LG KP500 Cookie touch-phone review

Rating: 4

Right now, touch phones at prepay budget end of the mobile spectrum are as thin on the ground as Bobby Charlton’s comb over. Ferret around and you could pick up the LG KU990 Viewty and Samsung F480 Tocco for around 150 smackers but in these credit crunch times even this reasonable price tag puts a strain on the wallet.

So, the arrival of the first sub £100 pay-as-you-go touch phone, LG KP500 Cookie, couldn’t be more perfectly timed.

The Korean manufacturer may have taken the biscuit this time with its titter eliciting Cookie moniker but overlook the silly name and this ticklish blower is really rather impressive, more so when you factor in its affordable £90-ish asking price.

Apart from the Samsung F480 Tocco, most touch phones should come with a wide load warning but the Cookie is sleek, lightweight but well built and ever so pocket-friendly. And if you’re worried its svelte torso will compromise the touch screen size, don’t be – the bright crisp three-inch display is spacious enough to welcome even the chubbiest of digits.

The touch UI can make or break a ticklish phone and after the erratic performance from stablemate and flagship blower, the LG KC910 Renoir, we feared for its chances. But the Cookie responded with a receptive interface that’s so slick you won’t even need to call in the services of the slide out stylus.

The Cookie also sports a sliding two panel homescreen that embraces widget and speed dial customization while one shake of the phone will auto align your icons in an orderly fashion. Otherwise the user-interface and menu system follows the tab arrangement seen on the LG KU990 and Renoir.

Feature concessions are an inevitable at this level and the Cookie does wimp out on the connectivity front with EDGE download speeds. This makes full fat web browsing infuriatingly sluggish. Similarly, the three-megapixel camera eschews autofocus so isn’t the sharpest.

Verdict
Awesome value and great to use, the Cookie is a shoo-in for those craving a taste of the touch phone revolution on a very limited budget.

Best features
Affordable price
Compact and slimline design
Responsive touch performance
Bright and sizeable screen
Customisable homescreen

Not so good
Fiddly web browser
Lack of 3G download speeds
No autofocus on camera

Closest rivals

Samsung F480 Tocco
One of the more compact and stylish handsets on the touch phone scene, finding room inside its slimline torso for a five megapixel snapper and turbo HSDPA download speeds.

HTC Touch Diamond
This Windows Mobile-powered smartie scores major points in the design department but its support for HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and three-megapixel snapper are equally impressive.

Samsung G600
If you prepay budget hovers around the £100 mark and you don’t fancy a touch phone, then this compact and sleek five-megapixel shooting G600 slider could right up your street.