LG KF600 Venus Review

LG scored a hit with their Chocolate series of handsets which were amongst the first to use touch sensitive keys. The glowing red buttons remain a distinguishing feature and had the added bonus of allowing a sleek design.

The LG KF600 brings the development of touch sensitive keys on a step by providing a seamless display that incorporates dual colour screens, one measuring 2 inches and 240x320 pixel resolution and another 1.49 inches and 176x240 pixel resolution below it. The lower one is touch sensitive and offers haptic feedback. This so-called InteractPad changes its appearance to suit the context of the features and provides the user with a novel navigation solution.

Slide the front up and this reveals the alpha numeric keypad and send-end keys for call management. The overall dimensions of the LG KF600 remain compact at 101 x 50 x 15.7 mm. The KF600 packs in a 3.15 megapixel camera with video and flash options, a microSD card slot for extra file storage, Bluetooth 2.0 for wire free connectivity and the now obligatory MP3 player. Sensibly LG have provided a 3.5mm headset socket allowing any aftermarket headphones to be used to listen to music, but you’ll almost certainly need a memory card as you won’t get much on the 64MB internal memory. However an FM radio is also provided as an alternative.

Customising the LG KF600 has been made more quirky with Graphic Themes available courtesy of the graffiti artist Keith Haring which will certainly provide a more than unique edge to the handset. It is also to be available in a choice of four exterior colours.

On a practical note the LG KF600 features an email client and office document viewer enabling you to stay in touch while out of the office if required. The handset is quad band GSM and EDGE enabled for faster network access and can be connected to a computer via USB 2.0 if required.

In all in could be easy to criticise the LG KF600 for not having a top spec camera, larger memory or the benefits of 3G connectivity but as a mid range ‘all rounder’ it does everything well enough and offers something new with the IteractPad that makes other similar handsets look old fashioned – for that reason it is certainly worth considering.