I’ve been checking out the LG KF600 mobile phone over the last few weeks. It is a slide phone which is not uncommon with phones today, but what sets it apart from other phones is the dual screen display.
The main screen (320 x 240) is situated at the top, whilst at the bottom is a smaller screen (240 x 176), which LG have called the InteractPad, which is a context sensitive touch screen display.
The controls in this bottom screen change depending on the feature you’re using. So for example, if you’re using the camera then the InteractPad displays icons to control the camera. If you’re using the MP3 player then the InteractPad displays the MP3 player controls. This is an interesting concept. By only displaying controls specific to the function in hand it stops the phone from being cluttered with too many controls.
Upon opening the box I was impressed with the looks and styling of the phone. LG have done well in this department. The phone is certainly shiny with nice chrome edging, so much so that I had difficulty taking some photos for this review because it reflected the light so well.
If you’re looking for a shiny phone then you will love it, although some may argue it is a dust and fingerprint magnet. Providing you keep the phone in the protective soft pouch then I don’t see this as a major problem. It helps to protect the screen from scratches too, although I don’t know how practical it is keeping the phone in a pouch all day, especially if you use the phone a lot.
This is what you get in the box. It includes ear phones, A/C charger, USB cable, PC sync software and soft carry case.
The phone is slim and lightweight, and certainly less bulky than the Sony Ericsson I own. The KF600 fitted well in the hand and was easy to handle. On one side of the phone are buttons for accessing the MP3 player and volume controls, and on the other side is a button for activating the camera. There is also a small plastic flap which when pulled back reveals the USB port.
The KF600 has 40Mb memory and supports a micro SD card (not supplied), although the SD card slot is positioned underneath the battery. This means if you want to swap out the SD card for another one then you will need to slide back the battery cover, remove the battery, and then change the SD card.
This seemed a strange arrangement to me. I would have preferred the SD card slot on the side of the phone. If you want to swap out the card regularly then you will find this a pain. Perhaps LG designed it this way with security in mind. With the SD card underneath the battery there is very little chance of losing it. I’m not sure, but I didn’t like it.
Switching on the phone for the first time I was impressed with the on screen controls. The screen looked bright, the controls looked quite funky, and the themes provided with the phone looked good. The KF600 is a slider phone with the phone keypad revealed by sliding back the screen. On the whole I thought LG had done very well in designing the visual side of the phone.
The touch screen controls on the InteractPad worked well for me. Occasionally I would have to press the touch screen controls more than once before it would accept it, but these were few and far between. There is an option to calibrate the touch screen should you encounter any issues like this.
Each button press on the InteractPad is confirmed with a beep and a small vibration. The vibration helps to confirm that a button has been pressed but I found it a little irritating after a while.
When navigating through the different phone screens, such as a setup menu, each list item is numbered so you can either press the down arrow on the touch screen repeatedly to get to the option you want, or you can type the item number of the option you want on the phone’s keypad. I liked this idea as it enabled me to quickly navigate through the phone rather than having to scroll through a long list of menu options.
One disappointment with the phone is the contacts list. The KF600 would only allow me to store one phone number per contact, which meant I had to add multiple contacts for the same person, one contact for their mobile, another contact for their landline, etc.
This made the contacts list look cluttered. The contacts list would show entries like “John Landline”, “John Mobile”, etc. I much prefer a single entry called “John” which holds both the landline and mobile numbers, like it does on my Sony Ericsson phone.
The KF600 comes with a decent 3 megapixel 4x digital zoom camera, which at the highest setting will take images at 2048×1536 pixel resolution.
Picture quality was good although I found the macro zoom disappointing. The camera had a tendency to focus on items just behind the intended item. The camera comes with an excellent set of features, such as multi-burst, which allows you to take up to 6 photos in quick succession. I found best results were obtained by focusing on an item that did not move much. If you try to photograph a fast moving image using multi-burst then the results were far from ideal.
The camera does not provide any audible indication when an item is in focus, I would have liked a beep noise, instead you need to rely on the screen alone and watch for the red box to turn green when an item is in focus. At first I found myself taking photos before they were in focus so it takes a bit of getting used to.
