LG KM570 Cookie Gig review: Live at the arena

Introduction

Cookies just won’t stay put – they need more space to do their thing. The LG KM570 Cookie Gig steps right into LG Arena territory. With looks and camera to match and a Cookie-grade price tag, this phone is on track to go platinum. The Dolby mobile logo at the back hints at a knack for multimedia and the 4GB of built-in memory means there’ll be plenty of room for your music.

But we’ll not let the pretty face fool us, the Cookie Gig has its highs and lows – here they are in summary.

LG KM570 Cookie Gig official photos

Key features:

• 3" 256K-color resistive TFT touchscreen of WQVGA resolution (240 x 400 pixels)
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• 3G with HSDPA (7.2 Mbps)
• Widget-enhanced interface and Livesquare homescreen
• 5 megapixel autofocus camera with face detection
• D1 video recording @ 30fps, QVGA time-lapse and QVGA slo-mo video
• 4GB of built-in storage
• microSD card slot, up to 16GB
• Standard 3.5mm audio jack
• Standard microUSB port (charging)
• Dolby for Mobile audio enhancement
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• Accelerometer for screen auto rotate; turn to mute
• Landscape on-screen QWERTY keyboard
• FM radio with RDS and FM transmitter
• Office document viewer
• Social networking integration
• Smart dialing

Main disadvantages:

• No Wi-Fi
• No GPS
• Low resolution screen (compared to LG Arena)
• Camera has no flash or protective cover
• Records video in 3GP only
• Poor sunlight legibility
• Maximum email attachment size is 2.2MB only (both ways)
• No DivX/XviD video support
• No handwriting recognition support

So, the LG KM570 can’t quite match the LG Arena, but no mistake – it’s a king amongst Cookies. The camera has the same high-end features as the LG Arena’s, and the inclusion of Dolby mobile and some iPod trickery earn the audio player high marks.

The user interface is borrowed from the LG GD510 Pop. It’s the regular LG touch UI but with a coat of S-Class paint over it. And it works – it’s nice to look at, ready to multitask and the homescreens are full of widgets. There’s also a bit of pointless fun with Livesquare.

The LG KM570 Cookie Gig chats with other touch phones in our office

So, the LG KM570 Cookie Gig is a marked improvement over the original Cookie and the updates that came after it. But the competition wasn’t sleeping – there are several phones that compete directly with the Gig in its price range, including even the LG Arena.

Just a quick note – the LG KM570 has quite a number of aliases. So it might be called differently where you live. The Cookie Gig is also known as LG Cookie Music, LG Surf 4GB and LG Arena II.

Never mind the name, let’s see what the Cookie Gig has to offer before we pass judgment on it. As always, we start with opening the box – join us on the next page to see what we find.