It is quite obvious that sleek looks and youthful appeal are very high on the LG list of priorities recently. Just as we gave you the flamboyant LG KF600, LG KF510 makes us wonder how much sweeter Chocolate can get. Undoubtedly of the same bloodline, the two handsets take a different approach to full touch navigation with InteractPad and Touch Lighting. The rest of the ammo is basically the same. The really sleek metallic finish and bigger 2.2" display (no InteractPad to shrink the screen) are the LG KF510 major assets. The ultra slim slider has the looks and handling to get us exited, so let's get rolling.

Great design and slim body

Touchpad navigation

2.2" 262K-color TFT display of QVGA resolution

3 megapixel camera with autofocus

microSD card slot with hot-swap

USB v2.0 and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP

FM radio

Good web browser

No 3G support

Tri-band only

Poor file management

Video recording maxes out at QVGA resolution

Inadequate display legibility in direct sunlight

Touchpad navigation just for the sake of having it runs a serious risk of failure. LG sure did know that and they seem to have a good enough background to step on. Plus, the steady improvements of user interface are a more than welcome effort. Nice and easy handling is notably gaining momentum with LG devices and the KF510 is surely another small step forward.

Once again we reminisce of the Samsung E950 and comparison is not in its favor. Of course, it offers a touch-sensitive mini display, along the lines of the InteractPad, but is still a good enough reference point. The smallish navigation display of the Samsung is not capable of offering much more options than the touchpad of LG KF510. In addition, the KF510 touchpad has some interesting animations and interactions with the interface, which partially make up for the lack of a full color navigation display. It's fair to say that in terms of navigation, LG KF510 comes within reach of Samsung U900 Soul. And that's a downright compliment. The Soul is a high ball with HSDPA and a 5 megapixel shooter.

LG KF600 should also be considered here as a touch-based navigation peer. Save for the InteractPad, which is much more "interactive" than the touchpad, all the rest of their specs are very similar (if not the same). Both handsets seem to cater to a similar audience.

LG KF510 is one of the sexiest phones we have recently reviewed. We really like its design and the generous use of metal on its body make it even better. The glossy surface and the bold red color of our unit also make a great first impression. The bad thing is that it gets covered in fingerprints a bit too easily, the display being undoubtedly the most vulnerable part.

The earpiece of LG KF510 is centrally located, right below the upper edge of the front panel. Right next to it is the ambient light sensor.

The 2.2" display follows down the KF510 front panel. The rest of the front is taken by the touch-sensitive pad that is in charge of all navigation.

The left side of LG KF510 hosts the volume rocker. It is large enough and conveniently placed, and you won't have to reach too far for it. On the upper end of the left side there's the neck/wrist strap eyelet.

The right side of the handset is more crowded. Starting from the top we have the USB port, hidden under a small cap to keep the looks intact. Under the USB port is the microSD card slot. LG have made a smart move placing it on the upper (sliding) part of the handset so it is only visible when the handset is open. It looks better and usability isn't harmed at all.

The next thing on this side is the sliding End key. Yeah you got it right - LG KF510 uses a slider for that purpose, rather than a normal press key. It might seem a bit confusing at first, but with use it becomes quite natural. It serves all the purposes of a Red Receiver key, like exiting menus and powering the handset on and off.

The final key on the right side of LG KF510 has double functionality. When pressed it starts the music player. A press-and-hold activates the camera. It is quite easy to distinguish between the two types of press, so working with this rather specific control is no problem at all.

Neither the top, nor the bottom of LG KF510 feature any controls or apertures. They are neat and sleek with nice chrome finish.

The 3 megapixel autofocus camera lens is at the back, only visible when the phone is slid open. Its support crew is right next to it - the LED flash and the self-portrait mirror. You can find out more about the camera and its performance in the dedicated camera chapter of our review.

Removing the battery cover of LG KF510 reveals the 800 mAh Li-Ion battery. With the beta status of the device in mind, we will refrain from commenting on the battery life for now.

The SIM card slot is located right under the battery. Inserting or changing the SIM card is a rather complicated task with the LG KF510. You have to pull the small plastic tray quite hard to get it out. The design seems too flimsy and you always seems like a step from breaking the tray when you have to pull it out, so it's possible that it will be changed in the retail version.

