QWERTY mobile phone (LG KS360)

Member Name: cognition

Product:	LG KS360
Date:	10/06/09 (614 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Solid and reliable phone, qwerty keyboard

Disadvantages: Not possible to write lengthy documents, non-standard landscape view

INTRODUCTION
The LG KS360 mobile phone is possibly the cheapest mobile phone you can get that has a QWERTY-keyboard. For those not acquainted with the term, a computer keyboard is referred to as 'qwerty' because those are the six first letters in a standard computer keyboard layout. A 'qwerty' keyboard is a functionality usually found in far more expensive Smart Phones (which combine a mobile phone and a PDA into one). The LG Ks360 is not a smart phone. Apart from the keyboard, the mobile phone functions much like any other budget mobile phone. It does have touch screen functionality, but only for the number dialing function. Apart from that, I believe the only not so common function is that it can read .pdf (Adobe Acrobat Reader) and .doc (Microsoft Word) format documents.

STORAGE
The mobile phone has 15mb internal storage. This can be added to by buying an additional Mini SD memory card. By the current prices you can get a 2gb Mini SD memory card for £7 (Amazon, June 2009). Unless you want to use the phone as an mp3 player you are likely to be satisfied with the internal 15mb memory.

SCREEN / DESIGN / NAVIGATION
The physical size of the screen is 2.4 inches. The screen resolution is 240 x 320 pixels. The front of the phone has a few navigational buttons, but no number buttons. One of the buttons on the front trigger touch screen functionality. Although the phone has this technology implemented, it is only used for inputting a number you want to call on screen. Although the phone has touch screen functionality, it is not possible to take use of this functionality in the browser or in any other part of the phone. This is a shame, as I was used to being able to use a stylus for scrolling through web sites and panning documents on my old smartphone. The keyboard is neatly
hidden within the phone and is smoothly and effortlessly pulled out when you wish to use it. Interestingly, when you pull the keyboard out, the screen view changes from portrait view to landscape view. In other words, you have to turn your phone on the side when you pull out the keyboard. This looks very nice and works well with the integrated applications, however it may cause some difficulty when dealing with third party applications that do not support landscape mode. Additionally, the buttons are fairly small and close together, so playing games and such on the phone can be quite frustrating, even if you have them in the right format.

CAMERA
There is a 2megapixel camera with a maximum resolution of 1600x1200 pixels, no flash. I was excited by the high numbers cited, but although the phone can take reasonably large photos, the quality is still of unmistakable mobile phone quality. It's among the better mobile phone cameras I've tried, but no match for a proper camera. I haven't tried the video record function, but I've read it is very choppy and not suitable for watching out of the mobile phone platform, as the quality is simply too low.

GAMES AND APPLICATIONS
The phone comes with 2 full games, and one time limited demo game. All the included games require landscape mode to work. If you are a fan of downloading online games to your phone, the LG KS360 may be somewhat more limited than other phones. Most mobile phone games are Java and, as long as they are supplied in a supported resolution, most games will work on most phones. The problem with the LG KS360 is that it only has directional buttons on the front, not number buttons. The keyboard must be pulled out to access the number buttons. A lot of games require the number buttons in addition to or instead of the directional buttons, to work, but unless you find a version of the game made specifically for the LG KS360's landscape mode, you may find that your controls are now sideways, which makes the games more or less unplayable. More basic games that only require the directional buttons work like a charm. As is standard with most phones these days, the LG KS360 comes with a calendar, memo, calculator, unit conversion utility, stopwatch, and a world clock, which allows you to pick a country from a list, and the phone will automatically adjust the time on your phone (based on what time you set in your default time zone).

BATTERY LIFE
The stated battery life is up to 430 hours stand by, or 5 hours talk time. With normal use, the phone seems to last me 3-4 days between every charge. Compared to the other 4-5 mobile phones I have owned, this is the best one so far.

CONNECTIVITY
As a very pleasant surprise, the mobile phone comes bundled with a usb cable, and no additional software needs to be installed. It is literally plug and play, and when you connect the phone, it appears on your computer as an external hard drive. Copying documents, pictures, or applications between your phone and PC is a breeze.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
My previous mobile phone was a smart phone, and as that one broke, I found myself not being able to fit a new full-on smart phone into my budget. The functionality that attracted me about the LG Ks360 was the 'qwerty' keyboard and that it can read .pdf (Adobe Acrobat Reader) and .doc (Microsoft Word) format documents. These functions work as expected, however I was surprised to learn that Word documents can not be edited and not written from scratch. The memo functionality is nice, but there is a limit to how long memos you can write, so my dream of being able to write lengthy documents on my phone with the 'qwerty' keyboard was soon crushed. Also, it turns out that with such a small screen, reading documents formatted for a normal PC screen is impossible without considerable effort put into zooming and scrolling for every sentence. This was the same for me old smartphone, but being able to scroll with the stylus on my smartphone eased the process. Reading such documents on the LG KS360 is not a process you will want to engage in over longer periods of time.

PRICE
The phone retails for around £70-80 on a contract or around £100-110 sim-free. (June 2009)

CONCLUSION
The LG KS360 is a very solid phone. The build seems sturdy and the screen looks nice. The non-standard landscape view makes it less compatible with third party applications and games than competing phones. The 'qwerty' keyboard is nice, but since there is no functionality for writing lengthy documents its use is very limited, unless you write *a lot* of text messages. The LG KS360 is a very solid mobile phone, but it's no substitute for a smart phone.

Summary: Solid QWERTY phone without the functionality to write lengthy documents.

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