You're not just limited to SMS text messaging to comunicate on the LG GW520. The handset features an easy to set up and use email aplication meaningyou can get almost PC-based experiences on your mobile.

Here's how to set up and use both POP3/IMAP email accounts and web-based accounts:

Microsoft Exchange

1. From the homescreen, tap the menu icon situated on the bottom right side of the screen.
2. Scroll to Message settings on the Settings menu (Figure 1).
3. Select Email (Figure 2) and then Email Accounts (Figure 3).
4. Select Add Account (Figure 4).
5. Confirm that you want to set up a new account (Figure 5).
6. Select Microsoft Exchange (Figure 6).
7. Fill in all the details required, plus specify which information you want your phone to be synched with and select continue (Figure 7).
8. When asked to update your inbox, select yes and your email will be set up (Figure 8).

Web-based email

1. Follow instructions 1-5 for setting up a Microsoft Exchange email address.
2. Select Others (Figure 6).
3. Enter your email address and password (Figure 9).
4. Select Continue.
5. Enter your account username and your account will be set up.
6. When asked, confirm you want to update your inbox (Figure 8).

How to retrieve email on Microsoft Exchange and web-based services

1. From the homescreen, click on the bottom right hand icon to access the menu.
2. Scroll along on the top communication bar to find Email icon.
3. Select the email account you want to retrieve email for.
4. Tap the menu icon and select retrieve new (Figure 10).
5. Any new emails will then appear in your inbox.

To write an email, simply select the account you wish to send an email from and tap the blue bar which says Write Email. Create the email and tap send.

The touchscreen LG GW520 is designed to be easy to use, with a host of onscreen touch-operated gadgetry to help you get to features and open application quickly and efficiently.

To aid usability, the LG GW520 supports onscreen widgets - mini applications that enable you to operate functions and view information from the phone's home screen.

LG has set up the GW520 with four alternative home screens, each displaying a different icon-based view of function and content shortcuts, which you can swipe between and select with a finger stroke. These home screens cover Contacts, Multimedia (video and music), Shortcuts, and Widgets.

The Widgets home screen can be customised with your own choice of widgets from a selection pre-loaded on to the phone. You an add any combination of these widgets, which include: communication apps (shortcuts for email, messaging inbox, voicemail and missed calls), clock/alarm, memo, calendar, calculator, radio, M-Toy games, world clock, a weather forecast app, and cell broadcast messages.

Here's how to set up and use the Widgets home screen...

1. In home screen mode, swipe your finger across the display until you get to the Widgets home screen (Figure 1). Initially, it shows just Clock/alarm and Communications applications widgets.
2. To open up and use one these, press the widget icon onscreen for a moment. In the Communications widget panel, which contains four options, you need to press the appropriate part to activate the option you require (Figure 2).
3. For the Clock/alarm widget, press to open. To set the alarm, press the small clock symbol in the bottom left of the widget to bring up setting options (Figure 3). You can set the alarm by rotating the dial with a finger swipe (Figure 4).
4. To close a widget, press the small box with the '-' symbol in the top right corner of the widget.
5. To change the selection of widgets that appear onscreen, first press and hold your finger on one of the onscreen widgets. The screen changes; a Widgets toolbar appears along the bottom of the display. Also 'x's appear in a small box in the corner of each onscreen widget (Figure 5).
6. To remove a widget, press the small 'x' box on the widget. It will disappear off the main part of the screen into the toolbar (Figure 6).
7. To add a widget, press the icon in the toolbar on the bottom of the screen that represents the widget you want to add. The widget appears onscreen (Figure 7). You can select as many widgets as you want in the same way, or remove them as outlined above whenever you want (Figure 8).
8. Note that some of the widgets may be hidden to the right of the toolbar; these can be brought onscreen by pressing the small arrow on the right hand of the toolbar (Figure 9).
9. Once you have widgets on the main part of the screen, you can move them around wherever you like by pressing your finger on the widget icon onscreen, holding it and dragging it. Remove your finger to leave it in place (Figure 10).
10. Alternatively you can re-order your onscreen widgets into a grid by pressing the grid icon button in the top left of the display, featuring six small squares (Figure 11).
11. To exit and save your changes to the Widget home screen, press the return arrow button in the top right of the display (Figure 12).
12. The screen will return to its original format, but with your new widgets displayed (Figure 13).
13. As before, to open up a widget, press it for a moment and it will expand onscreen, with application controls or options displayed (Figure 14).