The build quality of LG KF510 is truly great. High quality materials have been used and the rather heavy weight, given the dimensions, shows it. The phone feels great in the hand and is a definite looker. If looks are high on your list of priorities when picking a phone, you just can't afford to overlook the KF510.

LG KF510 is equipped with a 2.2" 262K-color LCD TFT display of QVGA resolution. It's pretty much the golden mean given today's feature phone display standards.

The picture quality is on the good side, excelling in brightness and contrast levels. Sunlight legibility has also improved compared to, say, the LG KU990 Viewty. This doesn't necessarily make it great. It is still hard to find a proper angle for working with the phone when outside on a sunny day, but at least it is possible.

LG KF510 is a real texting-friendly device with its large keys. They are also nicely elevated at the center, which benefits touch orientation greatly. Typing was a sheer pleasure after only a few hours spent with the KF510.

We're still sitting on the fence as far as the touchpad is concerned. There is no doubt that it brings some fun to using the LG KF510. However, we do find navigation with regular press keys a bit easier, even though the KF510 also features haptic feedback. Not that it is something you cannot get used to but it does take its time. Other than that, the touch pad has its positives. For example it allows quick scrolling by sweeping your finger across, which is impossible with normal D-pads. By the way sweeping is not an option with Samsung's navigation displays in E950 and U900.

The backlighting of both the touch pad and the keypad is strong enough. It is not really even but the illumination of the touch pad makes the LG KF510 one of the best looking phones in the dark.

When it comes to telephony, we have no complaints with LG KF510. It offers good reception and great in-call sound. Voice quality is good on both ends of a call. Besides, the phone has nice interface and dialing a number or calling a contact from the phonebook is easy and pleasant.

  

The user interface of LG KF510 does add to the sleek looks. It is very user-friendly and generally really quick and responsive. In addition, the black and white icons we saw in LG KF600 are now traded for full color. This is a very welcome improvement and we do appreciate the new styling.

The standby screen has information about the current time and date, as well as the typical status readings. It shows signal strength, the active profile and the battery status. In standby mode the touch pad features 4 shortcuts, which can be customized to best suit the user's needs. Each of those is attached to one of the directions, while the center is responsible for entering the main menu. You can also make small icons appear in the middle of the stand-by screen indicating the shortcuts attached to each direction key.

The menu structure of LG KF510 is straightforward and easy to work with. Except for a few strangely placed settings everything else is perfectly logical. The different files and features are exactly where you would expect them to be even if you have never held an LG handset before.

The touch pad is the main option for navigating the menus. You can also use keypad shortcuts, with alphanumeric keys linked to icons on the screen (depending on the menu). Unluckily there was no setting about the haptic feedback of the touch pad. We did appreciate the wide ranging customization the KF600 offered and we would've liked it better if the KF510 was capable of doing the same. Still the feedback is good enough, even if we found it a bit delayed on some occasions. We didn't however have any trouble navigating the phone for the time of our review.

There are two main menu modes available - a standard 4 x 3 grid or a list of 7 icons with labels. Both are nicely looking and comparatively easy to work with. Still, old school as we are, we did appreciate the grid view mode more. The menu font and dialing style are also customizable.

If you still get bored with your LG KF510 you can go ahead and change the theme. There are only three preinstalled themes on the handset but those are all really nice and won our appreciation.

Another thing that can be customized is the the slider sound. There are a few rather interesting options here.

The phonebook in LG KF510 is not the most feature-rich around but user-friendliness makes up for that. The numbers from both the SIM card and the phone memory are displayed simultaneously. There is no way of hiding any of the two. Searching of a contact is done by gradual typing of the desired name. However, you can only search contacts by first name.

LG KF510's phonebook has a capacity of 1000 entries, which should be enough inmost cases. The contacts appear as a list and you can opt for displaying the picture of the currently selected name.

The available fields when editing a contact are 11, which may seem a lot to some but are in fact seriously short of what some competing brands have to offer. You can save up to 4 phone numbers for each contact, along with a personal photo and a ringtone.

Finally, LG KF510 features grouping. Contacts can be organized in groups for easier management.

