Camera Phones Plaza

Because of all the social networking websites available lately, the need of staying online, connected and in touch with other people has influenced phone manufacturers to include in everyday phones QWERTY keyboards, to determine more people from any age category to buy new phones that include this feature. Until recently, QWERTY keyboards were included in business phone models, or other expensive phone models.

However, LG was the first manufacturer to include this feature into average price phone models. Since then every manufacturer, including Nokia, released at least one average phone with QWERTY keyboard. Like I said in other articles, every competition between phone or laptop manufacturers means only good news for potential customers (regarding the extended portfolio of every manufacturer and the reduced price tags of every phone older than six months). The LG KS 360 is definitely intended for the youth target.


However, the black and silver KS 360 could easily be used by anyone since it lacks the certain toy design provided by the red, blue, and pink colors of the KS 360. This phone might not look luxurious, but it certainly looks and feels solid build. Its best key features are the 2.4 inches TFT display with the QVGA resolution, the QWERTY keyboard, and some touch screen features. However, there are some main disadvantages also including the lack of UMTS, rather mediocre digital camera, not the best file manager on the market, relatively old web browser. Even so, this phone is all about the QWERTY keyboard and the extremely small price tag, about $140 and still going down. You can even get it for free is you decide to subscribe to a carrier provider. With a height of 101.5 mm, wide of 51 mm, deep of 16.8 mm, the KS 360 weights about 108 grams.

Therefore, we can't exactly talk about a slim device easy to carry around. Even so, not many QWERTY phones have a slim form factor.


Unfortunately the phone is made almost entirely out of plastic. Therefore, it might look king of cheap. However, if you chose the black and silver color phone this will not be the case, since the KS 360 will look more than acceptable. The build quality is good, everything works pretty decent and you get no weird noises from the plastic case. On the front side the KS 360 includes above the display the earpiece and the "LG" logo, while below the display you get the navigational keys, made out of plastic also. Even so, these keys are easy to use and offer sufficient feedback. You get two soft keys, call key, end call key, back key, media gallery key.


However the KS 360 lacks the four ways key, but provides five separate keys (up, down, left, right and ok) to complement the lack of the four ways key. Once you slide to the left the front side you get the full QWERTY keyboard will round form keys made also from plastic. Because of the material used, the maneuverability when writing might not be extremely good, since the plastic keys don't offer sufficient grip when texting in a hurry. However, a nice feature is the backlight from the keyboard, which will certainly represent a plus in everyone's insight review.

Even better, every color of KS 360 sports a different backlight color for the keyboard. On the left side of the KS 360 you can find the volume controls and the camera dedicated key, while on the right side the KS 360 sports the micro SD memory card slot (covered), and the headphone / data cable port (combo, also covered). Both bottom side and top side of the KS 360 lack any buttons, ports, or slots. On the back side, you get on the upper center the dedicated camera lenses (2 megapixel digital camera to be exact) and the loudspeaker. LG included into the KS 360 a 2.4 inches TFT display with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, capable of rendering up to 256000 colors.


Even more, this display is capable of a few touch screen functions, such as touch screen dialing. However, don't expect a full touch screen support. The display is pretty much average offering sufficient brightness even under direct sunlight. The KS 360 runs in 2G network, GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900. This phone model is also known as LG Tribe for TIM in Italy, and LG GT 360 in Brazil (where it runs in GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900). Unfortunately, you can only find 15 MB onboard the KS 360, expandable value if using the micro SD memory card, or Trans Flash memory card, up to 4 GB. The connectivity is ensured only by GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and the USB 2.0 connection. The KS 360 lacks HSCSD, 3G, and WLAN. The KS 360 sports 2 megapixel digital camera with a maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels.


This camera is capable of video recording, but with bad resolution and only 15 frames per second. Unfortunately, this camera is not really average at all, offering really common quality pictures. Even more, it also lacks auto focus. Thankfully, LG included the multi shot mode, color effects (black and white, sepia and negative), white balance settings, and some exposure compensation. The camera sound cannot be turned off, but then again many mobile phones can't turn the camera noise off. The software included in the KS 360 sports basic application, such as organizer, calendar, music player and even video player.


This phone is not music orientated and not business orientated by its available applications. LG included in KS 360 a Lithium Ion battery with 800 mAh value capable of 430 hours in standby, and 5 hours in talk time. LG included in the retail package of KS 360 a mandatory charger, the data cable, headset, and CD software. As you can see, only the basics are included. Even so, this is justifiable since the asking price is so small. Overall, the KS 360 is an interesting product, adequate for the youth consumers, since it tries to offer as many features as it can to connect the user with the social networking web sites. LG successfully created, even if not intended, a really good average phone with QWERTY keyboard, sporting the price tag of an entry level phone.