LG KP500

The affordable touch handset LG KP500 is getting a pet-name - the LG Cookie. Despite the perky name, the latest LG handset offers a modern feature set that seems pretty enough for the estimated price of 170 euro before taxes and subsidies.

Creating new budget touchscreen handsets seem to be on the minds of manufacturers these days. Samsung has been riding the wave with its Star Series handsets first, and now with its Corby Series of handsets. In response LG brought out the Cookie sometime ago, and now it was time for a much needed upgrade if LG had to stay in the game. So, after a very bland Mobile World Congress session in Barcelona, LG has finally got its act together and launched the Cookie Pep. The Cookie Pep in every way seems to be the handset to replace the older and outdated Cookie. This seems all the more true considering the pricing of the Cookie Pep, which is quite similar to the older Cookie. The Cookie Pep looks all set to take on the competition and has even signed up three Bollywood stars to promote it. The Cookie Pep is called the Cookie Pop in other countries where it comes with an optional solar panel doing its green thing for nature. Sadly though green doesn't seem to be the theme for LG in India and so we have the Pep, which is a rather standard version. Let's see how the Cookie Pep warms up to the competition.

You can easily spot the family relation to the LG Renoir in the design of the LG KP500 Cookie. The Cookie uses the latest reincarnation of the proprietary LG Flash-based UI, which now is even more interactive and user-friendly. The interface is still thumb-optimized, but a stylus tucked in the body also assists handwriting recognition.

The built-in accelerometer of the LG Cookie allows for even more fun - it adds a physical dimension to the gaming experience, there is auto screen rotation for images, video and documents and finally, there's the landscape onscreen QWERTY keypad.

The other fun stuff to use your accelerometer for is aligning your home screen widgest - just shake the phone and you're done.

The LG KP500 Cookie is only 11.9mm thick, which presumably makes it the thinnest phone around with a tucked in stylus. The LG Cookie sports a 3-inch TFT touchscreen display and a 3 megapixel fixed focus camera. It doesn't have 3G support, but you have EDGE and quad-band GSM at your disposal.

The LG KP500 is indeed going to have a really attractive price point as promised. We duly expect this baby in our office for a review spin.

http://www.in.lge.com/cookiepep/cookie_main.html