Review LG’s making a habit of this. Having taken touchscreen phones into the mass market with the release of the Cookie, the maker of the upscale Renoir is now aiming to do the same with eight-megapixel handsets, with the help of its more affordable KC780.

LG's KC780: eight million pixels on a budget

Unlike the Renoir and Cookie, the KC780 doesn’t have a touchscreen. Instead, it’s a slider aimed at mid-level mobile buyers who put cameraphone shooting high up their feature wish-list.

That 8m pixel-packing camera certainly heads the spec list on this device, which has a far more modest mix of functionality than the Renoir or even other current eight-megapixel offerings, like Sony Ericsson's Cyber-shot C905 and Samsung's Pixon and i8510.

The KC780 doesn’t do 3G or Wi-Fi. It’s a tri-band GSM device relying on GPRS/Edge for data connectivity. There’s no GPS and no smartphone OS. Instead, it majors on its shooting facilities, with an assortment of high-end camera software, including face and smile detection, to go with its Schneider-Kreuznach lens and that pixel-packed image sensor. Higher than average quality video capture and a slow-motion recording option add to the package.

Besides the shooter, LG slips in a fairly standard set of mid-tier mobile functionality. Regular phone fare such as music and video players, an FM radio and organiser tools tick the requisite boxes, while Bluetooth is present too – and with a novel function that can employ the phone as a Bluetooth webcam when connected to a PC.

There’s little to turn heads with the KC780’s design. It’s a large-ish slider, measuring 105 x 51 x 13.7mm and weighing 119g – lighter and slimmer than the C905 sliderphone. But it’s no pulse-racer, with just a slight bulge on the back panel the only indication that there’s something out of the ordinary about it.