LG’s latest Android phone offers an affordable way to enter the world of Android, but are its cut corners too hard to swallow? We take a full look in this LG GW620 InTouch Max review.

Other than its tasty price point, the slide-out Qwerty keyboard is the star of the show. The LG GW620 isn’t a large phone – with a 3-inch touchscreen it’s significantly smaller than the Google Nexus One and iPhone – but the intelligent layout of its physical keyboard makes typing away on it a joy. Each key is discrete, and the definite gap between each one makes touch typing possible, once you’ve trained your brain and fingers to match up with the GW620 keyboard’s dimensions.

The keyboard does mean the phone is a tad thicker than ultra-slim models, but the LG GW620 is still entirely pocket-friendly. Unfortunately, its touchscreen isn’t as successful as its keyboard. It uses a resistive touch panel, which requires more pressure from your finger.

Touchscreen phones are continually heading away from this pressure sensitive type in favour of the capacitive kind of screen, which responds to very light touches just as well as harder presses. As far as resistive screens go, the LG GW620 packs a good one, but it makes navigation feel clumsier and slower than that of the top Androids.

The cost of low price shows up in the operating system too. There’s a handy S-Class interface you can lay on top of the vanilla Android interface if you like – as seen on previous phones like the LG Arena – but the LG GW620 uses Andriod 1.5 rather than the latest 2.1 edition. With some Android Market browsing, you can plug some of those feature gaps with apps, but we’d have hoped a newer version of the OS on a new phone.

The later version of Android offers improved built-in Google-made apps plus a better Android Market. At least it has enough power to run Android 1.5 at a fair lick.

It’s unrealistic to expect the LG GW620 to compete with Android superstars like the HTC Legend and Google Nexus One though. It may not wow, but it performs well across the board, with great connectivity features including Wi-Fi, HSDPA and A-GPS – the 3.5mm jack is a feature we’re very happy to see too. For the price, it’s a bit of a bargain, especially if you’re going to make good use of the LG GW620’s great slide-out keyboard.

Verdict
Its budget roots show, thanks to the resistive touchscreen and outdated OS, but otherwise the GW620 is an accomplished performer, with a great keyboard and all the features you need in an Android

We Love
Wi-Fi, 3G and A-GPS included
Affordable
Good physical keyboard

We Hate
Uses Android 1.5
Resistive touchscreen

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