The user interface is based around four main onscreen buttons at the bottom of the display; tapping these brings up options for dialling (a virtual onscreen numberpad), contacts, messaging and main menu selection.

Pleasant user experience

Pressing the menu button pulls up a vertical tool bar of sub menu categories – communicate, entertainment, utilities and settings. As you tap these, the main part of the screen changes to show application icons for these specific categories.

It's all nicely arranged, clear to understand and easy to navigate. When you tap an app, you either open it up or get a conventional list of options you can scroll through with a swipe of the finger.

Although it may not be as smooth and effortless as the iPhone's interface, LG has made a very usable system that has the virtue of not being overcomplicated whilst still being sophisticated enough.

For example, in applications where text input is required, such as messaging or memo writing, the Renoir can switch automatically between a regular phone numberpad layout when it's held upright to a virtual Qwerty keyboard when the phone's held sideways. No fiddly menu selection is required.

The Qwerty keyboard works very effectivelty too – the keys are small, but are responsive and operate responsively to tapping, even for large-fingered folk. We were pleasantly surprised.

LG Widgets

LG has also brought more sophisticated onscreen widgets to the Renoir. These can be added to the home screen from a pre-loaded selection.

Tapping a small 'W' button onscreen brings up a tool bar along the bottom, with smoothly flick-browsable widget icons for applications such as music player, FM radio, image gallery, an online weather forecast app, world clock, calendar, notes and speed dialling.

These can be dragged and dropped onto the home screen for immediate access to certain apps. It's a system much like that used on Samsung's TouchWiz touchscreen phones such as the Tocco and Pixon.

We'd have liked to have seen some more flexibility for cutomising it by adding different apps – in a smartphone kind of way – but it works well within its limitations.

High quality camera

The headline-grabbing 8-megapixel camera also relies on touchscreen control for its extensive settings control adjustments and picture snapping gadgetry. Its imaging performance can be excellent with that sensor enabling an enormous amount of detail to be processed.

Image detail is impressive and colour reproduction looks great on outdoors shots. The camera copes very well with varying lighting conditions too, producing some fine pictures. And with a xenon flash, indoors and low-light shooting are better than you get on most cameraphones.

The only issue we had was with auto white balance for indoors shots, which sometimes benefited from manual settings adjustment.

Picture editing

The responsive autofocus system gets a boost from a fine selection of digital camera-like software. A great Touch Shot option enables you to focus on part of an image simply by touching the subject on the screen you want in focus and taking your finger off to take the snap.

A Smile Shot option using clever processing technology to capture an image only when it detects a smile, and a Blink Detection option does something similar to avoid capturing closed eyes. Beauty Shot actually touches up shots as you're taking them to eliminate spots and blemishes – a kind of automatic air-brushing.

Other camera gadgetry includes red-eye reduction and anti-shake image stabiliser, while there's a top range of settings adjustments you can make for ISO levels, white balance, exposure and so on.

The touchscreen user interface is again sophisticated but manageable, and not off-puttingly complicated. And there's a huge variety of post-shooting editing options to play with too.