With the highly successful KE850 Prada and KU990 Viewty, it's a point taken for LG - users just love their touchscreen handsets with big displays and no keypads.

Seeing the next in line was only a matter of time and last summer's announcement LG KS20 makes a glorious entry running on Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional.

The new KS20 obviously takes after the prominent KE850 Prada, losing the haute couture ring to its name but adding some Pocket PC depth to the picture. The LG KS20 is a sleek lightweight phone of compact (in Pocket PC terms) dimensions and a large 2.8" QVGA TFT display. The handset has the mere Call and End keys and a joystick on the front - a direct reference to the Prada looks.

Custom LG implementation of the UI

2.8" 65K color touchscreen TFT display of QVGA resolution

HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps

400 MHz Qualcomm MSM7200 processor

128MB RAM and 256MB ROM, microSD expansion slot

Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g

Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP

Surprisingly good 2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash

Stereo FM radio with RDS

USB to 3.5mm jack adapter

Sturdy build, quality casing and compact dimensions

Can't-keep-clean casing

The joystick is too short and hard to operate

No reset hole

Proprietary LG USB connector

Battery fixed to the rear panel

Hard-to-pull-out stylus

No GPS

Just as HTC are venturing to pitch their handsets beyond the confines of the smartphone segment, the LG are somewhat unwilling to make Windows Mobile Pro the focal point of the LG KS20. They are keen to have the KS20 rub shoulders with the Viewty and the Prada and keep it hush about the Pocket PC in most of their marketing.

By the way, LG have their own personal touch to the Pocket PC platform. With the KS20 we get a custom LG implementation of the user interface. Also to mention is the very useful PSNote application. LG KS20 also brings two very amusing games (at least the Vodafone firmware handset that we tested) and Google Maps. More on this later on.

At this stage, there is only a black version of LG KS20 available, but given the LG approach, a silver version is sure to follow somewhere in the future. We already saw this happening with both LG KU990 Viewty and the LG Prada, which recently got dark silver outfit.

LG KS20 will be standing its ground to a mixed bunch. HTC Touch and Samsung Armani just come to mind on the spur for the fashion and for the smart of it. But we may as well make it a complete Apple and oranges.

The tasteful box of LG KS20 brings all the essentials - charger, manual and a CD with software and drivers. In addition, you will find a USB cable and headphones with a remote control and 3.5mm jack.

A leather casing adds that final touch of style to the package.

The compact LG KS20 ranks among the smallest PocketPCs, measuring the respectable 99.8mm in height, still keeping its slimness to 12.8mm, a millimeter thinner that the recent favorite HTC Touch. The 92.5 grams of weight are also more than welcome.

With conservative style and neat shape LG KS20 strives for a fusion of functionality with hi-end design flair. Ergonomics are commendable and working with the handset was a pleasure.

The power plant of LG KS20 is the medium-powered 400 MHz Qualcomm MSM7200 processor, the system utilizing 128MB of RAM and 256MB of ROM. The resources proved enough to work fast with different applications and even watch XViD videos at near-VGA videos.

The sleek front is dominated by the 2.8" 262K-color touchscreen TFT display. It supports QVGA (320x240 pixels) resolution. Above the display is the unornamented earpiece. On its right the secondary videocall camera is placed, which can also be used for taking pictures.

Next to it is the almost invisible status LED, which comes to life when Bluetooth or Wi-Fi is on, or when charging battery.

The abundance of space under the display is only used by a thin bar hosting the Call and End keys, with the joystick in the middle. The short joystick is very responsive and comfortable, but its metallic finish makes it somewhat slippery. A rubber or a plastic top would have made it easier on the thumb.

The connectivity port of the KS20 is located on the left. It has a protective cap, which neatly blends with the silver framing on the sides of the handset. The port is used for plugging the charger, the data cable and headset (headset adapter). Under the plastic cap, the external antenna connector is sheltered too. The volume rocker is dead center on the left side.