LG KF510 can handle all of the most common type of messages: SMS, EMS, MMS and email. There's support for Bluetooth messaging too like on several other LG handsets. We aren't really the biggest fans of the handset's messaging department but still we believe it is capable of doing the job on most occasions.

The first editor has rather basic looks and that's one thing we disliked. Next the editor always assumes that you are going to send the message to multiple recipients and has a separate screen for inputting several numbers.

There is a counter showing the number of symbols remaining to the limit of 160. If this limit is exceeded the editor turns another page, which should act as an indication that the message will be sent in two chunks.

The fact that LG KF510 uses a single editor for all common types of messages (SMS, EMS and MMS) is influencing the user-friendliness somewhat negatively. If each of those had a separate editor the required feature would have been more comfortably accessible, without the unnecessary ones getting in the way.

The Bluetooth message editor is very similar to the one we just described. It manages its job just fine, no bangs and whistles.

The email client is quite easy to work with and mailboxes can be set up in no time. The big downer here is the lack of SSL support. It makes using some very popular public mail providers impossible with LG KF510. We were unable to set up a Gmail account on the handset, for example.

MMS and emails are saved in the reserved part of the phone memory, so you can have quite a number of them stored in you device. Normally there is more than enough free storage available for that purpose but this depends on quite a number of factors. SMS storage has its capacity fixed to 500 items.

So generally, as far as the most common messaging needs are concerned, the LG KF510's performance is passable. We do feel though LG could have done better. Still, given recent efforts to improve user interface, it's likely to have messaging at a higher level in the nearest future.

The music player of LG KF510 performs nicely. It sorts tracks by three different criteria - artist, album and genre. You can also create your own playlist if you like. The player also has nice visualization with equalizer bars interacting with the current track.

There are as many as 10 equalizer presets on LG KF510. Unluckily, neither can they be modified, nor new ones created.

In case the preloaded tracks on your LG KF510 are no longer entertaining, you can turn the radio on. The FM radio interface is rather simplified and generally very easy to work with. There is an auto scan feature that locates every radio station in your area and offers to save it. We would have appreciated RDS but it's not an option with the KF510.

The video player was one of the most disappointing parts of LG KF510. It had no support for mpeg video clips, which was quite a bad surprise to us. The handset can only play 3gp videos, which are currently used only in MMS messages.

As users inform us, the retail version of LG KF510 is able to play MPEG4 videos, so as it seems LG have managed to fix that.

Videos can be played fullscreen with the labels of the selection keys hidden to make the whole display usable. With the nice user interface, it is a real pity the format support is so limited. If LG come round to fixing that in the retail version it would make a huge difference.

File management in LG KF510 is terrible. It is not as bad as the LG KF600, which could hardly handle any user-created folders but is still annoying enough. Basically you will need to place every file in its designated folder if you want to use it.

With the KF510 we had various results when we misplaced some files. Once it did reorder the whole memory card, putting every file in a directory suiting its type. While this might not sound bad at first, as those files are still usable, it made a real mess of our memory card folder structure. The files were all heaped in a single folder and we could hardly sort them properly when we put the card in a card-reader to work with on a pc.

At least, the fact that the memory card is hot-swappable improves the situation. It is easier to correct any mistakes you have made uploading files to your memory card. We do however think that users shouldn't be forced to do that at all.

The gallery of LG KF510 really scores a point for the handset. It is accessed through the My stuff icon in the main menu and offers two view modes. The thumbnail view can show 9 thumbs at a time, while the list view can fit only 7 items on the screen. No wonder we preferred the first one, is there?

Single pictures can be viewed in both landscape and portrait mode and can also be displayed fullscreen. You can also zoom in to see further detail. Be warned that the first zooming step is a little slow. However the following zoom steps complete in an instant and panning is also very fast. Here might just be the place to mention that as a whole the multimedia performance of LG KF510 is really satisfying in terms of speed.

The touch pad is also enhancing the gallery experience greatly. When you zoom in on a picture you can use it for quick panning and it really works great. Sweeping your thumb across will move the selection grid quickly, while single taps will pan and scroll in small steps. It might not be as good as the InteractPad on KF600, which also displayed a mini-map of the picture, but is more than adequate.

The final extras of the gallery include picture sorting (by name, date or type) and slide show, along with deleting multiple files at a time. Truth be told, we aren't particularly fond of the slide show capabilities of LG handsets at this point.

