LG KF600 Review

InteractPad:

As we have already mentioned, what makes KF600 from all the other LG models, is the InteractPad, which offers you many advantages. In the full touch phones, for example, you have a large (about 3”) display and you have to move your hand from top to bottom and vice verse. On the other hand, the InteractPad is relatively small (1.5”) and is always within reach, which is far more convenient. Compared to the rest of the models with hardware or touch D-pad, it has a huge advantage. The change, corresponding to the active application, brings the most frequently used options always “at touch”. It also frees the main display from unnecessary icons.

If it wasn’t for Samsung Soul’s “Magic Touch” screen, LG’s invention would win the competition. The software and the send/end buttons in Soul are not a part of the touch. In contrast to the keys of the KF600, they are illuminated in boring colors and their size and shape do not change, even though the full bright colors of the LG phone made us press the main screen, thinking it is touch sensitive.

The true beauty of this interface is revealed when you choose one of the start shortcuts. They are divided in two rows, with three icons on each. Only two of them cannot be changed, the main menu one and the phonebook shortcut (respectively, upper left and right). The other four, by default are messaging, alarm clock, profiles and quick screen saver. The last one is an interesting innovation; by using it, you can hide the icons on the small display and enjoy the theme or wallpaper, covering that area as well.

If you choose profiles, for example, you won’t have to scroll through all the possibilities, since they are shown on the display and can be activated through a single touch. Unfortunately, if you want to personalize those, you will have to enter in the main menu.


Overall, the debut of the InteractPad left us with very good feelings. It is definitely not something revolutionary, but working with it is very pleasant. Pressing the Activate, Open or the huge Close button, which takes up a big part of the screen, instead of the “soulless” OK one, for example, is way different. The automatic display lock during a call is another small, but useful extra is, which prevents unintended hang-ups, due to a contact with the cheek.

Interface:

Like in the higher class LG models, the home screen is animated as well. LG has even gone a little further and has given you eight themes by default. They are pleasant and catch the eye, but unfortunately, the background does not change. Their biggest drawback is the fact that only the colors change and the appearance of the icons in the main menu doesn’t.

The main menu can be viewed as a 3x3 grid or a list. Once you enter it, the InteractPad becomes a 4-way navigation pad with a Back (duplicate of C on the hardware keypad) and a Confirmation (OK) buttons. If up until now you have used a phone with 5-way navigation (D-pad or joystick), you will have to get used to the fact that the OK is not in the center. If there are small marks between the arrows, then you can lightly scroll, by holding your finger down and moving it up/down or left/right.

Similar to older models, no matter the menu you are in, you can always go to the previous/next one, by tapping the arrows left/right.


On incoming call, you can just push the slider up to accept it (the corresponding option has to be activated in the settings menu). You can also use the answer/reject buttons, hidden under the slider, or rely on the touch pad. It offers the same options as the hardware buttons, plus Silence. We can note that the manufacturer has made an effort, to make enough options available to the user when the phone is closed. In such a situation for example, you will be able to unlock the small display, by holding down the camera shutter and tapping on some of the icons.

Phonebook:

You can keep up to 1000 contacts, each with several different numbers (mobile, home, office, etc.), picture, e-mail, personal ringtone, and a note. They can be organized in groups with specific picture or melody added. It’s strange though that you can only change the way the contacts appear in the phonebook – indicating the number or showing the picture attached, if any. Searching is done only by the first word of the name. You are not able to select a few contacts and to copy them to the SIM or the other way around, but there are the multi delete, copy all and delete all options. The last two are only accessible if you enter the Phonebook via the main menu.

The designers, who have done such a good job with the themes, have neglected the dialing interface. None of the three variants (music, lawn, patch style) does fit the overall menu appearance. It has a low-level functionality as well – you are not able to search for matching results in the Phonebook or the call history, by directly inputting a number from the keyboard, as seen in Sony Ericsson, Motorola...
You still have the separate lists for missed, dialed, and received numbers.