Other features include manual adjustment of the camera, such as white balance and flash. There are several special effects you can add to photos too like sepia and black and white for example. There are also standard settings available for different conditions such as indoor, outdoor and night time use which I liked. LG have also included an image stabiliser which is a nice touch.
The video camera worked pretty well, capturing video at a resolution of 230×240, so on a par with other mobile phones.
The KF600 has a slick looking MP3 player that performed pretty well. The sound from the built-in speakers is not on the same level as a dedicated MP3 player, but it is certainly acceptable, and no different to other mobile phones I’ve used. I also like how the InteractPad displays all the necessary icons to control the MP3 player. In the visuals department, the MP3 player looks a very nice looking device, the best I’ve seen on a phone so far.
There are several applications installed on the phone as you would expect with any phone these days. These include amongst other things an alarm clock, calendar, web browser, calculator, radio and a rather nifty looking world clock. It also supports handwriting recognition when using certain applications, although don’t expect it to work perfectly, it takes a bit of practice. Bluetooth is supported but there is no wi-fi or infrared capability.
The phone comes with LG PC Sync software which enables you to synchronise your phone with your PC. I’ve always found these types of program difficult to use, regardless of phone manufacture, and LG is no different. I tried several attempts to connect the phone to the computer using the USB cable, but the PC Sync software would not connect and after 30 minutes of trying I gave up.
3G is not supported on this phone, but I’m not a big fan of 3G anyway, and since I live in a 2G area this didn’t bother me at all.
The KF600 is tri-band so no problems if you want to take the phone to North America for example. It also supports a flight only mode which is useful for using when on board aircraft.
Battery life was as good as other phones I’ve used. I found myself charging the phone once or twice a week, although I am not a heavy phone user, so expect to charge the phone every couple of days if you use the phone regularly.
Overall this is an interesting phone. The InteractPad worked OK for me, although I had a tendency to try and touch the controls on the main screen which is not touch screen, and I found that a bit irritating at times. I would have preferred to have seen a full touch screen user interface. As such I found navigating around the phone OK but not brilliant. I’ve traditionally used joystick controls on mobile phones, like those on the Sony Ericsson, and I must admit I prefer that type of navigation. But that is just my personal preference.
If you’re into touch screens, and fancy a phone that is trying to stand out from the crowd, then the KF600 is certainly a phone worthy of a closer look. With great looks, a fully featured camera and MP3 player this phone is sure to please many.
A fully touchscreen version of this phone and LG could be onto a real winner. In fact LG have plans to release such a device later this year, called the LG Secret. I can’t wait for a closer look.
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30 responses so far ↓
1 Christina // May 3, 2008 at 7:15 pm
I received this phone yesterday as a free upgrade from orange and thought it was a wonderful thought out phone until after installing the lg software, I plugged the phone into my laptop using the usb cable. A few seconds later, a warning came up on the phone saying “to avoid data corruption always carry out safe removal of hardware on PC after use”. I ignored this message assuming everything would work fine but i was wrong. Lg Mobile Sync said my phone was not connected properly when it was so I was unable to transfer songs and pictures as I had intended. Does anybody know why I have this problem? Maybe because I am using Vista?
2 Dean // May 3, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Hi Christina,
Don’t worry too much about the “data corruption” message. That’s just a standard warning message advising that any devices connected via USB should be disconnected via Windows before pulling out the USB plug. It shouldn’t do any harm, unless of course you were in the middle of transferring anything to the phone at the time.
It could be a compatability issue between the LG Mobile Sync software and Vista.
Also, have a look around the different settings on the phone. See if there is something called “USB settings” or “Connectivity” and then look if there is an option called “Mass storage mode”. If so, choose that option and then try to connect the phone using the USB cable.
3 Christina // May 4, 2008 at 11:34 am
Thanks for the help, I done as you said and I can now transfer songs and pictures. But I am still unable to use the lg software like lg mobile sync or lg media player as it still says mine phone is not connected.
4 Dean // May 4, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Look for an option called “Data Service” or “Data” and set the phone to that. Then try using the LG Sync software.
5 Christina // May 4, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Thanks a buch, it works now. You’re a star!
6 Christina // May 10, 2008 at 4:42 pm
I’m having a bit of trouble with this phone again; when I transfer photos from my phone to computer and I view them in the thumbnail view, all the pictures are squashed and it’s hard to figure out what the picture is. However, if I view the picture in paint/windows photo gallery the picture is fine and not squashed at all. Any suggestions on how to sort this out?
