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.

The dual-screen design sits the non-touch main 2-inch screen above the smaller 1.5-inch touch-sensitive screen. Both are QVGA (240x320 pixels) 262K-colour arrays. This gives theimpression of one large split front panel display, though in reality the important content viewing action happens only on the 2-inch display. That's not a huge amount of screen viewing space for a sliderphone measuring 101.2(h) x 50.7(w) x 14.1(d) mm.

It's quite an attractive design, with a smooth all black look and chrome trim. The slider numberpad is as smoothie too, slipping into place with a solid slide mechanism. Keys are large, although individual numbers aren't separated as well as we'd prefer on the glossy flush surface.

InteractPad action

The lower InteractPad touchsceen is the essential part of the KF600's control system. It offers haptic feedback - a slight vibrating buzz to let you know keys have been pressed - which eliminates much of the mis-pressing or have-you-haven't-you frustration you get on some non-haptic touchscreens.

The InteractPad approach can take a little getting used to, particularly if you've been recently exposed to other touchscreen devices.

To start with, our instinctive reaction was to tap the upper screen options as well as the lower InteractPad. This may be different for people who haven't 'touched' lately, and it's a response that soon wears off.