Obviously LG KF510 stakes a lot on youthful appeal and the nice 3 megapixel camera onboard seems to play the right strings. It is topped with LED flash and a self-portrait mirror which, at least on paper, sounds great. And we were quite happy that the impression still holds true after the test.

The camera has rich settings, from white balance and effects to quality levels. There's also shake reduction, although we are not really sure of its real effect on photos. In addition, the interface is very user-friendly and easy to use.

The picture quality is commendable. Images have enough sharpness and precise colors and, overall, the KF510 camera ranks among the most capable 3 megapixel units we have seen. Noise reduction is also quite efficient, keeping noise levels at a very good level, without sacrificing almost any detail.

The camera is impressive in terms of speed. In fact, LG KF510 packs one of the quickest cameras we have reviewed. Photos are saved extremely quickly, especially if the phone memory is used. Our unit had some trouble writing to memory card but that's probably due to its beta status. The only complaint we have is the auto focus speed in low light conditions, but it makes up for that with reliability.

As far as video recording is concerned, LG KF510 supports QVGA resolution. Not much of a boast but videos might occasionally turn out usable. Zooming is also available and so are white balance and exposure settings. Videos are saved in 3GP format and can use the LED flash for better results in darker environments. However in general, LG KF510 is lagging behind in terms of video recording capabilities.

The connectivity options of LG KF510 have their ups and downs but the overall impression is positive. USB v2.0 connectivity is nice and sharp. Data storage mode is available and even the phone's internal memory is accessible from a PC like a removable drive. The bad side is that the phone is unusable for calls and messaging during a USB connection to PC, which is rather inconvenient.

The Bluetooth version is also 2.0 and, as we mentioned, A2DP is supported. We had no problem pairing our unit with a third party headset, so compatibility issues seem unlikely.

As far as network connectivity is concerned, the phone features GPRS and EDGE. We are definitely missing 3G support. That makes EDGE the best option here and it really isn't the fastest around.

Finally, we've got the memory card slot. The hot-swap capabilities make it a very fast and easy way of transferring data from and to your LG KF510.

We are very pleased with the LG KF510's web browser. It offers great page rendering and even the most elaborate web pages fit perfectly on the screen. Plus, with the optimized rendering mode is enabled, text is even easier to read. The downside is that the page no longer looks as if browsed on PC.

The web browser of LG KF510 also has a virtual mouse pointer that jumps between links. However, just like the one on LG KF600, the mouse pointer moves rather illogically which can be irritating. You can hardly foresee its next step when a lot of links are placed close together.

Otherwise the phone is doing great. In addition to the rendering mode setting there are also settings for caching web pages and accepting cookies. Finally, you can disable images to save on traffic - and time - browsing with EDGE does require patience.

LG KF510 has good time-managing capabilities, even if some of the applications in the organizer do need a little improvement. All the basics are covered and there are more than enough applications available.

The calendar offers daily and monthly view and event setting. However, there are no different types of events so you will have to customize every entry yourself. You can also set up an alarm to remind you of the event at a given time.

The other organizing features include text notes and an alarm clock. The alarm clock is really advanced on LG KF510. It allows you to set up to 5 different alarms, each with its own name, ringtone and repeat interval. There is also a voice recorder that can come in handy for making voice memos.

The calculator offers a good number of options and functions. Its navigation is also very nice and easy to control with the touch pad.

The World Clock application is a nice little helper that can tell you the current time in any time zone. In terms of layout and graphics, it's really great and it also has an extremely large database of cities for each region and time zone. The only thing missing is a search option to make selecting a location easier but that's something we can live with.

Next in line is the KF510 document reader. It is an Access powered application and is capable of handling all popular document formats - .xls, .doc and .pdf are all covered. In addition, it has nice interface and good functionality. Add the pleasing speed and you'll understand why we are so pleased with it.

Finally, there's a stopwatch and a unit converter - they both feature a decent level of user-friendliness. However we aren't really pleased with the set of conversions the unit converter has to offer. It still has the most commonly used ones (temperature, volume, velocity etc.), so it might just be welcome by most users.

