LG GS290 Cookie Fresh Touchscreen Mobile Phone

The latest in LG’s Cookie jar is the GS290 or Cookie Fresh. It’s designed to offer the younger mobile user all that a mobile phone should without having them break into their savings. But does it deliver on its promises as a budget social networking, multimedia handset? Take a closer look to find out.

Form Factor
The Cookie range of devices, although they may be similar in features, do tend to make funky statements in the looks department. The Fresh is the same. It’s a well designed comfortable to use handset. The 3-inch resistive touchscreen features a 240 x 400 pixel resolution with 256k colors. That makes viewing easy on the eyes and navigating the menus a breeze. A standard micro USB port is placed on the same side as the screen lock and camera button while a microSD card slot (2GB card with preloaded media included) and volume/zoom keys are on the other side.

A 3.5mm handsfree socket is available on the top and the bundled handsfree provided will be more comfortable if used with a set of sponge speaker covers. The Fresh is available in Silver, Orange/white, Purple/white, Blue/light silver color combos.

Features and Performance
Interface
The Fresh runs on a Flash based UI that’s pretty standard for LG’s lower end touchscreen handsets. It’s got the look and feel of LG’s proprietary S-Class UI. Like the others the Fresh also has multiple desktops designed to support widgets, LG’s Live Square quick access desktop for frequently used contacts and a third for Contact favorites. On the whole the UI is easy to navigate but it’s a bit sluggish. A QWERTY keypad can be accessed by a keypad switching option as this piece didn’t have an accelerometer function.

A fair amount of Multitasking can be done without the UI speed slowing down any further. Gesture functionality is very similar to what you’d find in a Samsung device. When the screen is locked you can draw out a character on the screen to access apps that you’ve assigned to that symbol.

Media
The music player is loud and clear enough to enjoy anywhere in the city including inside the local transit system. A few EQ presets have been thrown in to add a little personalization to the option. They help on a little. The FM radio worked out quite well. The Fresh supports MPEG4 video formats but of the lower resolution variety. 3GP videos also played quite smoothly. Other media features include LG’s Muvee Studio application a few games that include Try and Buy demos and an image editor.