Preview of the New LG Chocolate
Here at Mobiles.co.uk, we've managed to get hands on with the LG BL40 Chocolate. Dubbed as the New Chocolate, the fourth member of LG's coveted Black Label Series brings together some interesting new features in a phone that is trying to stand out in a crowd already populated by some top performers. Read on to see what we though of LG's next touchscreen phone in our full review.
The LG BL40 features a 4.0 inch touchscreen display and as such this does have an impact on the phone. The BL40 is slightly longer (just over 1cm) than the iPhone though it is smaller in all other dimensions. The front is of course dominated by the display with the new Chocolate lacking any kind of physical buttons. At the top is the earpiece and front facing camera and at the bottom a solitary LG logo. This minimalist design certainly looks classy and earns the BL40's place in the Black Label series. On the right we find zoom/ volume keys and the camera key and on the left side we have a shortcut for the music player and the memory card slot which is hidden nicely by a user friendly cap which is easy to open and appears quite durable. At the top we get the 3.5mm jack and the power button and both the top and bottom of the phone show off a bit of flair with some bright red styling. The good looks are finished off with a silver strip that runs along both sides.
In terms of design, the LG BL40 is one of the most well made phones I've ever had the pleasure of using (and I include the iPhone when I say that). The quality of materials used is quite exceptional and together with a good weight help to deliver a really premium feel. Despite being incredibly long (the phone does after all have a 4inch widescreen display), the BL40's miniscule depth at only 11mm thick makes for a slim and sleek phone that is never too bulky or cumbersome. This really is a phone that you have to see and, more importantly, feel to understand what a good job LG have done. Then again, with the LG Secret, Shine and the original Chocolate all acting as inspiration, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the BL40 is a good looking piece of kit.
When LG first announced the BL40 last month, the feature that they were most excited about was the display. At 4.0 inches wide, the BL40 features one of the biggest displays ever found on a phone and blows rivals such as the iPhone 3GS and Nokia N97 out of the water. It's not just the size that impresses though, the BL40 pixel resolution of 800 x 345 which helps to ensure that everything looks sharp and crisp. We'll cover these in more detail later on but in short, web browsing and watching videos on the phone is a joy and combined with the minimalist design you get the impression you're looking at a dedicated portable multimedia player (or PMP) than a phone. The touchscreen on the LG BL40 is capacitive rather than resistive and it shows. The screen reacts to a simple touch rather than having to apply too much pressure and is hugely responsive for it. With the display covered in tempered glass your finger glides across the screen and as it supports multi touch, things like pinch zooming in the web browser, photo gallery and maps is possible and works well. One feature the New Chocolate boasts over the likes of the iPhone is haptic feedback which confirms your actions with a light vibration on screen where you touched. Though this can be switched off if it's not to your liking, I found it a nice addition and one that will help new comers get used to using a touchscreen if this is their first touchscreen phone.
The BL40 Chocolate runs on LG's new S-Class 3D user interface. For those unfamiliar with S-Class, users are presented with the four sides of a cube which acts as the home screen. Each side is dedicated to a specific area; the first offers widgets (customisable shortcuts that can be added to the home screen), then we have the second side which offers shortcuts to your messages and music among other things, the third side offers the web browser and connectivity details and the final side displays contacts in the form of a rolodex to which you can add images (similar to the contacts bar found on the 5530) and then flick through to get to the desired contact. The operating system works well thanks to the excellent touchscreen and is very quick and user friendly. The only minor gripe is that once you open the main menu you are overloaded with icons but once you've spent a bit of time playing around with it, you learn what hides where and will find the phone easy to navigate. S-Class as a user interface works well; it's easy to use, looks good and feels natural but the problem is it's not an operating system. The BL40 doesn't feature an operating system in the same way that Apple has OSX or Nokia has Symbian so you won't find the kind of customisation that comes with a smart phone operating system. Things like apps will be limited to Java applications which are often hit and miss so it would have been nice to see the BL40 running a smartphone operating system as well as the S-Class UI. Android makes sense as it has an ever growing app store thanks to the Android Market and has already worked well with manufacturers own UI's (as seen in the HTC Hero with its Sense UI).