7 Craig // May 18, 2008 at 11:32 am
Hi
I am have the same problem as Christina (squashed pictures)
On my XP there is no prob just with Vista
Are there any suggestions?
8 LonSkii // May 21, 2008 at 1:18 am
I just got this phone!
everything works fine except
when everyone called me, the phone just shown the number but not the names, eventho they are all save in the contact list. all the contact list is in the phone not the sim card, but it shouldn’t make any different should it?.
thanks in advance!
9 Dean // May 21, 2008 at 8:46 am
Christina/Craig,
Not sure what the problem is with Vista and the squashed pictures. I use XP so didn’t see this problem, it is probably some Vista compatability issue.
LonSkii,
I wouldn’t have thought having the contact list on the phone would make any difference. You could try transferring them to the sim card to see if that fixes it, but it shouldn’t make any difference.
10 Cloudstrife // May 27, 2008 at 6:05 am
Thank you so much Dean…
I was trying to find a phone that’d be easy to use, full of features, but still stylish enough to stand out from the crowd… Thanks for the help.. I’ll tell my mom to go get me one…
Cloudstrife
11 Rebecca // Jun 1, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Okay, i have the LGSync installed on my pc, but i don’t know how to transfer pics from the phone to the computer! On the LGSync, there are options: Contact/Schedual, Message, but i dn how to transfer pics from phone to pc. Sorry, i know I waffled alot in there!
12 Edna // Jun 2, 2008 at 12:22 pm
hi everyone.. I like the features of this eye-catching phone. It’s not only about its shiny appearance, it’s all about its options offered. WHEW! Upon reading this article,i now have 2 wishes. 1) i wish i can share something about my experience on this phone, and 2) I wish I’ll have LG KF600 soon…
13 Leo // Jun 4, 2008 at 3:07 pm
when i transfer my pictures they look squashed even when i open in gallery.. only using paint can i get the picture to look normal. Any fixes on this yet?
14 Dean // Jun 4, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Rebecca - I think you transfer pics using Windows explorer on your PC. I’ll assume you’re using Windows XP. You should see the LG KF600 listed under My Computer and from there you can navigate to the photos on the phone and copy them to your PC.
Leo - This is a problem with Windows Vista. I’m not aware of any fix.
15 Edna // Jun 9, 2008 at 1:58 am
Hi guys.. Its me again, good news, my dad just bought me the phone…
but I will share my experience after a week… ’til then! See yah guys…
16 underground // Jun 10, 2008 at 3:39 am
Hi ppl, greetings from Peru.
I got this phone since a week ago… looks pretty good and it’s one of the best phones around here… but…
- I had the same issues with Vista and the Sync sw… but after reading the Data feature I’ll try it later. Thanx for the tip.
- You can store more than 1 phone number per contact… Mobile, home, office, fax… also an email, note and picture… at least in my phone…
- More files you got in your SD Card more slow the phone is!… I have almost 350Mb (of 512) stored in the SD Card and accessing to the items or menus are taking longer than usual. I had this issue with my previous phone, a crappy Alcatel.
- Sometimes, while playing MP4 videos (lags sometimes) the phone restarts itself… specially at the end of the video…
- Sometimes the phone restarts while using the handwritting feature…
- Well, dunno if the last two issues are due to the limitations of the sw/hw memory management that comes with the phone.
- A tip: Don’t turn off your computer while having the phone connected. Select “Safe removal…” before turning off the PC!!!… I did it yesterday and the phone got hung, had to remove the battery.
Cheers!
17 Dean // Jun 10, 2008 at 8:54 am
Thanks for the detailed comments underground. Glad you managed to sort out storing more than 1 phone number per contact.
18 Rebecca // Jun 10, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Thanks, i’ve managed to do it now!
I needed to put pics onto pc because they were using up a lot of phone memory. I will be getting a memory card this weekend =D.
