor segmentation. The casing edges host the player and camera buttons on the right (as well as the interface slot) and the volume rocker on the left. Unfortunately, the memory expansion slot is found under the SIM card, so you can't take it in or out without removing the battery.

From the hardware point, LG KF600 poses less interest than Samsung U900 Soul does. The camera is obviously weaker – 3.0 Mp (auto-focusing, flashlight). The image quality is rather good yet still not anywhere around 5 Mp. The same price bracket features even better camera phones (e.g. a number of Sony Ericsson models), so imaging is not the proficiency aspect of this handset, nor it is seen as a minor feature. It is great that the secondary screen finds a good use when you are browsing through the taken pictures – during that time, it shows the thumbnail of the photo and the zoom/rotate controls. The primary screen is of a high quality, yet the diagonal is limited to 2''. If it had not been for that and the poor view angles, there would have been a fair parity established between this model and the more expensive Samsung U900 Soul.

As for connectivity, the Korean novelty may only be blamed for the lack of 3G support (which is found in U900 Soul). The rest of features are quite bright: GPRS, EDGE, GSM 900/1800/1900, Bluetooth 2.0 and FM radio. The onboard memory amounts to some modest 25 Mb, but the microSD slot allows for an easy solution (which would require an extra investment since there's no free card bundled in the package). The Java performance rate remains on a good level, though 3D profiles are not supported. The handset is powered by a 800 mAh battery displaying average results in the lifetime tests.

The software platform underwent a complete revision, though a number of older illnesses persist – you are still forced to distribute files manually between folders dedicated to that certain file type – music tracks can only be stored in Music, graphics goes to the Images folder), this rule affects the memory card storage area as well. You can't select a group of files simultaneously – all the actions should be applied to each file individually, imagine sending a number of photos over Bluetooth one after another which effectively stands for a lot of clicking. However the device features a fully functional flight mode during which the phone will never ask for a SIM card while retaining the rest of functionality. A more detailed review of KF600 will be available in the nearest future on our site.

Author: Dmitry Ryabinin, dm@smape.com

SMAPE.com

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