LG KF 510 comes with two games preinstalled. The first is a collection of a few mini-games and is the same as the one found on LG KF600. It is however not as easily played with the touch pad as it was with the InteractPad. On the other hand, you can use the alphanumeric keys for that purpose, so it isn't that much of an issue actually.

The other game is a java version of the popular Japanese game of Sudoku. We did like the navigation around the board and find the game as good as if played on paper.

  

Recommending or not the LG KF510 is a tough call. Provided especially that the handset hasn't yet officially hit the shelves and its retail price is still unknown.

What's beyond any doubt though is that LG KF510 is a very sleek and fun to use phone. It does have a few flaws in the user interface, some of which aren't that minor either (read file management). It still is a nice step forward for LG in terms of user-friendliness. Not the least, the build quality is great and the phone does feel great to hold.

We would recommend it to all willing to consider the LG KF510 to try its user interface before plunging into a purchase. Even if it's not as much of a novelty as the KF600, its navigation is far from traditional. Now, that would be enough of a selling point for some. Plus, all those who find the KF600 too audacious for its InteractPad, seem to have a good enough alternative.

Touchpads are no longer revolutionary. But they are still not flawless either. The ones we've managed to test so far have all fallen seriously short of being the best thing since sliced bread. However, our experience with LG KF600 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona revealed a huge step forward for touchpad-navigated devices. You can imagine we were more than eager to make a full review of the handset. Luckily, the pre-release unit we got was good enough for that purpose. So, here we go.

2" 256K-color TFT LCD display of QVGA resolution

1.49" 256K-color TFT 176 x 240 pixel InteractPad

3.15 MP camera with autofocus and LED flash

Tri-band GSM/EDGE support

Bluetooth and USB v2.0

Cool additional themes by Keith Haring

FM radio

Cool games

No 3G support

2-inch display is small for a multimedia handset

Front panel is a fingerprint nightmare

Uncomfortable keypad

The haptic feedback on the InteractPad has a delay

Non-hot-swappable memory card

The KF600 was one of the highlights at the LG booth at the MWC and, as we see it, it has enough good reasons for that. There's a great youthful feel about the handset, which can hardly go unnoticed. Of course the new InteractPad interface has its downsides, so you might just want to read a little more before you fork out the cash. This certainly is not everybody's phone.

Clearly, LG KF600 is not inventing the wheel with its InteractPad. We still can't forget the hard time the touchpad of Samsung E950 gave us. However, the KF600 seems to have more odds of achieving market success. The lower touch-sensitive display is now far more responsive and boasts much greater image quality. Sounds like a good start for this little fella.

The dimensions of LG KF600 are 101.2 x 50.7 x 14.1 mm. Definitely not the smallest phone around, but it's about what you'd expect in a slider. In all fairness, squeezing that second display in has made it rather tall but the fair 14.1 mm thickness do make up for that. The weight of 107g is nothing special either. A size comparison between LG KF600 and Samsung E950 would be in favor of the latter but, after all, its touch pad is obviously smaller.

Thanks to the InteractPad navigation, there are no hardware keys on the front panel of LG KF600. Its surface is completely smooth and, in the rare moments when it's not smudged with fingerprints, it looks really nice. Hate to break the bad news, but the glossy front is a real smudge magnet. Endless hours cleaning your KF600 guaranteed.

The earpiece is placed dead center at the top of the front panel. Below it is the 2" display that we'll come back to a little later. The InteractPad completes the list on the handset's front.

The left side of the handset hosts two keys. The volume rocker is placed right above the dedicated music key. Music fans will most likely appreciate the MP3 player shortcut, which is another indication of the young target audience of LG KF600.

Moving on to the right side of LG KF600, we find the USB port, also used for connecting the charger, and the dedicated camera key. Unluckily, the USB connector is the well-known proprietary LG version that works with LG supplied accessories only. The more popular miniUSB could have saved users some hassle, but that's not that big of an issue.

The top and bottom of the phone are both quite simple. The only thing to find on the top is the lanyard eyelet. The mouthpiece is all you get at the bottom.

The material used on the back panel of LG KF600 is excellent. It feels nice to the touch and won't get any fingerprints. In addition, it provides for a good enough grip, so the phone won't slip off your hand.

The 3 megapixel camera is the most important thing you will find on the back panel. It has the LED flash on one of its sides and the loudspeaker on the other. The final thing to find here is the external antenna plug. Unfortunately, there is no protection for the lens against scratches.