The LG GW520 might look like a smartphone, but it actually brings together elements of two previous LG midrange handsets, the KP500 Cookie and the KS360.

It certainly looks like the Cookie, with its large touch screen above three buttons – call start and stop/power, plus a shortcuts/task manager. But it also has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard à la KS360.

The 2.8-inch screen displays 262,000 colours with a 240x400 pixel resolution so it's sharp and clear, and just about big enough for viewing videos longer than a pop promo.

Around the sides are the volume buttons, screen lock key, shutter key and microSD memory card slot with a microUSB power/headphone slot on top.

But the star of the show is the slide-out QWERTY keyboard, which LG has done a fairly good job of disguising. Most QWERTY handsets are heavy, rotund affairs, but at 107x53x16mm and 125g, the GW520 is more pocket-friendly than most.

It slides out to the left to reveal four lines of keys (40 in all) that are well spaced out and clearly demarcated in slightly bulbous tactile plastic. The numeric section is marked by a different coloured background as are the arrow keys and all in all it's a joy to use.

It's a shame that the same couldn't be said about the screen though. All touch screens should be sensitive enough to react to your presses yet be robust enough to distinguish between a tap and a brush.

The GW520's resistive screen we found to be pretty inconsistent, especially when using the browser, and we often had to make repeated jabs at the screen for our instructions to take effect.

The GW520 reprises the widget-based interface we've seen on other LG touchscreen phones, with a tray at the bottom of the screen from which you can drag and drop widgets for a variety of functions onto your home screen and arrange them how you like.

The line-up is good, as far as it goes, with analogue and digital world clocks, messages, web search, music player, FM radio, notes, image slideshow, calendar, weather, push e-mail and Facebook. But you can't add to the widgets from the menu, so there's no widget for your internet home page or movie player, which seems a shame.

Brush the homescreen to the side and LG has a surprise for you. Livesquare is an animated home screen featuring a park, field or zoo populated by avatars of your contacts. You can choose animal or human avatars and each displays their current status, including how many messages they've sent you or if they've called.

If you haven't assigned an avatar to a caller, they appear with a question mark for a head. It's a nice, if non-essential option, though it would have been better with a greater number of avatars to choose from, though this may follow as a software update.

Email is easy to set up, and you'll only need your address and password in most cases. A useful option is push email, which you'll need to set up separately and keep running in the background if you want to benefit from up-to-the-minute mail gathering.

There's also a Facebook app which allows you to keep tabs on your profile but unfortunately it won't push your updates to you, push email style – you'll need to check it manually to see what's going on.

The 3-megapixel camera is a basic affair with no flash and no autofocus. It starts up reasonably quickly however at a shade under four seconds and takes pictures with barely a one second delay, so it's not bad for quick snaps.

It can take pics at up to 2048x1536 pixels and the slim parade of extras includes burst mode (three, six or nine pics), night mode and a timer (three, five or ten seconds). There's an editing suite that allows you to add text, drawings or icons as well as effects such as oil painting and pixilation.

Picture quality isn't bad if you're careful with your light, producing fairly sharp edges with minimal fringing. Video drops the quality by recording in QVGA resolution at just 12fps, but you can augment your vids with audio or text overdubs and merge videos together with a variety of fade options.

Videos look good on the screen incidentally, though we could only get it to play MPEG4 format. Music offered a greater variety of codecs, including MP3, AAC and WMA, but it's a pity there's no 3.5mm headphone jack to upgrade the tinny supplied headphones. The FM radio with 50 presets worked fine though.

The browser is a bit of a shambles – slow and awkward in a way no modern browser should be. It's not helped by the lack of Wi-Fi, which denies you access to broadband, though it does have the next best thing, HSDPA 3G with up to 7.2Mbps download speeds, if your network supports it. Zooming proved to be awkward since pressing a point on the screen produced intermittent results, and the outsize menu bars are very intrusive.

Memory-wise there's a pathetic 40MB on board though you can bump this up to 16GB via microSD card, though there's none supplied. The battery holds up pretty well though, delivering on LG's promise of 4.5 hours of talk time and 500 hours of standby with a good two days and more of moderate use before needing a recharge.

The LG GW520 is a decent looking phone and that well executed QWERTY keyboard makes messaging a breeze. But it's let down by that unresponsive touch screen and shoddy browser, and we'd have really liked to have had Wi-Fi.