The LG Cookie Plus 3G, or GS500, is a low-priced 3G smart phone - the latest model in the touch-screen Cookie Series.
The GS500 retails for only Bt5,990 and comes with a free 8GB microSD card. It uses HSDPA 3.6Mbps as its 3G connection.
When it was used in an area covered by TOT's 3G network, it was good for browsing Web pages on the go and for connecting with social networks.
It comes will the usual social-networking applications for Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. You can also use it for watching YouTube video clips and searching for Web pages using Google Service.
Best of all, the GS500 also supports push mail from certain mail services, including Gmail and MSN.
Other useful widgets and applications include AccWeather, and you can also download Amazon Search, Fox News, eBay Search and The New York Times.
Another nice thing is that this touch-screen phone supports an on-screen Qwerty keyboard for easy typing. I found, however, that the Qwerty keyboard sometimes fails to show up, like when I was setting up my mail accounts and entering e-mail addresses and passwords.
Another attractive feature of the GS500 is that it comes with a 3.5mm stereo jack, so you can plug in your high-quality stereo headphones and use the phone as an MP3 player. The stereo headset provided with the phone also produced good quality music during the test. The GS500 also has an FM tuner that is easy to use.
Like other LG Cookie-series phones, the GS500 has three home-screen styles: LiveSquare, a home screen with speed-dial shortcuts and a home screen with shortcuts to widgets and applications.
The LiveSquare home screen makes the Cookie series popular among younger users. It has a cartoon-styled user interface with customisable colour themes and animated avatars representing the user and contacts. It keeps track of conversations between you and your contacts by showing linked avatars. You can alter the history of the conversations when the screen is getting crowded.
Overall, the LG Cookie Plus 3G is good value for money at this price.
Key specifications: LG Cookie Plus 3G (GS500)
Network: Edge\GPRS\GSM: 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz; HSDPA: 2100 MHz
Camera: 3 megapixels
Display: LCD 3-inch TFT 262k (240 x 400)
Memory: 30MB internal; expandable with microSD up to 8GB
Battery: lithium-ion, 900mAh
Dimensions (mm): 107 x 52.5 x 11.5