The right side of the phone sports the on/off key, the microSD slot beneath its plastic protector, and two shortcut keys, with pictograms indicating their default purpose: internet browser and camera. They however are fully programmable to serve as shortcuts to both applications and menu items. Those willing to enhance single-handed operation may consider assigning an OK function for quick exiting of applications or menu windows, instead of using the key in the right upper corner of the screen.

The top side of the KS20 is pretty bare and doesn't feature any control elements. In the left corner you will only notice the lanyard eyelet.

The sleek front is dominated by the 2.8" 262K-color touchscreen TFT display. It supports QVGA (320x240 pixels) resolution. Above the display is the unornamented earpiece. On its right the secondary videocall camera is placed, which can also be used for taking pictures.

Next to it is the almost invisible status LED, which comes to life when Bluetooth or Wi-Fi is on, or when charging battery.

   

The front panel of KS20 is dominated by the large touchscreen display

The abundance of space under the display is only used by a thin bar hosting the Call and End keys, with the joystick in the middle. The short joystick is very responsive and comfortable, but its metallic finish makes it somewhat slippery. A rubber or a plastic top would have made it easier on the thumb.

   

The joystick offers very good response

The connectivity port of the KS20 is located on the left. It has a protective cap, which neatly blends with the silver framing on the sides of the handset. The port is used for plugging the charger, the data cable and headset (headset adapter). Under the plastic cap, the external antenna connector is sheltered too. The volume rocker is dead center on the left side.

    

The left side of KS20

The right side of the phone sports the on/off key, the microSD slot beneath its plastic protector, and two shortcut keys, with pictograms indicating their default purpose: internet browser and camera. They however are fully programmable to serve as shortcuts to both applications and menu items. Those willing to enhance single-handed operation may consider assigning an OK function for quick exiting of applications or menu windows, instead of using the key in the right upper corner of the screen.

    

The top side of the KS20 is pretty bare and doesn't feature any control elements. In the left corner you will only notice the lanyard eyelet.

The same holds true for the bottom side where the battery cover latch is the only element. Right next to the battery cover release button is the tiny mouth piece. In the left corner is the slot to tuck the telescopic stylus. Taking it out requires a little extra effort - the stylus jams when pulled out halfway.

The back panel of LG KS20 has the same sleek surface as the front. The camera lens is located in the top left corner with the LED flash beneath. They are placed on a stylish brushed metal plate.

The battery cover is easily removed upon a slight push of the release key. Well, in fact it's not a cover but the battery itself. It is a peculiar decision, indeed - even if not unheard of - to integrate the battery in the removable cover. So, when the battery eventually needs recycling, buying the replacement you'll have to pay for the stylish cover too.

The LGLP-GBKM Li-Ion battery has a capacity of 1050 mAh and is quoted at up to 270 hours of standby up to 3 hours of talk time.

The SIM card bed is hidden in the upper half of the handset but the release mechanism makes handling the SIM card quite easy.

LG KS20 has a large 2.8" 262K color touchscreen TFT display with QVGA (320x240 pixels) resolution.

Now, there are a lot of people out there grumbling about display colors, since 65K seems rather old school, right? Well, old it is, but it's really not that bad. 262K colors is not a native thing to a 32-bit processor with 8KB data cache and 16 KB instruction cache. Those processors prefer either 65K colors or 16M colors. However, displaying 16 million colors would certainly compromise performance (it's double the bits compared to 65K) - so it's a fair trade-off really.

Now LG are claiming their KS20 has s 262K color display, but that's all it has - a display. Even if it's a 262K-capable, it's still fed only with the same 65K colors everybody is grumbling about.

When we tested the KS20 in broad daylight the display remained visible with almost no negative impact on usability. However, when it comes to performance under direct sunlight, we've seen far better displays by Nokia and Sony Ericsson; even HTC MTeoR provided a bit better results in our comparative test. Under direct sunlight the display becomes noticeably dimmed.