Opening the battery cover reveals the 800 mAh Li-ion battery. It's quoted at 480 hours of standby and 4 hours of talk time. In reality it turned out to be enough for about two days of moderate use. Probably here is the place to warn you that although the SIM card may be ejected without removing the battery this in fact is not a good idea. The phone automatically turns off upon such an action and prompts a restart when SIM is inserted.

The big disappointment with the hardware of KF600 is the memory card slot placed under the battery. Every time you need to insert or remove your memory card, you will have to switch off the phone and take the battery out - the same holds true for the LG Viewty. We are not quite sure what LG engineers were thinking but this is by no means comfortable. If you frequently change cards or use a card reader for transferring data this can be quite a nuisance.

 

All in all we're pleased with the construction quality of the phone - some good quality materials have been used and it shows. What we are not particularly happy about is the fact that the slider doesn't actually lock in neither position. Any time pressure is applied on the edges it moves and gives that cheap wobbly feeling that no one really likes.

The keypad of LG KF600 is not among the best we've seen. It has ample keys and enough space under the slider so you can easily reach even the top row. However touch orientation is almost non-existent. You will probably need to look at the keys all the time to avoid typos.

Users will probably get that the hang of it in time and will speed up through their text messages but nonetheless the keypad is far from perfect. Besides, the somewhat strange location of the Call and End keys may seem uncomfortable to some people. As far as we're concerned, it's not a big deal. After all, you can handle your calls with the InteractPad without any problems.

The backlighting is strong enough and even. The labels of the keys are also large enough, so working with the LG KF600 in the dark is by no means harder than operating it in brighter environments.

LG KF600 has a 2" TFT LCD display. It supports 262K colors and QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) resolution. The picture quality is quite nice with adequate contrast and brightness. However, size is what fails it, as there are already a number of phones in this price range with larger displays.

Another disturbing fact is that legibility is greatly reduced under direct sunlight. It is quite a challenge to find a proper angle for working with the phone when you are outside on a sunny day.

All of this holds true for the secondary touchscreen too. Except maybe the fact that the InteractPad is on the large side (we remind you that the touch pad on Samsung E950 was only 1.14").

Fingerprints are also to worry about, as they really affect legibility. Not that cleaning is such a chore but, again, you will need to do it once too often with this phone.

When it comes to the most essential element of a phone, the LG KF600 offers good reception and in-call sound. Voice quality is good on both ends of a call. Besides, the phone has nice interface and dialing a number or a contact from the phonebook is easy and pleasant.

Flash UI like the one in LG KF600 are nothing revolutionary. The KF600 interface is visually appealing and easy to work with. It partially compensates for the lack of smartphone capabilities with user-friendliness and speed.

The standby screen has information about the current time and date, as well as the typical status readings. It shows signal strength, the active profile and the battery status. In standby mode the InteractPad features 6 shortcuts to the most frequently used phone features. Four of them can be changed and reordered to the user liking. These are also large enough and no problem to click.

Overall, the menu structure of LG KF600 is straightforward and easy to work with. You may occasionally wonder where some of the settings are but this is easy to get used to.

The InteractPad is the main option for navigating the menus. You can also use keypad shortcuts, with alphanumeric keys linked to icons on the screen (depending on the menu). The haptic feedback has three different modes and can be switched off too, if not needed, to save some battery power. The feedback itself reacts with a certain delay thus ruining the good impression. Vibration strength can also be adjusted but you will probably end up using it at maximum level at most times.

There are two main menu modes available - a standard 3 x 3 grid or a list of 4 icons with labels. The latter is better looking and interacts nicely with the selected theme but is not as easy to work with. We ended up using the grid view far more often. The menu font and dialing style are also customizable.

If you get bored with your LG KF600 try changing the theme. The 8 preinstalled themes really won our appreciation with the nice animations on the standby screen. Furthermore, the InteractPad is also involved and the animations flow across screens producing simple and yet quite amusing screen savers. They really are a breath of fresh air.

Some of the themes are made by the designer Keith Haring and follow a somewhat graffiti style.

Another thing that can be customized is the slider sound, for which the user has some interesting options.

