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LG KF300 budget clamshell phone

An easy-to-use offering for the non-techie in your life

There are better budget music mobiles out there, though the KF300's sound quality isn’t bad. The MP3 player has a plain and unsophisticated look about it. Its categories are basic – All Songs and a Playlist option – and there are controls for shuffle and so on. But compared to plenty of budget phones, it looks basic and unsatisfactory.

It’s possible to copy tracks over from a PC using a USB cable – not included – with the phone in mass-storage mode. Slipping in a memory card or Bluetoothing tracks are possible too, though the phone doesn’t automatically update music lists when you put a card in. As we say, it’s not the slickest music mobile we’ve ever seen.

LG KF300

Plenty of 'mature use' appeal?

The bundles earphones slip into a side-facing multi-function port. They come with a 3.5mm adaptor, though, so you can use you own 'phones. The bundled set sound a bit better than average for this class of handset, with a fair amount of bass, so the overall audio performance is acceptable without being exceptional.

The KF300 keeps it simple with browsing too, with a standard-issue WAP 2.0 browser, set up for fast access to the Orange World mobile internet portal on our review sample. Email is supported, and there's a typical line-up of organiser functions and tools. Games are at the more mature end of the spectrum - chess and backgammon – reflecting the audience this phone is pitched at.

With a phone that’s meant to be easy to use, the basics of voice calling have to be up to scratch, and we had no issues with quality of the calls we made – the KF300 was reliable, loud and clear. Battery life is reasonable too. LG estimates the phone will run for up to 200 hours in standby or provide up two hours' talktime, which is less than we’d have expected for a quad-band GSM handset. Still, we managed a comfortable three days between charges with average usage and limited tune-playing.

Verdict

LG's KF300 isn’t a handset that will light up everyone’s mobile lives, and it certainly isn’t pitched at the tech-savvy young phone user. It has a respectable if unexciting design, but most of its low-key features are unexceptional for a phone of this class. Yet that large numberpad and easy-to-operate buttonry should attract the ‘mature user’.

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LG KF300 budget clamshell phone

Does 'easy to use' and 'non-techie' have to mean 'dull'? Unfortunately, with this phone they do.
Price: Contract: From free. Pre-pay: TBC. Handset only: £130 RRP

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