Despite the high sales of the LG Chocolate*, anyone who’s actually used it knows that its touch controller is one of the worst UIs to come out in the last several years. The KF600 is LG’s new 3MP mobile with a slider keypad. It has the same electrostatic chocopad the Chocolate has, but with an improved 1.5-inch colour display underneath. Reader: Avoid this phone at all costs.

That second chocopad screen sits just below the upper 2-inch LCD. The KF600 uses it to contextualise menus, just like the Samsung Soul and its OLED soulpad. Unlike the Soul, this phone sucks. Don’t be distracted by the eye candy in the video, but note how ineffective Jesús’s presses are.

*Mobile makers have told me that marketing directly equals sales for handsets, and carriers choose phones partially on ad budgets.

P.S. Don’t confuse this phone with the KT610, a symbian powered phone we saw at this same show.

Seoul, Feb 11 (Korea Newswire)– LG Electronics, a worldwide technology and design leader in mobile communications, today announced the European launch of its 2008 iF product design award winning LG KF600, a new mobile phone that is as feature rich and easy to use as it is stylish, thanks to its unique InteractPad¢â.

The InteractPad¢â replaces physical navigation keys with context-specific virtual keys that change to fit the task at hand. This new interface comes in response to the need for a simple way to navigate through the multitudinous features on today¡¯s mobile phones.

The LG KF600¡¯s InteractPad¢â and its virtual menu keys show the exact keys a user needs to complete the task at hand eliminating distractions. This is far more flexible than standard hardware keys and eliminates the need to memorize exactly which key performs what function. These virtual keys are also larger and better spaced than physical keys, improving accuracy.

The InteractPad¢â is an ideal interface for controlling multimedia features like the LG KF600¡¯s digital audio player, camera and video camera. Because its controls are not tied to physical buttons, each of these functions has a custom interface that makes it incredibly intuitive to use.

To make it easier to use, the InteractPad¢â is equipped with multi-sensorial feedback that provides users with audio, visual and tactile cues. When a virtual button is pressed it becomes larger and the phone vibrates just slightly and makes a clicking sound. This feedback is not only designed to make these virtual buttons seem more like real ones, it also makes the phone more comfortable to use and improves accuracy.

gives the phone a different character that can act as an extension of its owner¡¯s personality. These themes, many of which were inspired by the work of famed artist Keith Haring, affect all aspects of the LG KF600¡¯s interface including the InteractPad¢â. When users choose a theme, all the layouts of each application will be reflected in menu, icons as well as wallpaper under the integrated theme.

The LG KF600 is far more advanced than other slide phones and unlike any other phone available because of its unique interface and feed-forward tactile navigation made possible by the InteractPad¢â.

Dr. Skott Ahn, CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company said, ¡°The LG KF600 and the InteractPad¢â reflect LG¡¯s commitment to making its handsets easier to use through improved user interface technology. Usability is truly at the centre of this handset¡¯s design and it represents LG¡¯s latest achievement in making phones that connect with their users. This handset offers a mere glimpse into a newly emerging trend in the mobile market. LG is researching and developing new ways to improve usability and will continue focus on features that add practical benefits for users.¡±

The LG KF600¡¯s powerful multimedia features include a 3 mega-pixel camera, MP3 player, video recording, FM radio, Bluetooth and more. Its ergonomic trapezoidal shape is the ideal complement to the phone¡¯s sleek, glossy finish.

The LG KF600 will be available for purchase starting from January and will be introduced at World Mobile Congress 2008 in Barcelona, Spain in February.

1) Main Features
¡ÜInteractPad¢â Unique interactive touch-based virtual navigation keypad that interacts with upper display and with the user
¡ÜDynamic graphic interface themes Eight integrated graphic themes that are reflected in all menu, icons, wallpaper and other comprehensive interface features
¡ÜMultimedia Features Music player with FM Radio, 3 Mega pixel camera & camcorder, and touch-control games

2) Basic Specifications

RF band: EDGE 900/ 1800/ 1900
Dimensions: 101.2mm (L) x 50.7mm (W) x 14.1mm (D)
Upper display: 320 x 240 pixels, 2.00¡È, 262K color TFT
Lower pad (InteractPad¢â): 240 x 176 pixels, 1.5¡È, 262K color TFT
Weight: 107g
Standard battery: Li-Ion 800 mAh
Standby Time, Max (hrs): 300 hrs
Talk Time (hrs): 3 hrs
Color choices: Pastel pink, shiny pink, wine red and titan

Media Contact : LG Electronics Global PR, Corporate Communications
media contact: Judy Pae at lgpr@lge.com, phone: 82-2-3777-7144

We tried the Nokia 6210 Navigator assisted GPS for pedestrians at Nokia’s World Mobile Congress booth today. The device itself feels very good and is extremely compact, but the best of all is that it really works great, using its built-in compass and accelerometers to know exactly where you are facing exactly, changing the orientation of the map in real time. You know, like Ultima Underworld, but with finnish blonde valkyries around instead of fugly monsters drooling around. Or better said, both.

The working prototype here is very rough. It’s missing animations between picture swipes and lacks truly natural menu swiping. It also doesn’t support multitouch here, but that’s a matter of hardware—and this is early software, so we should be not too harsh on Symbian for updating their great OS to keep up with the Joneses. But we can conclude one thing from this demo: Despite doing a good job of building a touch UI on S60 without alienating current users, Symbian is far behind Apple in UI development, by months, if not years.

We have been playing with the Android prototypes scattered through the Mobile World Congress here in Barcelona. ARM had theirs running on one of their lower-end processors. No fancy graphics demos, no iPhone-style multimedia fizzbang, just a humble ARM9 processor in a plain white prototype “to demonstrate the scalability of Android” and serve as a “development platform.” Our verdict: it works, it’s fluid, but it’s boring. Qualcomm’s Android prototype, however, is a real beast.

An ugly giganfatastic beast made of multiple boards right out of a Terry Gilliam movie set. It was faster and had wireless connectivity, something that the ARM model didn’t had enabled. And obviously, it was untouchable and development oriented.

As you can see, while the Android platform is solid enough for development and testing, it seems we are far away from seeing actual products getting into the market. ARM told us that everything is still pretty much up in the air at this point, and the actual physical mobile specification is still coming from the Open Handset Alliance.

We will update this post with more Android prototypes hands-on and impressions.