It looks like LG have been playing their own version of will it blend. There’s no need to tell you they’re not playing for fun – they’re rather trying to squeeze some more cash off a couple of hot-selling handsets. So, here’s the deal. Get your blender, throw in an LG Arena and a Cookie and set the speed to “budget”. And there you have it – an LG GD510 Pop – ready to be served to the happy masses. The “pop” LG are going for is definitely “popular”, as opposed to the “popstar stuff” some of you may have hoped for.

You can go ahead and call it the new Cookie, or the low-cost Arena, but the LG Pop is quite obviously keen to have its own purpose and personality. The optional battery cover fitting a solar panel and the all-round eco-friendliness are one way for it to stand on its own two feet as a phone.

LG GD510 Pop official photos

Apart from that, the Pop is just another midrange touchscreen. And this is by no means a guilty verdict. The LG Cookie used to be just another touchscreen too. Certainly not now – over 5 million units sold later. The Pop is perhaps setting its hopes high as well. Let’s see if the classic unisex design, the feature mix and the affordable price tag can do it for it too.

Key features:

• 3.0″ 256K-color TFT LCD touchscreen display (240×400 pixels)
• 3.15 megapixel fixed focus camera, QVGA video @ 15fps
• Quad-band GSM support
• Bluetooth with A2DP and microUSB v2.0
• microSD card memory expansion
• Standard microUSB port
• FM radio with RDS
• Widget interface and LiveSquare homescreen
• Accelerometer sensor for automatic screen rotation and turn-to-mute
• Landscape on-screen QWERTY keyboard
• Office document viewer
• Smart dialing
• Nice battery life
• Optional solar panel battery cover
• Allegedly affordable price

Main disadvantages:

• No 3G support, no Wi-Fi
• Display has poor sunlight legibility
• No DivX/XviD video support
• Camera lacks autofocus and flash
• Video recording maxes out at QVGA@15fps
• No standard 3.5mm audio jack

There’s something about the styling of the Pop that might misguide users to expect Arena-like functionality. In fact, the only Arena stuff inside is the S-Class-styled main menu – the rest of the interface is like on the LG Cookie. The important features for the mass user are there but the expected price bracket doesn’t really imply high-end specs.

Many people might miss the camera autofocus and 3G support. And yes, some would have been delighted to get Wi-Fi support on the spec sheet. To us, the most important omission – given the potential target audience – is DivX/XviD support. Anyway, the reason for all that is more than clear: specs are sticking to the basics to keep the price tag comfortably low.

LG GD510 Pop live shots

We guess, there’s no reason to construe the GD510 Pop as an upgrade to the LG KP500 Cookie. The Pop is simply the next LG handset to try and tap on the demand for basic affordable touchscreens. An inevitable response to what Samsung are doing with the Star, the Preston and the Corby. To set it apart from the Cookie, the Pop was given some of the LG Arena styling, an optional solar panel and has taken an altogether greener stance.

We praised the Cookie for its handling and style, and the Pop has quite a lot to live up to. The first impression is promising enough though. The Arena-like looks and absolutely minimalist exterior may receive a warm enough reception.

More on the LG GD510 Pop coming up after the jump. We can safely say the LG Pop looks above its class but let’s see how it handles.

LG is trying to build on the success of the LG KP500 Cookie and have announced the LG GD510 Pop to do just that. They advertise it as the most compact 3-inch touchscreen bar ever – and keeping in mind how tiny the Cookie was, that should stand for something.

LG used consumer research to figure out what should have been obvious from the number of Cookies sold – people really, really like affordable full touchscreen phones. The design process of the LG GD510 went pretty much like this – design a high-end handset, then drop all the features most people don’t use to arrive at a mid-range price.

The LG GD510 Pop

LG reminds us that they were the first to release a fully touch operated phone – the LG Prada, though that’s not quite true (this is more like it).

Anyway, to back up their claims they demonstrated how innovative they can be. In tune with the strive for simplicity, the GD510 Pop has just one button but it serves different functions, easily distinguishable by the backlight of the button – either green or red. It can be used as Call or End key, Menu or Cancel key, you get the idea.

Anyway, the LG Pop has a brushed aluminum frame and an TV-set inspired extra thin bezel around the screen – only 4.8 mm. Speaking of the screen, it has a 3″ diagonal and WQVGA resolution (240 x 400 pixels). The GD510 Pop also sports a roomy 8GB internal memory and a 3MP camera.

There’s more – the exact specs of the GD510 are still shady, but three of the promo shots feature a solar panel. It seems that the special back cover with the solar panel will be optional.

LG GD510 Pop flaunts the optional solar panel

Here’s an official promo video, which however doesn’t reveal anything more about the handset:

Initially, the LG GD510 Pop will be available in Europe, starting mid-October and expanding to other markets later on. The price will be different for each market, so it’ll be announced individually.

When talking about good design it’s usually all about placing the right elements in the right places. And in the rare cases when an R&D team actually comes up with something innovative, they usually reserve it for a 2000 buck handset like the Motorola Aura. The LG GD900 Crystal and its see-through keypad, however, prefers walking among the mortals to sitting on mount Olympus and drinking ambrosia.