The LG Cookie, technically called as the KP500 was not one on my must-buy list. One of my close friends was on the verge of a breakdown after losing her mobile to technical faults twice in a row – call it her ignorance or fate – it was good for me, because am handling this phone now for a month before I can hand it over to her. My friend is a choosy person – lets be straight – she is a lot more choosier that you can think. She wants a full touch screen mobile. Well that sounds simple, until you hear the next few conditions. No Nokia or Motorola – that narrows the list to the other big players – Sony, HTC, Samsung – but wait, the budget not to exceed Rs10,000!!! Now, the list narrowed down to just one model – the LG KP500 alias The Cookie!
Now, am not an expert in the field of mobiles or something but was reluctant to go for LG for just simple reasons – I was used to the comforts of Nokia, Sony and O2 (briefly). I have handled Samsung and Motorola but nothing comforts me better than Sony or Nokia. Neither was my friend. But when I had narrowed down the list, I just had a brief visit to the store to look at the model. I had a look at the model and it was not bad to be frank. A 3inch display with the touch of a professional standards (on a black one), sleek little keys at the bottom, a 3MP camera and the price tag attached to the mobile attracted me a lot. There are a lot more features than you can expect for the price that you pay. No wonder I bought this. This may not appear on my preferred list but nevertheless its more than worth for the bucks we pay for it.
No wonder I bought it. Did not worry if my friend was going to get that (she still doesn’t know that I bought a golden framed mobile). Looks good though.
The model looks good on the outside – effortlessly weightless, minimum keys to handle, short cut keys to handle all around the frame, well-within-the-standards thickness. While these could be good enough, when I handled the backdoor of the mobile to handle the battery I felt it so light that it doesn’t even weigh the way a normal plastic piece does for Nokia or Sony. I have no hopes of the mobile surviving once dropped on the floor – I could be wrong though. The face of the mobile holds the keys for call, favorite menu, end call and shutdown buttons with the other keys on the left and right, including the key for the screen lock. This model comes with a stylus that is located at the bottom rather than the usual locations (in other mobiles) which makes it a little different (disappointing) at times as the position comes at an awkward position.
Once you are in, you can maintain two different screens for the mobile – one with the most frequent apps and the other screen with the list of your frequent callers. For the first screen you can pick apps of the choice provided in the list which includes music player, clock, Memo, Album and Radio. Am not sure if you can add or delete the apps for this list. Still working on this section… will keep you all updated once I find a solution. The second screen allows to maintain all the speed dialing numbers that you maintain in the phone. You can call, message, delete or edit these contacts once they are selected. And to shift from the first screen to the second screen all you need to do is to rub your flesh over the screen from one end to the other. If you have viewed the ads for the apple touch models to scroll from one picture to another, you know what am talking about.
The software looks good, but anyone who is used to Nokia, Blackberry or any other touch types may find it a little primitive. There is one inbuilt theme and that is all is available for you to use. No external themes which could not be bad thing for this phone after-all. Though I felt a little at first, after thoughts made me realize once you change the wallpapers, the phone seems to suit for any wallpaper that is changed. Theme management could have been provided though!
The model possesses a 3MP camera which is not bad either. It takes good pictures in a properly lit surrounding, especially a sunlit area. At night, you cannot expect it work as good as it does in the day, even under the night mode. No flash available. But I firmly believe, flashes in the mobile is more for fancy than necessity, as the effect seems very little in the pictures. In the camera mode, am unable to find the zoom functionality. It is available in the video mode, yet doesn’t seem to appear for the camera mode. If it is not available for the camera, I would certainly be a little disappointed.
Coming to the battery life, I did leave it without charging for a day and may be I did a little talking for the whole day for around 2-3 hours without any music or photo mode used. It didn’t seem worried but did beep alarms the next morning. I could call it decent battery life, may be the true colors could be revealed when someone could let know their surprises (or frustrations) after they put their Cookies on full use :P
Other features are as normal as any other mobile to get. Supports a 2GB memory card easily, comes with a stylus, includes a couple of nice games (i liked the pipe game especially), a FM radio, an ok-ok video camera, a drawing pad and other normal features.
It may seem a little below standards for those who like to go for the high-end models, but for those who just want a mobile with a touch screen with all the nice-to-have features included in an affordable package its all thumbs-up!!!
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