In the dark the display performed very well and we were more than happy with the adjustable brightness levels that allowed for comfortable experience.

The Phone application is in charge of all call-related features. It has ample virtual keys that allow easy one-hand operation. In the upper right corner of the virtual keypad is the Backspace key, below it is the Speed dial key. The thing we like most about Windows Mobile devices is that you hardly ever need to open your phonebook in order to dial a contact.

You just open the Phone app and use its built-in Smart Dial feature. As soon as you've punched a few digits, it automatically filters the available contacts by their numbers… and their names. It uses the letters assigned to each number key for that - but unlike a feature phone, it checks all the available combinations (much like T9 when writing). Smart dial even searches in your list of recent calls.

Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional OS has been around enough for everyone interested in Pocket PC to have become familiar with it. To start with, all Windows Mobile devices are pretty much the same software-wise. Essentially, any PocketPC is just a software platform, which you can expand according to your needs - there are so many applications out there.

So, buying your Windows Mobile device is just the start - much like your desktop Windows. You hardly ever think of the built-in functions of your desktop OS, you just use it to run useful applications on it, right? We think that should've made the point. Anyways, we'll still give you something on the software part for people new to PocketPC.

There is also another trend - the companies implement their own applications and user interface for the devices to alter the standard look of the Windows Mobile interface. We saw a notable shift with the uMenu in Samsung i600 (or shall we go as far back as the Samsung i320 home screen layouts), and then there were the UI improvements in HTC Touch and HTC TyTN II. LG KS20 also sticks to this rule - there's a personal touch to the interface here, too.

The first thing you'll notice when you power up the phone is the custom home screen add-on that comes pre-installed. It's a really handy plug-in, as it offers access to most of the applications and phone options. Its main disadvantage is that the additional applications that you install will not feature in the LG interface menus and can be accessed via the standard WM interface only.

The home screen plug-in is displayed at the botomn of the screen and consists of 4 quick tabs: menu, phone, messaging, and the Vodafone tab (our test unit featured the Vodafone firmware version).

Pushing the first tab launches a cool menu with a 5-tab navigation bar on the right. The five tabs are: (1) phone related applications and messaging, (2) Vodafone menu, (3) camera and multimedia, (4) office software and other tools and, finally, (5) settings and connectivity. The selected icon is highlighted by a semi-transparent circle.

We appreciate the LG effort to make the UI much more pleasant to work with. Just to show you the striking difference with the standard WM UI, here are a couple of menu screenshots.

Windows Mobile traditionally offers customization through themes but they only change the color scheme. You can of course change the wallpaper on the Home screen too, but that's pretty much all you get. In order to apply some more advanced customization, you would need a third party application. Those kinds of applications however usually eat up your RAM.

The Windows Mobile OS has an unlimited contact list with a plethora of available fields for each entry. Synchronization with MS Outlook is textbook.

There is a very practical additional field to each contact - the "Last call". It displays the number and the time the particular contact was last called. A full log is displayed of calls to and from numbers belonging to this contact, as well as call duration and time of call.

Sending and receiving messages is done through the centralized Inbox. It has separate folders for SMS, MMS and email. SMS length is virtually unlimited, as well as the memory available for received and sent messages.

Inside the multimedia editor you will find the useful option to create multi-page messages containing more than one melody, image or text. Changing the background color is only one of the available customization options.

The Outlook Mobile email client supports POP3 and IMAP accounts. You can have multiple accounts and you can set the client to automatically check mail at regular time intervals. It has full support for sending and receiving attachments.

There are several text input methods with the LG KS20, which doesn't have a hardware keyboard whatsoever. The most useful and convenient is the virtual QWERTY keyboard. The keys are small enough to force the user to write with the stylus only, but free third party applications offer really large and convenient keyboards, allowing finger typing.

