US$ 149 US$ 109.00

Hmm, nobody would seriously think LG will come up with a keyboard phone, right? But it did just that, and did so at an “outrageously low price”! At about 1/3 of the cost of HTC Touch Pro and Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, the LG KS360 provides the same slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a miniature body. Of course, it does not run Windows Mobile, but then not everybody needs WM. Does it have enough features to survive? Or is it just another phone with an attached keyboard? Let’s find out now.

The package comes with the phone, a battery, a handsfree, a USB cable, a (nice) travel charger, a CD-ROM and a user’s guide.

The phone looks like an ordinary slide-phone with an exceptionally large screen (2.4”). The color scheme is not the prettiest with red and green buttons clashing with the black and white body. My guess is that LG doesn’t want it to compete with its own expensive, all-black stylish models.

The front cover has enough buttons to control your everyday task (11 of them!). On my part, I would want a larger screen instead of more buttons.

The keyboard is rather…atypical. The keys are reasonably large with ample space between them to reduce the chance of pressing the wrong key. The disadvantage of having large keys and ample spaces is that LG cannot accommodate too many keys on the keyboard. The space and enter buttons are a tad too small as well. The screen changes to landscape mode when the keyboard is slid out. The keys are not as good as the latest Blackberry, but they are reasonably reactive and have a good feel to them.

The keyboard comes with a blue backlight to make it easier to type on at night. The number keys are shaded in grey to make them easier to identify. Don’t worry, you don’t have to slide out the keyboard to make calls, there’s an on-screen number pad for that purpose.

The 2MP camera comes with neither a flash nor auto-focus but it has night mode and burst mode (maximum 9 shots in a row) to make up for it. The camera is on par with other budget model.

The LG KS360 uses a plastic cover to protect the microSD card slot. Since there is not much internal memory in the LG KS360, you will probably need a microSD card (optional) to store your photos and music.

See the “number short-cuts” (press 6 to enter “My Stuff”, 5 for “Messaging”…etc)? You may wonder why a touch screen model needs that kind of shortcut and here’s an ironic answer: the touch screen is for dialing number and nothing else. It seems that LG is too busy with other stuff that they don’t bother adding touch support to their ported operating system. So, back to the D-pad we go!

Here’s the virtual number pad mentioned before, the keys are very large so you can easily press the number without looking at it. The screen has a pretty good response, too. I don’t miss the physical number pad after using the digital one, so you know how good it is!

The LG KS360 truly deserves a class of its own. Of course it is not a WM phone or a BlackBerry and it doesn’t have the savvy Wi-Fi and 3.5G (and GPS, if that matters), but who says a business phone “needs” them? You can send and receive email on a 2G network within a minute, because it’s just a few KB of data! LG was right to go for the cheaper 2G antenna and added what is essential to a business phone – a keyboard. Good job, LG!

LG KS360 Video Review