Organizer:

KF600 is not a device rich in organizing functions and the ones available can be found in the Tools menu. The Alarm clock is one of the functions with the most options, where you can set up to five different alert times. The fact that it takes into consideration the profile the phone is in, is a pretty good idea. And the alarm, reminding you to buy flowers for your wife’s birthday, won’t interrupt the intimate moments you are spending with your mistress.

The calendar doesn’t have different view options and you see a full month on the screen at all times. For creating a schedule, you have the standard settings, including time, duration, alarm etc. There is no title field and the entire text has to be input as a subject.


You can make short notes in the form of a memo. Because of the inconvenient keyboard, we think you will rarely use this alternative.

All of the options mentioned above come in addition to the standard applications – calculator, stopwatch, unit converter, world clock. However, voice commands are not available with the KF600.

Messaging:

There are two options for texting – via the keyboard and using the handwriting recognition. The second variant is well designed and it even suggests possible letters if you have not managed to write an exact one. Though the very idea, of writing on a small screen with no stylus, is not very attractive.

We have the standard SMS, MMS, E-mail, check Inbox and Mailbox, Drafts, Outbox, Sent items. The phone combines the messages from its memory with those from the SIM card. The only more extravagant extra is the option for writing a Bluetooth message. It would probably be an exciting feature for most teenagers, since it gives them the opportunity to harass people with turned on Bluetooth in public places. It also is an interesting way for wireless pick-ups in bars and clubs.

The phone offers support for POP3/IMAP mail, but unfortunately, there are no automatic configuration settings, like in other devices and you’ll have to do everything manually. The automatic check is always on and you can only change the intervals, at which it is performed – 1,3,6 hours. In addition, there is an option for adding an e-signature.

Generally, there is nothing new here and everything works fine. However, we want to remind you that if you are a hardcore texter, this keyboard is gonna make you suffer big time.

Connectivity:

For now, there is only a tri-band (900/1800/1900 MHz) variant of the KF600. 3G support lacks and you will have to browse the Web relying solely on the GPRS/EDGE, which is quite insufficient for the times that we are living in.

Internet:

Similar to Samsung, which is working with Google, in order to provide a convenient Internet search for the users of its devices, the company has formed a partnership with Yahoo. The result is the presence of the Yahoo! Go option in the browser, which you can configure as your homepage. It enables you to add various widgets, stay updated on news and other content of interest, such as eBay, MySpace, MTV and others.

The slow Internet and the far from perfect browser limit the use of this excellent feature. As soon as you try to open a larger site, such as PhoneArena.com, it raises the white flag and notifies you that „Content Too Large!”. Overall, KF600 is not a phone you can use for active browsing.

To connect locally you can use Bluetooth 2.0 or a USB cable to hook up to a PC. In order to use the phone as something else than a mass storage device though, you will have to install the newer and improved LG PC suite, which is still far behind its rivals from SE, Nokia, and Samsung. Aside from the fact that there is no message asking you which option would you like to use (mass storage or data service), once the cable is connected, you have to go to settings, then in connectivity choose USB connection, which is not exactly the fastest procedure. The good news is that the cable can be used as a charger too.

Multimedia:

At least at first site, LG KF600 has all the functions necessary, to become a good mid-level media phone. It has 25 MB of built-in memory for pictures, videos, music and JAVA applications, plus the inconvenient microSD slot mentioned above.

It supports many formats, including MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, WAV, RA , and the interface is pleasant, without being original. When the music player is activated, the InteractPad becomes its control panel, offering the following options– play/pause, next/previous song (FFWD/RWD if held pressed), playlist shortcut and settings. The last two let you choose between 10 different equalizer presets, which you can modify or create your own. You can also create playlists with your favorite music, open recent songs, favorite songs and on the go list. The biggest drawback is that you cannot sort tracks by title, artist, genre, year and others similar like in most modern players. In addition, the phone disposes of an FM radio (you have to plug in the headphones, of course) and a voice recorder.

Even though the official data supplied by the manufacturer indicates that, the device supports MPEG4 and H.263. file formats, the video playback is terrible. Due to the lack of sufficient resources, videos with QVGA resolution and high fps skip frames. Overall, the phone cannot be used for watching high-quality videos.

