Gadget Wars: LG KF600 vs Samsung U900 Soul

Touchscreen handsets are one thing, but touch navigation is a whole 'nother story. I’ve pitted two high-end handsets – LG’s KF600 and Samsung’s U900 Soul – against each other in another Gadget War feature. Please note that I don't intend to compare these handsets based on the many features they offer; it’s strictly about a specific feature (in this case, touch navigation).

Display Characteristics
The U900 Soul has a small 1-inch touch-sensitive OLED display called the Magical Touch for navigating its UI. It’s not full-color but you can adjust the colors to suit your style (and you have an extensive range to choose from). On the main menu you can also select any four shortcuts to link to the four points, and the center point takes you to the main menu. One advantage the Soul has are the two normal keys located on either side of the touch-sensitive pad, which can also be assigned shortcuts.

LG’s KF600 has a 1.49-inch full-color (256K colors, 176 x 240 pixels) touch-sensitive navigation pad that’s actually just an extension of the main display. It’s called the InteractPad. It allows the addition of a total of six different shortcuts, including access to the main menu.

There is no color change option specifically for the InteractPad, but if the theme is changed it will incorporate any changes in the font and styling. Since most of the themes have animated wallpapers the animation will occur on both the displays in a continuum. As mentioned in the review, it seems as if there’s simply a division of the screen to distinguish the touch-sensitive portion from the rest of the screen.

One thing both navigation systems have in common is Haptic feedback, which can be controlled to suit your preferences. But in this round I’d have to give it to the LG for its vibrant and colorful display.