Other stylus-optimized typing methods include support for handwriting recognition. The Block Recognizer allows handwriting with single-stroke gestures, so you have to learn how to write that way (writing is done in a special box). The Letter Recognizer offers a more natural way to write, as you can input normal characters (writing again is done in a special box). With Transcriber you can write wherever you want on the screen in whatever style you may wish.

Here is how these keyboards look, when composing a message. We have also installed a free third-party keyboard optimized for finger typing, which has something in common with the iPhone keyboard.

The built-in file manager of the KS20 is the standard Windows Mobile variety. It does a good job finding the files you are looking for. The file manager can create new folders, copy and move files, set tracks as ringtones or simply send files to other devices.

The Picture gallery of Windows Mobile is an application called Pictures&Videos and, as the name implies, you use it to browse the multimedia files in question. As far as pictures are concerned, you can zoom in and out, as well as preview them in landscape mode. The files are shown as either thumbnails or as a plain list. There's a shortcut that allows you to turn on the camera directly from this application. You can even do some basic editing on the images. The Windows Mobile image gallery is far from perfect, even mid-range feature phones now have more advanced image galleries. We sure hope to see some improvement from Microsoft in that department. You can always find yourself a nice gallery application though - the PocketPC platform is so expandable.

The multimedia player of all Windows Mobile devices is the preinstalled Windows Media Player. Besides music, it allows watching video and streaming TV. You can sort tracks by artist, album or genre and you can create custom playlists.

PocketPC are probably bottom of the ladder when it comes to camera performance. It's not about the megapixel count. It's just that their photos are really nothing to speak of.

Well, that's how it used to be. Get ready for the LG KS20 and its striking 2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash. A quick glimpse at the camera photos reveal clear, crisp and well balanced photos. But let's focus on the camera menus and settings first.

The camera menu is easy to operate with both the stylus and the joystick. White balance can be either automatic or custom set to daylight, cloudy, illuminate or indoors. You can apply several color effects (Black and White, Sepia, Negative) and use the special Burst mode with 1, 3, 6 or 9 shots with an average interval of 3 seconds in full resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels.

The built-in flash can be always on, auto or switched off. Another important option is choosing between the main or the secondary camera to take photos.

A set of 19 preset frames can be used to make amusing collages. The only drawback is that resolution is limited to QVGA for this kind of images.

The images taken with LG KS20 are nothing like expected from a regular 2 megapixel snapper. They are surprisingly crisp and detailed and, in the same time, noise-free with almost no sharpening artifacts. Color-rendering is very good, too.

The camera can also shoot from very close, near macro mode distance. Again, we are very delighted with the result. Generally, the camera of LG KS20 is among the best 2 megapixel shooters we've tested so far and it beats all HTC offerings (2 and 3 megapixels).

Indoor photos of the KS20 are also very good with nice colors, medium contrast and fine details, too. It is obvious that the noise and details logarithm of KS20 is at high level - otherwise the images wouldn't be so good.

Starting with this review, we’ll be giving you a selection of pictures taken with the phone we’re testing down-sampled to 1024 x 768 with some basic editing applied.

You know, users are looking at those large multi-pixel shots on their PC screens and the faults of the images are right in their face. In reality most of the pictures taken with the handset will most likely be used for emailing and posting on the web, so the down-sampled selection we’re offering will give a better idea about what kind of performance to expect in the most common use of the camera on your mobile.

The KS20 camera also captures video in 3gp format and QVGA resolution at 15fps, which is just passable. Videos are watchable but too choppy.

Now, back to what PocketPCs are really about - connectivity, both wired and wireless. The LG KS20 has enough to offer in that department. The connectivity port allows seamless synchronization with MS Outlook. Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP) is also at hand. Speaking of wireless communication, we should mention there is no Infrared port, but you have Wi-Fi at your disposal. There are also HSDPA (3.6 Mbps) GPRS and EDGE, so you always have data options available.