The phonebook in LG KF600 is somewhat missing on features but at least is really user friendly. It displays the numbers on both the SIM card and the phone simultaneously. Showing only one set is no option. The capacity of 1000 entries should be enough for most users. The contacts appear as a list and you can opt for displaying the picture of the currently selected name.

The available fields when editing a contact are 11, which may seem a lot in most cases but is still short of what some other brands have to offer. You can save up to 4 phone numbers for each contact, along with a personal photo and ringtone.

Contacts can be further organized in groups for easier management. They can also be searched by gradual typing. However, the phonebook offers only one name field, so you can set a family name.

The LG KF600 is handling all of the most common type of messages: SMS, EMS, MMS and email; Bluetooth messaging is supported too.

We are not particularly fond of the SMS editor and its rather basic looks. It also needs one extra step than most message editors in order to send a message. The input however is where the InteractPad scores a point. It offers handwriting recognition and, as we managed to confirm, it works quite well. The only problem is that there is no stylus in KF600, so you need to find something suitable for that purpose. You can also use your fingers of course, but this makes it quite more difficult to write correctly.

The MMS and Bluetooth message editors are very similar to the one we just described. The MMS editor even requires one more step to go before you actually send and that's one thing we don't like. As far as most common user messaging needs are concerned the KF600 is doing alright.

Naturally, you can also activate a delivery report for the network-based massages. The email client is quite easy to work with and mailboxes can be set up in no time. Unfortunately there is no SSL protocol support.

MMS and emails are saved in the reserved part of the phone memory, so you can have quite a number of them stored in you device. Normally there is about 10MB of free storage allocated but this depends on quite a number of factors. SMS storage has a fixed capacity of 500 items.

The music player of LG KF600 performs decently. It shows album art, offers creating playlists and has ten equalizers. Unfortunately, new equalizer presets cannot be be created. There is also no way of grouping your tracks by some criteria (like artist or album for example).

If you get bored with the preloaded music on you LG KF600 you can always turn the FM radio on. The FM radio interface is rather simplified and generally very easy to work with. There is an auto scan feature that locates every radio station in your area and offers to save it. The only thing we miss here is RDS.

The video player is also quite nice. Videos can be played in fullscreen and can easily be fast-forwarded or rewound. Thanks to the InteractPad videos can be enjoyed without irritating captions, as all the controls are labeled on the pad itself.

Audio quality

The audio quality of LG KF600 is commendable. Except for the rather high stereo crosstalk values all the other readings are good. It is surely one of the best attempts by LG. Although we've seen better results by other brands, the LG KF600 is at least comparable to some of the best performers out there.

File manager is a no-go

File management in LG KF600 is disastrous. It's almost unable to handle user-created folders and the files in them simply don't get displayed. Basically you will need to place every file in its designated folder if you want to use it. If you have misplaced a file you will have to use a card reader to sort it out. And as the memory isn't hot-swappable it really gets on you, big time. We've come across quite a mixed bag of file managers, and the one on LG KF600 is undoubtedly among the worst.

Gallery is good

The gallery of the LG KF600 leaves a nice overall impression. It is accessed through the My stuff icon in the main menu and offers two view modes. The thumbnail view can show 9 thumbs at a time, while the list view can fit only 7 items on the screen. It's no surprise we liked the first one better.

Single pictures can be viewed in both landscape and portrait mode and can also be displayed fullscreen. You can also zoom in to see further detail on the photos. Be warned that the first zooming step is a little slow. However the following zoom steps complete in an instant and panning is also very fast.

The InteractPad is also enhancing the gallery experience greatly. When you zoom in on a picture a mini map appears on it and you can see what part of the picture you are looking at. You can also use it for panning and, as it turns out, it's the best panning solution we've seen so far. Besides, it is admirably fast.

The final extras of the gallery include picture sorting (by name, date or type) and slide show, along with deleting multiple files at a time. Truth be told, we weren't particularly fond of the slide show in LG KF600.

Camera is nice

Obviously LG KF600 is a phone aimed at the young. That makes a good camera essential and LG have got it right. The 3 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash sounds more than decent at least on paper.

The camera interface has rich settings, from white balance and effects to quality settings. It's not a match for the best 5 megapixel shooters in terms of features but it has most of the stuff it needs. The interface itself manages a decent level of user-friendliness.

