LG KP500 Cookie review: Grab a bite

It almost feels unfair of LG to give the KP500 a name that's so hard to say no to. The Cookie scent seems to have inspired a craving already and LG are hoping to have you coming back for more. A genuinely affordable touchscreen, a very decent specs sheet, and fun and friendly interface can turn out quite a treat if baked right. Our light and crunchy review is hot out of the oven, so let's crack the fortune cookie, shall we.

LG KP500 Cookie official photos

The LG KP500 Cookie seems to have every reason to chill out and cash in on the kept promise of making touch-operated phones so sweetly inexpensive. Available for a mere 200 euro (contract-free) it might enjoy a decent run, pretty much owning the lower end of touchscreens at this point. So much so, that it's tempting to speculate whether the Cookie could've been the right kind of response to the first iPhone, with the proper timing of course. OK, this maybe taking it too far but don't go blaming us. It's the Cookie.

Key features:

• 3" 256K-color TFT touchscreen (240 x 400 pixels)
• Quad-band GSM support
• 3 megapixel fixed focus camera
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
• 50MB internal memory
• Hot-swappable microSD card slot (supporting card with capacity of up to 16GB)
• Accelerometer for auto screen rotate
• Virtual QWERTY keyboard
• FM radio with RDS
• Widgets interface
• Multi-tasking with a real task manager
• Excellent touch optimized image gallery
• Handwriting recognition
• Smart dialing
• Office document viewer (no PowerPoint)
• Simple, yet stylish design
• Relatively inexpensive price

Main disadvantages:

• No 3G support
• No Wi-Fi
• Video recording no good at QVGA@12fps
• Camera has no auto focus and flash
• No DivX/Xvid support
• No standard 3.5mm audio jack

LG KP500 Cookie views

By the way, LG have seen to it that the jar is full of Cookies of various icing. The KP500 comes in black, brown, silver and gold. Just released and exclusive to Orange, LG KP 501 is the very same Cookie (with minor changes to the exterior) in two new paintjobs: pink and silver (black will also be available).

Now then, Cookies will pour down on the market in all shapes and flavors, but let’s see what they’re up against.

The hot (as in heatedly debated) Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is perhaps comparable to the Cookie pricewise. Well, if 80 euro does not sound close enough, the complimentary stuff you get with the Nokia 5800 is well likely to justify the price premium.

The 5800 XpressMusic is by no means as user-friendly and fun to use but its spec sheet is almost scary in comparison: GPS receiver, Wi-Fi, smartphone OS and screen resolution are all out of the Cookie reach.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

Another alternative among recent touch phones is the HTC Touch Viva, which retails for about 210 euro. The as-basic-as-it-gets WinMo device carries a trimmed-down version of the TouchFLO UI but the not too friendly underlying OS will hardly lure too many potential buyers away from the Cookie. It's only fair to note though that basic in WinMo terms includes Wi-Fi, and that's the ace up Touch Viva's sleeve.

HTC Touch Viva

Both devices we just lined up the closest Cookie's competitors in terms of pricing and touchscreen functionality. But they are smartphones and their targeting is different. A couple of non-OS touch phones by Samsung might also count here but none comes close enough to the Cookie concept.

Both Samsung F480 and F490 outdo the LG KP500 in terms of data transfer speed and imaging, but are old enough to have lost some appeal. Plus, their price is still not competitive enough.

Well, that pretty much leaves the Cookie unchallenged in its price bracket. Not a bad way to start really, but it's about time we checked the real deal. The rest of LG KP500 Cookie is this small jump away. You know the drill - exterior and ergonomics coming up.