Judging a book by its cover
If you put the LG Cookie (KP500 to be proper) and Samsung Tocco (F480) side by side, you wouldn’t be a fool for thinking one could body double for the other. Indeed, the similarities are plentiful and the differences quite minor.

Both are from the minimalist school of thinking when it comes to front-facing buttons, with the Cookie and the Tocco preferring to jump on the touchscreen bandwagon. There’s not much in it when it comes to screen size, with the Cookie having a slight edge at 3-inch compared with the Tocco’s 2.8-inch. But what’s an nth of an inch between friends, eh?

Dimension-wise, the handsets are level-pegging it in terms of depth and width, with not much in it either when it comes to height (Cookie: 55.4x11.9x106.5mm, Tocco 55x11.6x98.4mm).

The Cookie does take the biscuit when it comes to resolution, offering up 240 x 400 pixels to the Tocco’s 240 x 320 and its steals the latter’s thunder once again when it comes to being a dainty thing, weighing in at just 87g compared with Samsung’s offering which weighs a little over 100g.

Both handsets display a classy black finish although it’s fair to say that the Tocco has an edge here, given the Cookie’s budget price tag and associated materials line up and that Samsung is using its brushed chrome-esque finesse and metal and plastic finish to the fight against LG’s plastics.

While the Italians might use Tocco as their word for ‘touch’ we found the touchscreen element of this phone a bit lacking whereas the Cookie’s highly responsive user-friendliness left us hungry for more – and without really needing to disturb the stylus from its rear housing.

More bang for your buck
Both the Cookie and the Tocco are likely available from free depending on what contract you’re willing to sign up to. But it’s the SIM-free pricing that may shock or surprise.

A penny short of £150 and the Cookie is all yours, bringing with it EDGE rather than 3G, GPS or Wi-Fi, while the Tocco’s price tag is a more hefty £330 but for that you’ll get up to 7.2Mbps HSDPA action but again no Wi-Fi.

That said, both the browser and the associated web browsing experience on the Tocco could be much improved and clunk-free given the vital connectivity statistics involved.

All about the UI
LG’s Cookie and Samsung’s Tocco both delight when it comes to the UI, collectively offering up a nicely designed homescreen that is customisable by dragging, dropping and swiping.

Given what the Cookie is up against in terms of higher-end touchscreen devices who pack quite a punch both in terms of features and financially, it stands its ground well with a great UI.

The Tocco doesn’t disappoint either with good use of icons and 3D animation and widgets rather than the cross system. Users are also treated to a desktop vertical dock from which they can access either default apps or those added through personalisation.

In terms of user-friendliness, one big draw is the fact that the Cookie makes use of an accelerometer, while, alas, the Tocco does not.

Something for the weekend?
For those who want to work on the go, the Cookie features email support and a document viewer. For those who’d rather forget about – or avoid – work, there’s an FM tuner with built-in RDS, in addition to multimedia support for the usual suspects in audio and video. Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP is also supported in addition to a fairly standard 3MP camera.

Radio buffs will find an FM radio on the Tocco, in addition to a high-quality music player, which lets you skip the tracks/parts of songs that make you angry/remind you of a past relationship using your thumb. Its 5MP camera blows the Cookie’s away both in features and results.

Support for microSD is evident with both models serving up support for an additional 8GB, which is enough for most users’ needs. It’s a good job extra capacity is up for grabs as the Cookie only has 48MB of onboard memory compared with the Tocco’s 223MB of user memory.

Both handsets will let you get away with a couple of days’ use before you need to charge them, although despite leaving much less of a dent in your pocket than the Tocco, the Cookie will stay powered up for a bit longer – provided you’re not a power user that is.

Verdict
We love the Cookie and the Tocco and would happily – like a pushy mother - put both on the stage for users to adore. Alas we have to choose one as the star and based on what you get for your money in an increasingly cost-savvy market, our cash is on the Cookie. 

Read the full Samsung Tocco F480 review

Read the full LG KP500 Cookie review

See all the 'Versus' articles on our Head-to-head home page