LG KF600 Review

Published by GadgetSpy April 17th, 2008 in Gadgets, Mobile Phones, Portable Audio, Reviews.

The first thing to mention about the KF600 is the unusual touch-screen interface. This is clearly the unique selling point of this phone, and whether you enjoy using it will depend on how much you like this feature.

Put simply, around a third of the screen (a section that LG is calling the ‘InteractPad’) is touch-sensitive, displaying a set of up to six virtual buttons. These are context-sensitive and change depending on what features of the phone you are using at the time. When not displaying the full six buttons, the pad displays only four buttons (one in each corner) with a set of directional buttons set inbetween them. This is an innovative use of screen space and is very easy to understand without any reference to the manual. The phone vibrates slightly when a button is pressed on the pad, giving a good sense of physical feedback – no wondering whether or not the button-press registered.

All of the menu navigation is done via the InteractPad. Simple icons represent the features of the phone, and any lists (for example, lists of contacts) can be scrolled using the directional buttons on the InteractPad. There is good consistency in the layout of the InteractPad, with the ‘back’ button always appearing on the top right of the pad, for example.

The KF600 something of a hybrid – it has a touch-sensitive area, but the majority of the screen is not touch-sensitive. It also has a slide-out keypad for entering phone numbers, which marks it out as a compromise between traditional design and full-on touch-sensitivity. It’s a combination that works well, limiting the touch-screen to simple navigation tasks, whilst preserving the keypad for the task of entering numbers or text. The only flaw with the keypad is that it is very flat and the buttons can be hard to distinguish from each other – ironically, this is a problem that the InteractPad doesn’t suffer from. It can sometimes be annoying to have to switch from the InteractPad to the keypad – perhaps full-screen touch-sensitivity might have been a better option – but overall it’s no disaster.

The second point to make about the KF600 is that the interface is visually very attractive. The default white-on-black theme is pleasant enough, but the real treat is a set of themes based on the artwork of Keith Haring. These brightly-coloured themes show off the bright, crisp screen and add some fun to the otherwise serious-looking phone.

Of the core phone features, there’s not much to say. Audio quality during calls was good – crisp, clear and no distortion, albeit a little quiet in crowded or noisy areas. The standard contact management features are all present, with little innovation but no glaring annoyances either.

The phone has a decent 3.0 megapixel camera – nothing special, but it’s easy to use, with some useful features including a timer. The MP3 player is better than on most phones, allowing easy creation of playlists, with shuffle and repeat modes. Annoyingly, there is no 3.5mm headphone jack, requiring the use of an adapter to use your existing headphones. MP3 audio quality was reasonable, although not quite matching that of a dedicated MP3 player.

Physically, the phone feels solid and well-designed. The sliding mechanism is spring-loaded, snapping satisfyingly into place once pushed. The weight of the phone is well-distributed and it feels good in the hand. The screen has a clear plastic covering which feels sturdy and does not smudge easily – though, inevitably, fingerprints do appear after handling. The rear of the phone has a rubber coating which gives the phone a slight grip on any surfaces that it is placed on, which helps to avoid accidental knocks sending the phone flying across a desk or table.

In conclusion, the KF600 is a solid, if somewhat unimpressive phone. It does what it does well, but it doesn’t offer anything inspirational. The InteractPad – the only really innovative feature - works well, but it is still hard to resist the temptation to try touching other parts of the screen when menu items appear, and it’s frustrating to realise that this doesn’t work. The slide-out keypad gives the phone a less cutting-edge feel.

Good