LG GS290

LG GS290 Cookie Fresh

The LG Cookie Fresh updates the original Cookie, which we reviewed over a year ago. If you want a touchscreened handset and are strapped for cash, then it might entice at £129.99 (though as ever, shop around. We found it for £109 at Play.com). But at this price you're looking at some compromises both in terms of features, design and build materials, and in the end we think you might do better looking elsewhere.

On the features front, this has the odd distinction of not being 3G-capable. It's quad-band GSM with GPRS and EDGE, and that has an obvious impact on data download speeds over the network. If you think you can shift to Wi-Fi, think again – it's absent. Mobile internet fans steer clear. There's no GPS either, and the camera shoots at just 2MP.

The Cookie Fresh GS290 is a mostly black handset. It has some silver highlights including the front 'multitasking' button beneath the screen and, on some models, the bottom edge is sliver too.

You've got six colour options for the rest of the edging – black, red, blue, pink, light green and silver. Our review sample was the rather dull black, but the others all add a strip of brightness to what is otherwise a bog-standard design.

The Cookie Fresh GS290 is small and light at 108mm tall, 52.9mm wide and 12.5mm thick and it weighs, according to our scales, a mere 92g. So it is very light for the bag, small for the pocket, and neat in the hand.

The obviously plastic build materials are fairly solid. The Cookie Fresh GS290 might not survive a drop from a few stories up, but it ought to manage a tumble or two down stairs at home, or even onto the pavement.

The side-mounted ports, connectors and buttons are pretty much as you would expect. While the bottom is clear of any connectors, there is a welcome 3.5mm headset connector on the top.

On the right edges there is the mains power connector which is a nicely modern micro-USB format as well as screen lock and camera buttons.

On the left are a volume rocker and microSD card slot. Both this and the mains power connector are protected by hinged covers.

The screen is a 3-inch resistive option and it delivers 240 x 400 pixels. These are minimal requirements for a touchscreened smartphone, and do limit how well you can do things like browsing the web. Beneath the screen are Call and End buttons and a very clever little multitasking button. Press this and it opens up an area listing your favourite apps on one tab and opened apps between which you can easily switch to on another tab.