LG’s bargain touchscreen phone

Hit by hard times? Financial markets got you worried about dropping bucks on a shiny new phone? LG feels your pain and wants to reach out to all those folks who want the sexy touchscreen-type phone with the aptly named KP500. KP as in “Kitchen Pass,” as in you won’t need to check with your significant other to buy it thanks to its super low retail price. Unfortunately, I suspect LG did not name it the KP for that reason.

But what LG did do on purpose is make this phone interesting. It is a GSM phone that will first drop in Europe at the end of October, then the KP500 (I can hear you say “Kitchen Pass” in your head every time you read that name) goes on to conquer the rest of the world. Its screen features auto-rotation and an on screen keyboard, just like the big boys. There is also a stylus for all you folks worried about typing on a screen as well as handwriting recognition software on board to help decipher your chicken scratches. Using the styles you can write texts and emails in your own handwriting, which is a bit different.

Offered in black (which needs no marketing help), Vandyke brown, Anodizing silver, and Elegant gold. Brown, LG really? I’ll see you at the end of the week I suspect in my Who’s on crack column. I’ll move past it for now. LG says this phone is slim and benefits from other LG models such as the Viewty and Prada phones.

LG expects to ship the phone with games and photo-editing software. Depending on how much work goes into the applications, this could be a great little phone. I am on the edge of my seat already.

The price will be announced at launch and will be at an “affordable introduction price never offered before” according to LG.

Release [LG]