The BL40 features HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity so straight away its web browsing potential is clear. With a 4.0 inch wide display the phone is able to display the entire width of a web page which eliminates the need to continuously scroll left to right to read text. For those who use the web regularly on a phone, the BL40 Chocolate is definitely worth a look. Double tapping on a specific part of a page will zoom in (in addition to using the pinch method) and pages load quickly with little effort. The phone also features a YouTube shortcut in the main menu (which can, of course, be added to the shortcut home screen) which takes users into a mobile YouTube portal and then offers comprehensive search and play facilities for the entire YouTube video library. Videos can be watched in full screen which really adds to the experience. Setting up an email account is also easy. On first firing up the phone, users are prompted with a general set up wizard that covers adding an email account. If you choose to skip this, you can also find it in the main menu. Setting up an account is easy with the phone merely needing an email address and password (I nominated a Gmail account but various others such as hotmail and yahoo are supported) and once set up you can access your mail box from the shortcuts home screen. Retrieving email and sending reply's is easy as the phone accommodates a QWERTY keyboard on screen.
The New Chocolate features a 5.0 Megapixel autofocus camera carrying LG's premium Schneider Kreuznach lens. The BL40 is complemented by a host of extras including manual focus, face tracking, macro mode (for close ups), red eye reduction, an image stabiliser and the choice of up to five different scene modes (including the likes of portrait and Sport). The phone also includes a flash though unfortunately it is a single LED (rather than the more powerful Dual LED or Xenon Flash used by others) meaning low light photos struggle once you get further than a couple of metres. The interface of the camera is similar to that found on LG's recent releases (Viewty Smart, GD900 Crystal) with the left giving you a settings bar and the right letting you switch from still to video recording. The addition of an on screen capture button and zoom bar means users can choose whether they want to use the physical buttons on the side or go for an all touchscreen approach. Photos are of a high quality and show an impressive level of detail and colours appear bright and natural. The extra features such as macro mode and face tracking work well and ensure you get the best shot possible out of every situation and with built in GPS, you can also Geo-tag photos with information relating to the location the photo was taken.. It doesn't quite reach the heights of some of its 8.0 Megapixel stable mates and an improved flash would be a welcome improvement but all in all a good camera.
The New chocolate also supports video capture in VGA quality with a 640 x 480 pixel resolution. The choice of LED over a Xenon flash means that it also doubles as a video light for nigh time videos and you can also select from auto or night settings to get the most out of the camera when recording in low light. Once you've taken a picture or video, they will be automatically saved in the gallery. This can be accessed form the shortcut home screen or the main menu. Holding the phone upright (portrait) displays photos as small thumbnails which you can touch to enlarge. The phone separates photos by the date they were taken and also keeps videos in a separate section. Turning the phone on its side enlarges the first photo in your gallery then lets you flick through by swiping your finger across the touchscreen. Once you've selected a photo, you can zoom, get the usual selection of sending options and obviously delete images/ videos.
The LG BL40 is an interesting device and quite unlike anything we've seen before. The huge display is crystal clear and perfect for web browsing and the touchscreen is among the best we've ever seen on a phone (a bold claim but justified).S-Class is also coming along nicely with the four home screens providing fast access to all the most frequently used areas of the phone. And the new phone benefits from an impressive feature set that includes high speed web access (HSDPA and Wi-Fi), built in GPS, 1GB internal memory, a memory card slot and a good solid 5.0 Megapixel camera. The New Chocolate isn't without its faults. The huge display obviously has an impact on the size of the phone making the BL40 quite a long device. This could put off some potential owners as the original chocolate was popular with the fairer sex but this newest incarnation could struggle to fit into small pockets/ bags. Another gripe is with the OS. As good as S-Class is, the use of a proprietary operating system rather than an open source smart phone OS is disappointing as it closes the door on third party apps which is fast becoming the must have for manufacturers. Wishful thinking but an LG BL40 running Android would have been an interesting proposition. Lastly, despite an excellent camera, LG have hampered it slightly with a single LED flash. Xenon flashes are still rare amongst camera phones but a Dual LED flash would have been more appropriate.
Despite the slight discrepancies with the longer size and lack of smart phone functionalities, these don't stop the phone from being a great new touchscreen device and worthy competitor to the current big players. The excellent design and build quality make the phone a worthy addition to the stylish Black Label Series, the 4.0 inch display is a feast for the eyes and the touchscreen experience is hands down LG's best effort to date and with the addition of haptic feedback, arguably one of the best available on a mobile phone. Combine these headline grabbing specs with a solid list of features backing the phone up and it becomes clear that the LG BL40 Chocolate isn't just a bit of eye candy; it's a fully loaded feature phone with a rare combination of both style and substance.
Dan, Mobiles.co.uk
Pricing
See the best deals on the LG BL40 on our product page.
Your Comments
If you have an opinion on the new LG Chocolate touchscreen phone then please do let us know. Or leave your own mobile phone review if you've been lucky enough to try this phone.