LG KF700 Review

These days it's not enough to give a phone a name and a model number. Manufacturers are forever creating fluffy new brand extensions to sell the sizzle of their products and LG has more than most. As well as coining the Black Label Series moniker to define its designer handsets, the manufacturer also assigns precious metals to its products according to specification and price point, with platinum representing the very best (most expensive) handsets in its range, followed by gold for the mid-tier and silver for the budget models.

While fancy handsets like the Viewty and the new KF750 Secret laud it up in the platinum club, phones like the LG KF600 and KF700 fall into the gold category.

Don't let that fool you. The LG KF700 is feature packed and more than capable for all but a few fussy sorts and it's a damn fine all-rounder with a wealth of neat tricks up its slider sleeve.

LG KF 700 Slider styling

The LG KF700 is not a slimline handset, but it's fairly compact. In fact, it's a little shorter than the Nokia 6300 and just a touch wider.

The handset offers a full haptic (vibrating) touch-screen, together with a spacious slide-out keypad and the phone looks great whether open or closed.

To access the keypad, the KF700 features a smooth, spring-loaded sliding mechanism which feels perfectly weighted and balanced in the hand. Slide the phone open and you'll find a smart, simple, checker-board-style keypad with no raised keys. The phone's many applications can be selected and controlled either by the KF700's jog-dial or touch-screen interface. This means the keypad has been designed simply for basics like making calls and sending texts and includes only the numeric keys, a call accept, call reject and cancel key. Simple.

On the right-hand side of the phone you'll find the camera key, the screen lock key and the charging/headphones port. On the left-hand side you'll find the carousel menu access key and a jog-wheel - about which we'll explain more later.

Due to the fact that the display dominates the entire fascia, touch-screen phones tend to look fairly similar; however, it's much easier to distinguish the phone from the growing army of touch-screen handsets when its distinctive carousel menu is activated. With its glossy black finish, the KF700 possesses a minimalist charm.

The carousel menu is activated with a dedicated key on the left-hand side of the phone and can be customised to include your most popular menu options. It's then navigated using the jog-wheel and the carousel menu key.

All in all, the KF700 is well put together and even the side-mounted jog-wheel (a feature which can occasionally look a little awkward) has its aesthetic merits. It's bold, silver and sits on full display on the rear of the phone, rather than protruding from the side.