The LG Secret is the third model in LG's premium Black Label Series, following on from its previous style-conscious eye-poppers, the Chocolate and Shine.

It's not just a pretty face though. Slim, sleek and elegant, the LG Secret is laced with higher end features including a 5-megapixel camera, touch sensitive controls and a smattering of touchscreen operation, high-speed HSDPA 3G multimedia functionality, plus motion controlled gaming.

But LG has crafted this stylish phone to be a tough cookie too – using carbon fibre and tempered glass to add durability and strength to the bodywork and screen, supposedly making it scratch resistant.

Tough phone design

This is a refined-looking handset, and its build oozes high-grade quality. The construction feels reassuringly robust, finished in solid but tactile materials, with a touch of de rigeur chrome edging around the sides to offset the moody black look.

Covering the screen is a tempered glass panel, built to take wear-and-tear pocket punishment, which it does to a large degree unscathed (though we'd recommend not trying to purposely test-damage it). It does attract plenty of finger smudges, though, so a bit of regular shining is required.

The sprung slider mechanism is lovely and smooth, and the numberpad beneath has a no-fuss key layout that's well spaced, almost flush but still finger-friendly for fast texting.

Despite the high-spec and toughness, it's a slim handset, measuring 102.8(h) x 50.8(w) x 11.8(d)mm, though its build quality does up the weight to 116g.

Touch-sensitive controls

The 2.4-inch QVGA (320x240 pixels), 262K-colour display dominates the front panel when closed, with a minimalist control set-up on view – there's just a trio of small call, end and clear keys in chrome at the bottom, plus an unmarked button centred in the black panel midway between these keys and the screen.

With the phone fired up though, the black panel kicks into life as a touch-sensitive control set-up, with pleasant blue graphic dots that 'pulse' when a button is pressed.

This isn't one of the context-changing control pads we've seen from LG with the KF600 – instead, the 'Neon Touch Navigation' system is essentially a refinement of the touch control virtual navigation D-pad-style control first seen on the Chocolate series.

Effectively, this operates just like a conventional press-button navigation pad. It works well enough for negotiating the menus and controls, offering a touch of haptic feedback (a slight vibration, and optional sound) as well as the light effects when a button is tapped.

The softkeys are touch operated too. They all take care of menu navigation pretty much as you'd get with a regular D-pad – with the physical central button the selector key - so it shouldn't be too confusing for most mobile users.

Numbered menus

There are shortcuts from the virtual D-pad too, and LG helpfully uses its regular sub-menu numbered option system, so if you prefer, you can simply select options by hitting number keys rather than touch-scrolling.

As with any touch-operated phone, users will have to get used to the sensitivity and responsiveness of the touch-pad; it's pretty good, but stray fingers can sometimes activate controls accidentally, so you need to be aware when handling the phone. In closed mode, though, an auto-keylock should eliminate this.

Touchscreen fun

As well as the touchpad action, the LG Secret has more touchscreen control up its sleeve. A button on the side activates its 'Touch Media' function, allowing users to operate some – but not all - of the phone's multimedia gadgetry by direct touchscreen operation.

Five Touch Media icons pop up on screen, for activating the music player, FM radio, photo gallery, Picsel document viewer, and its M-Toy motion-controlled games.