LG KT610: Hands-on with LG's Symbian sat-nav phone

In an attempt to beat the masses of handset announcements that came out today, LG announced a new candybar smart phone yesterday that not only comes with GPS but also packs full Qwerty keypad and a standard one to boot too -- it's called the LG KT610.

On the front you get a small screen and standard keypad, but flip the KT610 open and you're presented with a full Qwerty keypad and medium-sized screen.

Interestingly, the KT610 runs on Symbian OS v9.2 and S60 3rd Edition Feature pack 1 -- the same operating system as many Nokia smart phones. The advantage of running Symbian on the KT610, as you'll already know if you've got a Nokia phone running it, is you can install gallons of cool third-party apps.

This really opens the KT610 up compared to other LG handsets, such as the Chocolate or Viewty, and allows you to use it in a variety of different ways. From GPS mapping to email software, the KT610 should keep you entertained and ready for some serious mobile action.

Combine all of that with HSDPA (3.5G) that lets you download data at up to 3.6Mbps (theoretically, at least) and you've got yourself a very slick device indeed. But having played with it for a little bit at the LG stand at the Mobile World Congress, we're not completely won over.

There's something about the dual keypad and small screen that reminds us a little too much of the Samsung F300 and we weren't massive fans of that phone. If you're going to have two screens, don't make one of them really small. Click onwards for more pics of the KT610. -Andrew Lim

The Qwerty keypad didn't feel too bad to use, but compared to a Nokia Communicator, we couldn't help feeling that the screen was a little on the small side.

On the back there's a 2-megapixel camera without an LED photo light or flash. We don't expect the image quality to be fantastic, especially in low light, and we wonder why LG didn't put in a higher-spec one.

At 17mm thick it's not wafer thin, so don't expect to squeeze it into a tight pair of jeans.