KS20 comes with the Internet Explorer Mobile web browser. It falls behind most of the third-party browsers out there and a few PocketPC manufacturers even ship their devices with an alternative web browser preinstalled.

The Internet Explorer has several interesting view options. You can have it fit the text to the screen, show everything in one column or show the website as it is. Landscape mode and fullscreen mode are also available. Putting that aside, the Internet Explorer is at this point the most awkward option for mobile browsing. It's no accident at all that HTC are shipping their devices with Opera Mobile preinstalled.

Windows Mobile offers several time-management features and all of them are easily syncable with MS Outlook. The Calendar is improved in comparison to the one used in Windows Mobile 5, as now it allows searching for events to come. It offers daily, weekly and monthly view. You can have the week start on either Monday or Sunday. You can also hide weekends form the Calendar if you use it for business purposes only.

The To-Do list allows you to add tasks and assign them priority. The Notes also come in handy, as you can either type or directly write the text down on the screen.

The Alarm clock has three alarm slots. Each Alarm can have its own repeat pattern. As a frequently used feature, Microsoft should have put more effort into making the alarm clock easily accessible. Instead, it's buried deep down in the Settings menu. Alongside, you will also find the dual-zone clock. The Calculator is another well-known application (as ugly as it gets).

Among the other interesting applications that come with the LG KS20 are the Office Mobile package and the proprietary LG application PSNote, which turned out quite a performer. The Office Mobile features support for viewing and editing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.

The PSNote is an alternative to the standard Notes application but with much more features and increased input capabilities. The handwritten text is automatically translated in computer text with great accuracy.

Among the numerous options are copying, editing, zooming, changing the font color and size, formatting, etc. Inserting an image, clip, audio or other objects is also part of the rich functionality of this application. Once the text is ready, you can send it right away via SMS, MMS or email.

In our Vodafone version of the phone the Google Maps application was preinstalled. If the other firmware versions happen not to include it, you can easily download it for free from the Google website.

With Google Maps you can get help finding your way, view information about your current location and save your favorite locations. To use all features of the Google Maps internet access is a must.

Two different views are available - Satellite and Map view. Traffic information is another important feature here. The user interface is nice and intuitive.

We look forward to the hybrid view of Google Maps, which is being developed. It is far better way of tracking addresses due to its integrated Satellite and Map views.

The final extra of the LG KS20 is the FM radio (with RDS support), a feature rarely incorporated in smartphones and PPCs. The FM radio interface is rather basic. RDS support can be switched off, while there is an auto scan option to look for the available radio FM stations. Each station can be saved with its own name in the general list. The FM radio interface could've had a little more spirit, but that's just us, nitpickers.

The LG KS20 has something to offer gaming fans on top of the standard Windows Mobile titles. Two entertaining games come preinstalled: Bejeweled and Block Breaker deluxe are popular pastime choices. Sadly, they are only trial versions.

With the KS20 LG are having a go at the Pocket PC niche, and they do it in style. Adding that Prada flavor to the Windows Mobile Pro performance, the LG KS20 will be kept busy and will get you noticed. Even if LG are reluctant to pitch the KS20 for its Windows Mobile Pro competence, it's a full-fledged Pocket PC and has a few strong points in standing its ground to the rivals. It's a compact and refined device, heavy on style to stand out in the bunch of heavy-duty devices. Not least, it offers one of the best cameras in the Pocket PC segment.

Of course, it could've done better in certain areas. While audio quality is hardly a decisive factor for a Windows Mobile Pro device, the lack of GPS and quad-band support could be the deal breakers for Pocket PC users. The TyTNs and the Touch Cruise by HTC seem more than serious contenders here.

Anyway, with full connectivity and data options, including WiFi and HSDPA, LG KS20 is an option worth considering if you're after a Pocket PC. Even more so, if you want a gadget that turns heads.