LG GW520

The LG GW520 is an unusual cellular phone. It has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, like a business phone, but there's no Wi-Fi, so you can't access broadband internet and there's no option to add apps like you can with a smart phone.

But it is a slender and smooth affair and includes LG's widget-based interface, push email, quad-band GSM, HSDPA 3G, a 3-megapixel camera and FM radio.

There's also a couple of nods to social networking with a Facebook app and LG's Live square, which offers a picturesque way of keeping track of your contacts.

LG is clearly aiming it at the middle of the market, but to keep down costs it has also dispensed with camera flash and autofocus as well as GPS and made do with very little onboard memory.

It's less of a Smartphone proper, and more of a QWERTY-packing Cookie – a low(ish) cost style phone with a little bit of extra attitude.

The LG GW520 is a neat enough looking package, with the black plastic front and sides offset by silver trim.

It seems a little on the chunky side at 107x53x16mm and 125g until you consider some of its QWERTY-packing rivals such as Nokia's E75 (112x50x14mm, 139g), or HTC's mammoth Touch Pro2 (116x59x17mm, 179g). In that company, it's actually quite svelte.

From the front it bears more than a passing resemblance to the KP500 Cookie with its touch screen and three buttons, though it doesn't come with a stylus.

The 2.8in screen is big enough, though the real estate beneath it could have been a bit better utilized than merely providing a border.