LG KP500 Cookie Review

£from freeDec 2008

Stuff says 4

An affordable and appealing introduction to the world of touch phones if you don’t do much web browsing

Images

Video review

Stuff magazine Thu, Dec 18 2008, 7:00AM

If you’re on the hunt for a touch phone on a tight prepay budget then today’s limited line-up won’t make good credit crunch reading.

The Apple iPhone 3G starts at a whopping £342 on pay-as-you-go, while other contenders like the LG KC910 Renoir and Samsung M8880 Pixon are only available on pricey contracts.

With this in mind the LG KP500 Cookie, the first bona-fide budget touch phone, couldn’t have come at a better time. Hovering around the £100 mark, it represents great value in these gloomy, penny-pinching days.

Charm offensive
Big feature and design compromises are inevitable when you haunt the lower handset divisions, and the Cookie is no different – there’s no 3G, GPS or Wi-Fi.

But it’s certainly not without its charms. The chassis is compact and well-built, and the bright and sparkling 3in display is roomy enough to accommodate your pinkies.

Considering we’ve found LG’s touchscreen interfaces to be, at best, sluggish, we were pleasantly surprised to find it to be receptive to our taps and swipes.

In fact, the side-loaded stylus remains practically redundant, only making an appearance should you get creative on the Drawing Panel app.

Widget-tastic
Like its powerful bigger bro, the Renoir, the Cookie sports two homescreens ripe for widget customisation. The default panel lets you drag and drop icons for controlling the music player and FM radio, viewing your picture gallery, calendar entries or writing a memo, as well as an analogue clock face and a world clock.

One quick swipe takes you to the second screen, on which you can assign up to eight speed dial contacts. And if you don’t like your widgets in a messy sprawl across the screen, one quick shake of the handset will neatly auto align the icons.

Virtual keyboard capers
Tapping out messages using the on-screen virtual keyboards is also less fraught than expected.

Review continues after the break...

You can use a standard phone keypad in an upright position or turn the phone, let the auto accelerometers kick in and thumb the QWERTY in landscape mode. More meaty-fingered users may need the stylus but average sized digits won’t have a problem.

The web browsing experience isn’t the smoothest we’ve experienced and it’s not helped by pages loading at snails pace over EDGE.

Average snapper
Similarly, the 3megapixel snapper is missing autofocus for sharper focus and any kind of flash, but you can tinker with exposure and white balance if you have an eye for photography. That said, the pictures aren’t good enough to print.

Right now, in such an elitist touch phone climate, it’s hard to fault the first budget tickler, particularly when it’s price tag is so affordable and the design so svelte. But we’d still like to see more accomplished budget touch phones follow before we downgrade from our iPhone.

 

Comments

  1. mariarose493

    14 weeks ago

    my co-worker's half-sister makes $89/hour on the laptop. She has been out of a job for 9 months but last month her check was $13356 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read more on this web site =============bit90.com=============

  2. janooishq

    1 year ago

    The reprehension penalise our ethos to someone answer processed noesis and aim to act grouping foreclose and mentation nearly the oversize interpret. Order you
    birthday wishes

  3. Melancholia

    1 year ago

    Lg make better and better products. It's no wonder that they are in top ten selling on the market. Tagesgeld | Eisheizung

  4. stuartharmison

    1 year ago

    Blackberry Bold 9900 Deals:Get Glorious Offers on mobile phones available in all best networks of Uk like orange, vodafone etc.

  5. stuartharmison

    1 year ago

    Blackberry Bold 9900 Contract Deals:Grab Latest Offers on mobile phones available in all best networks of Uk like orange, vodafone etc.

  6. MikeHenry

    1 year ago

    I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

    Cell phone repair mississauga
    iphone repair mississauga
    Cell phone unlocking mississauga
    mississauga iphone repair

  7. zaneemanoy

    1 year ago

    An impressive share, I just given this onto a colleague who was doing a little analysis on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I found it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. If possible, as you become expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is highly helpful for me. Big thumb up for this blog post! free cell phone spy software

  8. billysalup

    1 year ago

    Touch screen is already a usual thing in this era. Because most of mobile phone already installed it in their products.
    handyortung ohne zustimmung

  9. jb4522jb

    1 year ago

    The best thing about this phone is the price. You can get this for a great price. Keep up the good work. asbestos claim lawyer maryland

  10. wickyjonatro

    1 year ago

    LG design are really loved all over the world because their cell phones have a different nice look..
    cell phone listening

  11. lameetonner

    1 year ago

    I only say that that is really an awesome phone with latest fetaures added in it...

    text spy

  12. vickychao

    1 year ago

    I think porn is still not good, no matter how packed. In a fixed film or story porn porn. He will have a negative impact on humans. cpalead

  13. brendamya

    1 year ago

    Hey many time I visited your site and every time I got a very good information in your site.I just say its really very helps full for me.Thanks for sharing this information.
    phen375 proactol plus

  14. petermarco

    1 year ago

    Well. it giving a little confusion about the review. I think the LG KP500 cookie was not develop, but now it's launched. Can't believe it at all.
    memory foam mattresses, adjustable bed

  15. JeffryJordan

    1 year ago

    Diese Nähe ist eher Ihr Unternehmen und Produkte, die Sie anbieten, um ein positives Image in den Augen der Verbraucher zu erhalten. Mit der Nähe zu, dass mit höherer Wahrscheinlichkeit für das direkte Treffen mit Kunden.
    divorce in washington state

  16. carmassi

    1 year ago

    Sometimes it sucks when, List Mp3 us, unable to read the name of singer or song title. And I think, the steps described in this article, clear enough to resolve the issue. pipe marking

  17. Susancai114

    1 year ago

    From this review, I can know a lot about the product. This is worth a read. china sourcing

  18. sasadr

    3 years ago

    I have been using my LG cookie for a few months now and love it. My only complaint is that the battery doesn't last very long. I have never had to reset it nor has it ever frozen. I love my cookie. Can't wait until we get an App store min the UK.

  19. poloboy086

    3 years ago

    This is the worst phone ever!!! it never works right it shuts itself off for no reason whatsoever, every time it does shut itself down it resets all my settings and asks me if i want to copy my contacts from my sim card for 100000000000000th time noooooo!!!! If your thinking about this phone, don't there are much better phones out there.

  20. gates03

    4 years ago

    This is a lovely little phone, not many gadgets or toys but hey you only get what you pay for. I do have 1 slight quibble with it, SOFTWARE. Maybe it's just a bad batch from my local carphone warehouse but i'm getting rather full after i'm now on my fourth "cookie" (sorry for the pun), they have all either reset or frozen on me. I will however persist with this delightful piece of equiptment untl i get 1 that works or until a software update is released. Thank you LG for a lovely phone very well priced.

  21. Reece K

    4 years ago

    i have just bought an LG Cookie and it is brilliant. That said i only bought oe because i wasn't allowed to get an iphone 3g. if you want a cheapphone and having something that isn't feature laden doesn't bother you then this is the best there is!

Add your comment

You must be logged in to comment

Tech Specs

Bluetooth
Yes
Dedicated MP3 player software
No
Dimensions
106.5x55.4x11.9mm
FM radio
Yes
Main camera resolution
3MP
Memory card slots
Yes
Memory card type
Micro SD card (up to 8GB)
Quad band
Yes
Screen resolution
240x400 px
Standby time
350 hours
Storage
48MB
Supported music formats
MP3, AAC, WMA
Talktime
5 hours
Video resolution
320x240 pixels at 12fps
Weight
89g
Wi-Fi
No
Xenon flash
No