LG Mobile is the first one to introduce an affordable, full touchscreen phone in the market. Banking on the popularity of touchscreen devices and marketing it to folks with a limited budget, LG is poised to grab a segment that might just bite the cookie.
Make and Construction
The LG Cookie is surprisingly thin and light, maybe because it’s made up of lightweight plastic all over (yet, doesn’t look cheap or ugly). It’s probably one of the lightest phone ever (comparable to the old generation Nokia 8210) for its size. Fits snugly in the palm of the hand.
The front side, just below the screen, has three equally-sized buttons with specific functions – one for the phone menu, the middle for the favorited and running applications and the right-most button for the home screen and power button.
On the right side, you have the microSD expansion slot, the dedicated camera button and a screen-lock button. The left side has the volume control and audio/power USB port.
Plain and Simple
The LG Cookie doesn’t pack enough features that would attract those who want good wireless connectivity on their phone. The absence of WiFi and 3G connectivity was a huge sacrifice and will turn-off people who expects them as a staple feature on high-end mobile phones.
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However, the LG Cookie is actually not a high-end phone but a mid-level one so you don’t line it up against the likes of the Omnia, iPhone or XPeria. It’s an entirely new model in a segment that has no counterpart with other brands. As such, we’ll look at the phone and focus on its main selling point – the touch screen interface.
The Flash UI
The biggest selling point of the LG Cookie, aside from the price-point, is the touch screen interface. It’s very responsive, without any noticeable delays, and applications launch quite fast .
LG did a good job with the user interface of the LG Cookie. The main panel displays widgets you can drag around the screen as well as hide or add new widgets. The widgets serve as a launching point to frequently-used functions – photogallery, contacts, music player, clock or calendar.
The phone comes with a small stylus tucked at the bottom part which you can use when needed. However, I didn’t find much need for it since you can easily navigate around using your fingers. The only time I used the stylus is when I use the keyboard horizontally and because the phone has haptic feedback, even the non-qwerty keyboard is much easier to use than expected.
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The Quirks
There were several minor functions that I find a bit jarring at the least. One is the audio jack which I don’t really recognize – it shares the same port as the USB power but it’s not the usual microUSB either. I think it’s a proprietary port that’s exclusive to LG phones. That means you can’t hook up a regular 2.5mm or 3.5mm jack into it.
The 3.0MP camera takes grainy photos even with sufficient ambient light. Didn’t upload the pictures i took because they’re not that good at all.
Conclusion
Despite its shortcomings, I think the LG Cookie makes up for a good touch screen phone. It doesn’t have the best touch UI we’ve seen or used but it has great promise. Add that to the fact that it’s priced very affordably (SRP at Php11,900), people looking for an alternative touch screen phone will enjoy using the LG Cookie and offers great value at its price-point. LG should have more trust on their flash UI with the touch screen – I believe it is good enough for the user to ditch the stylus.
for prodigal:::p
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