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LG is really trying to capture the youth mid-range market by launching affordable handsets with trendy features that include semi touchscreens, total touchscreens and media capabilities galore. They’ve even managed to squeeze a QWERTY keypad into a small, affordable media-centric handset like the KS360. I’ve been waiting to see how a QWERTY on a lower end handset would work out for a regular user that has no business requirements and use it for simply texting. __STARTQUOTE__A single button activates a number pad on the display that you can use for typing and if you’re in the contacts menu, will feature an alphanumeric keypad to search via the name. BRILLIANT! __ENDQUOTE__The keys themselves are a bit tough and will definitely take some getting used to. What irked me was that I would have to keep sliding out the keypad, for which I’d be required to use both hands for typing at all times. This was going to be especially annoying when I had to do something as simple as dial a number or look for a contact while I was crunched up in a crowded train and could not use both hands. This is my ‘acid’ test for all handsets - Commuter typing. I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that the KS360 like some of the other LG handsets, has a 2.4-inch (240 x 320 pixels) TFT semi-touchscreen LCD display. A single button (see figure) activates a number pad on the display that you can use for typing and if you’re in the contacts menu, will feature an alphanumeric keypad to search via the name. BRILLIANT! Unfortunately these are the only two circumstances that the onscreen keypad is made available for. It would have been even better were it available for messaging or any other feature that would require its use. No matter, the sensitivity is good and the Haptic feedback helps provide a certain amount of accuracy. The five way navigation system consists of individual keys that make it very easy to maneuver through menus and access features. The volume/zoom keys are located on one side with a dedicated camera key, while the microSD card slot and ‘port-for-all’ is located on the other side where the keypad slides out. The handset seems to be designed for lefties. A right handed person might find using the 2MP camera a bit of an issue as the shutter release is located on the other side of the handset unlike almost all others. No worries you can get used to that too. I do like the overall look and feel of the KS360. Even though it’s designed for the younger generation, the QWERTY keypad and semi-touchscreen gives it a slightly adult like edge. Features and Performance Interface I’ve always thought LG’s interface was quite colorful and eye catching which made it easy to navigate. The KS360 is, of course, just the same. The orientation of the screen changes to landscape mode automatically if the keypad is slid out. It’ll revert back to portrait if certain applications require it to be in that form. The UI is quite fast in most instances but for some strange reason scrolling through the Call Log menu when you got a missed call as well as selecting the option from the main screen to view a received message is very sluggish. This was a big issue I had with regards to the Interface’s speed. |
Tags: QWERTY , 2 Megapixel
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