19 Julio // Jun 12, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Hi from Mexico City
My KF600 is a nice phone but i have the same proble whit pics this isn´t my topic. I want to know where can i find more themes for it
20 LonSkii // Jun 13, 2008 at 12:15 am
Dean, thanks for your help. its working now, i had to restart the phone..
anyway, i’ve got a 2nd issue now.
when anyone calls me sometime it starts with phone number eg. 0432xxxxxx…… (thats the mobile number in Australia) and sometime when the same person called me, it starts with +61 4 32xxxxxxx (with the country code) .. so i had to save everyone’s number twice in the phone memory.
eg. 0432xxxxxx , +61 4 32xxxxxxxx
i ve look thru every settings and still can’t figure out!
21 Dean // Jun 13, 2008 at 8:20 am
Julio - If you do a search on Google for “KF600 themes” you may be able to find some new themes.
LonSkii - Not sure what is going on there. I normally store a phone number including the country code and that seems to work OK. Have you tried storing a contact just with the +61 prefix, e.g. +61 4 32xxxxxxxx, and them remove the other contact stored as 0432xxxxxx. That might work.
22 Celtic // Jun 15, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Hi can someone post an idiot’s guide on how to download pics from the mobile to the PC please?
I’m on Windows XP.
Thanks!
23 Celtic // Jun 18, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Thought i’d cracked it after re inserting the disc and Multi media came up in the choices.
Now after i try to upload pics to my laptop it says “Change mode setting to new connection”
Any idea what this means?
Thanks.
24 Leanne // Jun 18, 2008 at 7:53 pm
hey…. i have had my lg kf600 for about a month now, but i have a few problems with it.
when it comes to the camera yes it works perfectly and the picture quality is fantastic, but when i want to upload the photos onto my laptop the photos come up sqaushed and you cannot see the photo at all it is just a really sqaushed rectangle. its annoying me because i love uploadin my photos onto my laptop as it is a part of my life and i love lookin over photos, but as this phone doesnt offer me it i am havin 2 carry about my camera as well…
if ya no how i can solve this problem it would be fantastic because a few of my friends have also gotten the phone and are havin the same problem.
help
Leanne
25 Dean // Jun 18, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Celtic - I had problems myself trying to connect the KF600 to my PC. In the end I gave up
If you try connecting the KF600 to your PC using the USB cable do you see the KF600 listed as a device in ‘My Computer’?
Leanne - Are you using Windows Vista? There is an issue where if you view photos in the gallery they appear squashed, but if you view them in another application like Paint they display OK. I’m not aware of a fix yet.
26 Celtic // Jun 18, 2008 at 11:59 pm
No Dean it’s not listed in My Computer or anywhere else.
On my desktop i have the LG mobile sync and the LG internet cube.
27 Dean // Jun 20, 2008 at 7:03 pm
A few people are running into this problem from what I’ve read on other forums. I haven’t found a solution yet.
Is there anything in the LG Mobile Sync software that allows you to connect or configure how the phone connects to your PC?
28 underground // Jun 20, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Hi ppl,
It’s me again… well… lemme put my 2 cents…
In the phone, you can set the USB connection in 2 modes: DATA SERVICE and MASS STORAGE.
Where to find ‘em?
MAIN MENU>SETTINGS>CONNECTIVITY>USB CONNECTION
CASE 1:
Set it to DATA SERVICE, connect the phone to the PC and you’ll be able to use the LG Cube software (to use your phone as a modem) and the Data Sync software (contacts and calendar). The USB device icon won’t appear.
CASE 2:
Set it to MASS STORAGE, connect the phone to the PC and the external USB icon will appear. In this case you’ll be able to use your phone as a classic USB storage device. You’ll find a new drive with folders. If you have media (pix, mp3 or video files) you can copy/move them to your PC or viceversa as usual .
The point is to SET YOUR PHONE to the desired option. Oh! before doing it, don’t forget to install the software!!
Hope it helps. Cheers!
29 Mayo // Jun 21, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Hey,
got this phone about a week ago….. very impressed APART from this uploading issue with the pictures.!I’m experiencing the same problems as their all squashed up and un viewable… wandering if theres a solution yet? and yes I am on vista sadly.
Need to get this sorted with summer coming up and all the holiday snaps,
Thanks
30 Dean // Jun 22, 2008 at 8:54 am
Regarding the photos being squashed in Vista have a look at comment #6 above.
The photos should only look squashed when viewed in thumbnail view, if you open the photos in something else like Microsoft Paint then the photos will appear normal.
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