Every major mobile phone maker may be trying their hand at touchscreens in the wake of the iPhone, but with the KF600 LG has managed to come up with a touch-controlled phone offering something distinctly different.
To start with, LG hasn't opted for full, large screen touch operation, like Apple's iconic handset, and LG's own successful Viewty. Instead, it has introduced a novel twin screen hybrid arrangement on a sliderphone chassis.
LG's touchscreen masterpiece
Only one of the displays is touch-controlled - the lower of the two on the front panel - with the touchpad buttons changing context to suit whichever operation or function you're using at the time.
If you're in camera mode, the buttons on the lower 'InteractPad' touchpad assume camera button roles; in the music player, you get track control keys; and in normal menu navigation, you get navigation up/down, left/right arrows and select key options. Slip into media viewer mode or messaging choices, and the virtual buttons switch again to optimise usability.
The upper display on the LG KF600 is resolutely non-touch operated, and presents menus and options in a way that will be familiar to most conventional phone users.
Effectively, it feels like the LG KF600 is a kind of hybrid, combining touchpad operation with regular mobile navigation conventions. It certainly is an unusual and interesting design.
Beneath the idiosyncratic user interface, the KF600 has a fairly standard roster of mid-tier mobile features. It doesn't support 3G connectivity, let alone Wi-Fi, and isn't built on a smartphone operating system.
Its key features, besides the InteractPad system, are a 3-megapixel camera with autofocus and photo light, an MP3 player, an FM radio, video player and a range of organiser functionality.
An attractive and intuitive mobile phone
There is a familiarity about much of the InteractPad's changing buttonry that gives it a surprisingly intuitive feel soon after turning it on for the first time.
That's because the InteractPad, in many respects, replicates with its touchpad controls a conventional phone navigation pad's functionality. At least, enough to make it straightforward to operate for most mobile users coming at touch control fresh.
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