Why You Can Trust CNET LG KF600 review: LG KF600
Are two screens better than one? The KF600's morphing touch-navigation pad is a cool concept and adds a little high-end class to an otherwise low-spec handset.
Design
LG's design team has taken the cookie-cutter it created after conceiving the KF700 and used it as the template for the KF600, with both handsets sharing almost identical dimensions — the KF600 is ever-so-slightly smaller in its width, length and thickness.
LG KF600
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The KF600 is a slider phone handset that incorporates one of 2008's favourite phone trends, the adaptive touch panel. While the KF700 features a full touch-sensitive display, the KF600 only dedicates one-third of the screen space to navigation buttons, similar to the LG Secret, and Samsung's U900.
The touch panel is a cool idea, but it did take us a few days to get used to, and even now we often avoid using the directional navigation by deferring to keypad shortcuts for menu options — it's faster and much more accurate. The dual-screen does give the KF600 a sprinkling of glitzy wow-factor which certainly doesn't hurt a phone in the sub AU$300 category.
Features
Aside from the nifty touch panel, the KF600 has a few extra nice features, though for AU$299 don't expect the world. On the back of the KF600 you'll find a 3.2-megapixel camera with an LED photolight. The associated camera software is stuffed full of settings including image presets, a "portrait enhancement" setting, and digital image stabilisation.
For music the KF600 has a pretty standard music player which supports MP3, WMA and AAC file types, but no DRM-protected files like those bought from the iTunes music store. The KF600 is bundled with an average set of headphones which plug into a proprietary headphone port — this means you won't be able to swap the supplied set for your favourite cans. If you have especially bad taste in music, the KF600 also features an FM radio tuner so you can enjoy music selected by people with better taste.
The big sacrifice is no 3G network support, though in truth, a phone with a small 2-inch display is never going to be sought after for its Web browsing abilities. The KF600 does feature a WAP browser, which is sufficient for simple Google searches, but we wouldn't recommend it for much more than this.
Performance
All areas of the LG KF600 work well without being outstanding. Calling is fine, and messaging is fast and simple with the clearly defined keypad.
LG rate the battery at four hours talk-time and 480 hours standby. The absence of 3G hardware helps its cause in this department and we found ourselves reaching for the charger every third or fourth day.
Its 3-megapixel camera does the trick of capturing those spontaneous memories, and the LED flash makes low-light shooting possible if your subjects are close enough to the light. As with most LG camera phones, the colour reproduction leans towards a cold, bluish hue, but the auto-focus is reasonably fast, and overall our pics looked good.
Overall
LG has lately been hitting the budget end of the market with impressive low cost handsets. The "baby" Shine Slide, combined with the KF510 and KF600 make an imposing threesome in the under AU$300 category, and all bring a bit of high-end class to low-spec handsets.
The KF600 is a good basic phone, with a decent camera, that will look great when you pull it out from your pocket — or handbag, more than likely. Not having 3G may deter some, but we don't think most people shopping in this price range will miss the data speeds too much, if at all.