Some application sub-menus are set up as conventional lists of options, while others utilise the touchscreen interface with simple to follow on-screen graphics. The built-in accelerometer automatically flips the screen between portrait and landscape modes in some functions to match how you’re viewing. In the image gallery, you can flip between pics with your finger. It’s a straightforward, intuitive navigation system that’s easy to get familiar with, and mostly pleasant on the eye.
The UI's based on Flash
The touch action, though, is not as smoothly fluid as the iPhone’s standard-setting multi-touch screen, and you can swipe through only a few entries at a time. But it does react quite promptly to what your fingers are doing, and there’s generally sufficient screen room for pressing without too many slips. That said, when pressing options, the transitions to the next screen can sometimes seem a touch languid.
One area which isn’t so good is text input. In text-tapping functions, the Cookie displays a numberpad screen in portrait mode, which automatically transforms into a Qwerty keyboard when the phone’s rotated sideways.
We had problems with both methods. The numberpad's keys are bunched close together and relatively small for the screen size, which is fine if you’re a small-fingered, tidy texter. But with the Clear and various option keys ranged down the right of the screen, stray fingers can brush you into the wrong mode or input option, which can be frustrating if you’re trying to text quickly.
We found the Qwerty keyboard's keys too small and unforgiving for flawless typing, and we frequently had to correct mistakes. It takes a bit of familiarisation to make sure you select the correct buttons and don’t stray to the adjacent keys – though you could always reach for the stylus.
Flip the screen to trip the obligatory accelerometer
Another option is to slip the phone into handwriting recognition mode for inputting text. This works pretty well with the stylus, but you will need practice to get perfect, and we’d tend to stick to the other options.
COMMENTS
No contest
Its cheaper than an iPhone for a reason. Its not as good as an iPhone. You can get a 3G iPhone for this price on contract, yes you need to sign up to £30/month but if you were to use the Cookie for data on a pay as you go basis you'd soon rack up similar costs.
There seems to be a bit of inverse snobbery were the iPhone is concerned. People are casting around to get something that they can say is an iPhone beater. They'll do anything, and accept any limitation, to convince themselves that they are better than iPhone owners. Why is that?
You used to get the same on BBC Radio 4 too. The presenters were happy not to know about URLs and the Internet. Somehow if you can stay ignorant it makes you a better person. Whatever, the fact that everything is compared with the iPhone shows what an impact it has had. Don't put it all down to advertising either, they wouldn't sell as many as they do based on that alone.
A bit too low specced for me....
The lack of 3G/HSDPA for simple web-browsing is quite off-putting. Granted, it's not essential and Opera Mini's compression option helps to make up for the lack of speed. But, it sure is nice to have the speed of 3G/HSDPA when one does want to web-browse.
Another thing I'm surprised about is the really low talk time listed for this phone: According to the specs, posted over at GSMArena, the talk time is a mere 3.5 hours. That's really quite low for a 2.5G phone. Even my dear old, long departed SE W810i - stolen and replaced with a Nokia 6500 Slide - could go for 8 hours.
Personally, I'd dismiss this phone and spend a bit more money to get the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic instead. Even at a slightly higher price point the 5800 is better value for the money.
Bought this...
I bought this for my girlfriend as one of her christmas presents. For the money you really can't beat it. She isn't a huge phone person so doesn't really NEED any advanced features.
She will use this mainly just as a phone more than a music player etc as she has an iPod for that. But she does like the idea of touch screen input etc.
I checked the phone over very quickly and it seems pretty decent. The menus were quick and easy to navigate and it runs pretty fluidly, obviously not as smooth as a high end phones such as the iPhone, but at this price point its perfect for people who don't want or need the top of the range kit.
I'd be happy to use this as a phone, but do prefer my N95 8GB and i'm not a huge fan of touch screens. Although theres not many devices which have such a smooth UI as the iPhone.
The LG is great for the price if you want a touchscreen. Hopefully she does like the phone when she gets it tomorrow lol. If she doesn't it can always be swapped.
On a side note when I got it I did it as a "PAYG" upgrade on o2 at Carphone Warehouse and she is getting £24 of credit since she has topped up £240 since her last "PAYG upgrade". Pretty good!
Really Appealing but I Wouldn't Buy It
It really looks pretty and it also has some good practical sides: the document reader, good organizer, e-mail, Opera Mini should produce decent results on that screen... It's not a smartphone, but it doesn't seem half dumb either, especially for the price.
On the other hand, the prices of Internet access through GPRS or EDGE are extortionate around here so I woudln't be using things that depend on it alot, and my portable music player certainly does a better job as far as listening to music is concerned, while my current phone has a much better battery life, so, while being quite decent for the price, the Cookie has little to offer me.
Damn my new phone!
If I was in the market for a new phone I'd be *very* interested. Maybe it'll be good to see other cheap alternatives spring up now :)
