A few months ago we had an advanced look at the LG Cookie Fresh phone, the successor to the original LG Cookie KP500 phone that sold over ten million units worldwide. We concluded that it was a good entry-level phone with plenty of decent features including an effective integrated social networking tool.

Well you no longer have to take my word for it as both mobilechoiceuk and Which? have both posted reviews of the pre-production sample.

Here’s a quick recap of the specifications for those who missed them the first time round:

• 3.0” WQVGA touchscreen
• 2.0MP camera
• MP3 player
• Micro SD support
• Bluetooth™
• USB 2.0
• 3.5 mm headphone jack
• Easily personalized homescreen

Mobilechoiceuk observe that the slight change in shape, with a new slimmer, taller design in comparison to the original Cookie, allows for a virtual QWERTY keypad on the touchscreen compared with the old compact T9 keypad. They go on to say the resistive touchscreen (a conscious decision on LG’s behalf to keep the price down) is responsive and colourful, while the handwriting recognition feature is as good as on any phone they have used. They conclude by saying that, as was proved by the original Cookie, there is definitely a market for “a handset that has integrated social networking, a friendly user interface and most appealing of all, an attractive price tag”.

For the full review visit the mobilechoiceuk site here

Which? have posted their own video review of the Cookie fresh which offers a good visual guide to the phone, showing the simplicity and ease of navigation on the handset. They flag up the integrated social networking, music player and gesture shortcuts (meaning you can trace a shape on the screen as a shortcut) as highlights, whilst the lack of 3G is the main down point in the reviewer’s opinion.  To watch the full review yourself follow the link here.