Design and Looks
It is no secret that touchscreens suffer from generic and uninspiring designs. While technically, the LG BL40 New Chocolate is no exception to the rule, it's tall and slender form gives this genre of phone a fresh breath of air. But even so, the style is simple and it's only the phone's odd length-to-width ratio that exudes a sense of confidence and class. Like the original chocolate, the phone features piano black gloss that is a finger-print magnet. The sides of the phone play home to subtle metallic accents that also house some hardware keys. The keys blend seamlessly with the lines and are almost unnoticeable but to the discerning eye.
Naturally, to compliment the phone's tall structure is an equally tall (and hence narrow) display. Diagonally, this screen measures 4.01 inches and has a widescreen aspect ratio of 21:9. The screen has one of the best image reproductions that we have seen and features good pixel density. The screen's legibility is great and so is its touch-sensitivity. A final affirmation of the screen's quality is its scratch resistant nature.
The tall form makes single-handed operation of the phone difficult but strangely it is surprisingly comfortable to hold on to when making calls. But the phone, for the impact it makes is worth its few ergonomic shortcomings.
The phone sports the S-class user interface. Its standby screen has gesture lock and gesture launch for nine predefined applications. Users have can choose between any 12 gestures to invoke the nine applications. The homescreen is a cubiod with four accessible faces. Each of the four is dedicated to one set of apps or function. These are shortcuts, widgets, contacts and bookmarks. Users need to use touch to move the cuboid around and invoke the desired section.
The phone's telephony is great. Call reception and quality now only depends on the network and as far as the phone goes, it's doing its best to keep connected. Messaging is provided by a large on screen QWERTY that also offers vobrational feedback. The larger size of each key ensures that typos are minimized. There is also the option to text with an alphanumeric keypad instead.
Media on a phone with a display like this has got to be a treat and LG promises to deliver on this. The photo gallery, features nice functionality including pinch zoom. Obviously, it's the large screen and the good imaging capability that makes viewing pictures (in landscape) an unmatched experience. The video player is capable of playing almost any kind of videos, including DivX and XviD, as long as it's below D1 resolution. And like the image gallery, it's the large screen and quality picture that make watching videos on this handset a treat. The phone's audio quality is good and with the inclusion of a 3.5mm audio port, users can plug in any kind of headset.
The phone's camera is a 5MP unit that uses a Schneider Kreuznach lens. The camera interface has multiple options including image stabilization, geo-tagging, face track, blink detection, smile detection, beauty shot, to name a few. There are also a lot of photo-editing options right off the box which advanced users should look forward to. As regards the picture quality, it is extremely good for a 5MP unit although there are instances of high noise levels and oversharpening.
Like any modern day touchphone, the Chocolate has all round connectivity. Web browsing on the phone promises to be a little disappointing. And here, the odd-aspect-ratio screen actually leads to a less wholesome experience in both portrait and landscape modes. But what really blows about the browser is the lack of flash support. On the up-side the browser loads pages quickly and shuffling through windows is easy as there is an option to view multiple windows on a single screen.
GPS is one of the phone's many connectivity options. And the in-built GPS receiver integrates well with the Wisepilot software. Wisepilot makes use of NAVTEQ maps. NAVTEQ have one of the most extensive map databases in the world. Integration with Google Maps is also seamless and users may prefer the free Google Maps to Wisepilot.
Other applications include an extensive organizer and the Picsel office document viewer. Picsel also helps execute PDF files. Finally there are games and innumerable widgets on the phone that complete the applications package.
Before we conclude this review, remember that the stylish and chic New Chocolate is not a smartphone. But it performs like one, wouldn't you agree?
Features
- Unique touch-bar design
- 4-inch 16-million capacitive touchscreen of 21:9 aspect ratio
- 5MP autofocus camera with Schneider-Kreuznach lens
- Wide range of connectivity options
- GPS receiver with A-GPS support and Wisepilot GPS app
- 1.1GB internal memory
- Standard 3.5mm audio jack with Dolby Mobile sound enhancement
- S-class user interface with pinch zoom support and gesture control
- DivX//XviD codecs support for video player
- Picsel office document viewer