To our greatest regret, the manufacturer keeps making the same mistakes as in its previous models. Forget about naming folders. Be a good boy/girl and put the videos in the folder named videos and the music in the one named sounds (this applies for the memory card too). If you don’t do that (lets not forget the phone model is 2008), the phone insists that they do not exist. Considering the lack of a software filter, the only way to arrange your music is via playlists, which is inconvenient.

Camera:

Quality photographs are not one of LG’s specialties and even their high-tech models, such as the Viewty, perform far from excellent. That’s why we didn’t expect anything special from the KF600.



First, the good news. Once more, the InteractPad performed very well – the buttons are big and easy to use, giving access to a good number of functions. According to us, the manufacturer can successfully use that feature in its future models. Besides the standard resolution settings, white balance, self-timer etc., some interesting innovations have been included. We were pleasantly impressed, by the many shooting mode options – auto, portrait, scene, sports, night. In addition, the user is given the choice of various color effects (sepia, mono, negative and portrait enhancer), to take a better picture of a loved one. The picture stabilizer would have been very useful, especially if you are a coffee addict or if it actually worked.

3-megapixel camera with autofocus and flash (even a non-Xenon one) sounds pretty promising for a mid-level phone. Actually, what you are getting is a device, capable of digital zooming in video mode only, average picture quality, compared to the competition and a very impractical flash. The latter has only two settings; on, where it is lit constantly (not only when you press the camera button) and off. Every time you want to use the flash, you will have to manually turn it on in the menu.

This feature of the KF600 disappointed us. At present, on the market there are many mid –level devices, which offer much higher quality. Despite the good resolution, the pictures made with the phone can only be used to prove that you have been somewhere, but quality-wise there is a lot more to ask for.



Software:

As we already said, KF600 offers JAVA support for applications. The only such preloaded are two games – Mini Game World and Thomsons & Touch. Those actually represent, two collections of mini games for endless pleasure. Why are we so enthusiastic about them? Again, the reason is the InteractPad. Using it as a controller is a unique experience. No matter if, you are catching falling pancakes and frying pans, or helping a cute elf jump on a rope, you are up for a serious dose of entertainment. This brings us to the idea that, this interface can become the backbone for a very successful, child oriented device or such, targeting adults who don’t want to grow up.

When using JAVA applications, not suited for the InteractPad, it transforms into a standard shaped D-pad and lets have controls as in a regular phone.

The model has a document viewer, which opens word files, excel tables, and pdf documents, as long as they are not a product of Microsoft Office 2007. Unfortunately, you can’t scroll lightly as in the menus and moving up/down or zooming is slow.

Performance:

The very good sound quality, is one of the things that LG KF600 should be proud of. When you are listening to music, the sound is clear and the quality depends solely on the file quality. Voices are heard very loud (even extremely loud and we strongly recommend not turning the volume up to the maximum). It’s the same story at the other end of the line, but sometimes there is a light background noise.

Unfortunately, the battery life is not one of the strengths of the model. We understand that two color displays need more juice than one, but we think that a 3-hour talk time is extremely low. It is not cool, having to charge your phone in the middle of a hectic day, with multiple phone calls.


Conclusion:

For the time we used the KF600 we had the strange feeling that it’s sole purpose was to promote the InteractPad. That could be the reason for LG to choose a base, which has already passed the market tests – regular slider, which isn’t beautiful, nor ugly and at the same time has average thickness. The Pad is definitely the only element of the phone which we liked 100%. All the other features have at least one considerable drawback.

At least we know that there is future for this kind of interface. It could be used as a backbone for a very good game oriented mobile device. Moreover, with some bling-bling elements added, it could turn into a great fashion phone, successor to the Black Label series.

Overall, the KF600 is exactly what we expected – a good mid-class mobile device with intriguing navigation. If you are a fan of interesting innovations, this phone is just for you. If not, LG’s rivals offer many solutions which to fit your lifestyle and needs…