TOUCHSCREEN mobile phones have been cropping up in fairly large numbers in the local market for the past few years now.  

Unfortunately, the transition from punch-in diallers to touchscreens has not taken off on a big scale.  

A lot people still love punching in their information, like dialling their contact numbers or hammering out a text message, instead of using a stylus to execute the same task via touchscreen. 

The more robust users may not find it appealing because it takes more effort to care for a touchscreen compared to a normal punch-in dialler.  

I recently got my hands on one of the latest touchscreen models to hit the market, the iKoMo iK818. 

After testing this South Korean mobile phone, I’m of the opinion that those who want to change from their punch-in diallers to touchscreens should consider the iK818.  

Screen gets two thumbs up
The most important aspect of any touchscreen mobile phone is the screen itself. 

It must be big enough, the backlight must be bright enough and the resolution must be high enough to give a clear view of text messages and images. 

The iK818 gives a good account of itself in all those major areas.  

It comes with a 2.2in TFT (thin-film transistor) screen with 260,000 colours. 

The 640 x 480pixel resolution is high enough for reading text and viewing images. 

The incorporation of three backlight options – Normal (on for 10 seconds and dim mode for 20 seconds before going off), Save Mode 1 (goes off after 10 seconds) and Save Mode 2 (dim mode, off after 20 seconds) – is good for saving energy. 

Camera and others
The built-in camera comes with a 4x digital zoom and I found the image quality to be satisfactory for still shots.  

The camera has all the standard functions – self-timer, five modes (auto, sunny, cloudy, fluorescent, tungsten), and three options for quality – high, medium and low. 

The incorporation of a flash, which is placed next to the shutter at the back panel is another good idea in my book. 

I tried it out in pitch-black conditions, and the images came out better than I expected.  

Unfortunately, those who love to SMS a lot will have to get used to slower texting in the initial stages.  

The iK818 comes with a stylus, which is placed neatly at the bottom right hand corner of the phone.  

I took a few days to get used to the stylus, but the texting got faster as the days went by.  

The jog dial on the side panel makes it easier to navigate the menus on the phone. 

But I don’t think it was necessary to have another key next to the jog dial for keypad activation. 

Instead, iKoMo should have just incorporated the keypad activation as part of another jog dial function to give the iK818 a sleeker look. 

PDA-like
The iK818 looks like a mini PDA (personal digital assistant) and it does have a few of the functions. For example, I found the scheduler very useful.  

The package also comes with the very useful PCSync2005 software. 

The software makes life a lot easier. You can use it to synchronise all items on the to-do list, but the best part is using the software to send and receive SMS once you have the iK818 hooked up to your PC. 

Things get more interesting with the cool avatar option, which gives users the ability to tinker with a lot of options when creating an avatar for your screen.  

As for grip, the phone’s dimensions of 88 x 51 x 16mm allows for a firm hold. The edges are rounded and it weighs only 75g.  

This makes it fit easily in almost any pocket without creating an unsightly bulge. 

Conclusion
Apart from having to get used to the rather small stylus and virtual keypad, the iK818 is a user friendly mobile phone.  

A first time user will find it easy to locate all the main functions by trial and error. You won’t have to spend hours reading the manual trying to find out how things work.  

Pros: Good screen quality small lightweight user-friendly
 

Cons: Using the stylus might be a tedious task for first timers.

• Tags : iKoMo iK818