The picture quality is also quite good. The images have enough sharpness and precise colors and, overall, the KF600 camera stays on the better side of 3 megapixel shooters. There is still a significant amount of noise here and there but we've seen far worse.

In terms of speed, the camera of LG KF600 failed to impress us. It is not the slowest we've seen but it does take about 5 seconds to save a photo, which is not a dream achievement by any means.

As far as video recording is concerned the handset supports QVGA resolution. Not much of a boast but videos might occasionally turn usable. Zooming is also available and so are white balance and exposure settings. Videos are saved in 3gp format and can use the LED flash for better results in darker environments. The LG KF600 is still short of being a serious video recording device.

Connectivity: 3G would have been good

LG KF600 features USB v2.0 support and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP support. The phone also supports mass storage mode in USB connections. We are also pleased with the Bluetooth connectivity as we had no problems pairing with any of the devices at hand.

As far as network connectivity is concerned, the phone features GPRS and EDGE. We are definitely missing 3G support for faster data transfers. This leaves us with EDGE as the best option here.

Finally, we've got the memory card slot but lack of hot-swap ruins it all. Having to power down your phone every time you want to access the memory card is a nuisance.

Great browsing

The web browser on LG KF600 is really nice. It renders the pages very well and even the most complicated web sites cause no trouble. They look almost exactly like on a PC. and, if it wasn't for the irritating mouse pointer, we would've been in love with the browser.

Now don't get us wrong - we like mouse pointers. It's just that the one on LF KF600 jumps links following such an illogical pattern that you can rarely guess where its next stop will be. And this can really become annoying to use.

Otherwise the phone is doing great. There is an optimized rendering mode that makes even the most complicated sites fit the screen very well. Besides, you can disable images to save on traffic - and time - browsing with EDGE does require patience.

Organizer does the job

LG KF600 has a good number of organizing applications but some of them probably need improvement. Nonetheless, all the basics are covered and that is good enough for most people.

The calendar offers daily and monthly view and event setting. However, there are no different types of events so you will have to customize every entry by yourself. You can also set up an alarm to remind you of the event at a given time.

Other organizing features include text notes and an alarm clock. The latter is really nice allowing you to set up to 5 different alarms, each with its own name, ringtone and repeat interval. There is also a voice recorder that can come in handy for making voice memos.

The calculator offers an enormous amount of options and functions. This however comes at the price of rather complicated navigation. You might need some training with the InteractPad before you are able to make full use of the calculator functionality.

The World Clock application is a nice little helper that can tell you the current time in any time zone. In terms of layout and graphics, it's the best we've seen on a feature phone and it has quite a large database of cities for each time zone - the same World clock was used in LG Shine and LG Viewty. The only thing missing here is the search that can make finding your place easier but this is something we are willing to forgive.

Applications are limited in number

We can't really say that we are impressed with the number of the preinstalled applications (outside the organizer) on our LG KF600. However at the time this review was written the phone wasn't officially released, so this might not hold true for every region of the world.

All we found in addition to the document reader was a stopwatch application and a unit converter. The document reader handles all kinds of popular document formats - .xls, .doc .pdf. It also maintains a decent level of user-friendliness and functionality.

As far as the stopwatch and unit converter are concerned - they are both very nicely controlled with the InteractPad but the unit converter isn't as rich in conversion types as we've seen elsewhere. On the other hand, it has all the most commonly used ones (temperature, volume, velocity etc.), so most users probably won't even notice the difference.

Games are very entertaining

We enjoyed the two preinstalled games on LG KF600. Both basically consist of a few mini-games each that as it seems were specially designed for the InteractPad. Although somewhat childish and oversimplified, we enjoyed them.

Try before you buy

For the time of testing LG KF600 proved a great pleasure to use and we got to really like the user interface of the handset. It's fun to work with but we feel a fair warning is due. The interface is so different that you'd be better off testing it before forking out the cash.

The lack of 3G support, the wobbly sliding mechanism and the sometimes unreliable InteractPad response are also drawbacks that need be taken into consideration.

The LG KF600 is a recommended purchase for the young and all those who want to have a handset with unique features. After all, one thing you have to give LG KF600 - getting noticed is its line of business.

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.