Smartphone Reviews: LG BL40 Chocolate

Posted by Geronimo Boosh on March 2, 2010 · Leave a Comment

It has been about four years since LG came out with the first Chocolate. It was huge success. This one should be one also. It is labeled the LG BL40 Chocolate . Taking a look at the new technology that is offered here will give you more insight into what is happening in the world of smarphone technology.

What one word do you use to describe the new Chocolate ? How about “long” ? A good runner-up is the word “classy”. This very attractive phone has a long screen that has numerous advantages and a few disadvantages. It will give you plenty of room for typing. The display is a capacitive touch TFT model, no stylus is needed. It is a very respectable four inches diagonally. The pixel-count is 345 by 800. This is called “real WVGA” by the folks at LG. An advantage of having a wide screen is that you will not have to scroll to the side to view many web pages. Still, when locating a link to click on, this makes things “different”. This smartphone display has the “gesture shortcut”. It works by drawing a symbol or letter on the screen and the device will bring up a corresponding menu. Bigger screens are probably always going to be more usable than smaller ones. This one brings a particluar problem of having to reformat the aspect ratios of some videos. The aspect ratios of documents are skewed also, making it hard to read them. Overall, the display has strength in those jobs requiring a wide screen and weaknesses requiring regular ( and popular ) display modes. The screen is covered by tempered glass for safety.

The inner workings of the LG BL40 Chocolate tell a story of modern technology. It has one-touch copy and paste. It has the accelerometer to change the display from portrait to landscape mode and back. The software included can warn of speed traps when you are driving. The camera has a decent five megapixel rating. The photos turn out well on the Chocolate, but not so well when transferred to a PC. The camera has video and does an average job, nothing stunning. The camera also has LED flash and autofocus. In the audio department, the speakers are loud enough to use for movies and playing games outdoors. You have voice recording and you can play MP3 sounds or music. The Chocolate comes with a FM transmitter that allows you to broadcast your music to your car radio. This is great for hands-off, safer driving.

The battery is too small on the LG BL40. The phone´s size is a part of the problem. It is just 10.9 millimeters thick. The battery holds only 1000 mAh. This is enough for one day of use, with average usage. With that large screen you need a bigger battery. Nevertheless you have around six to seven hours of talk time on the Chocolate. Some good news is that you have Wi-Fi and bluetooth. These are nearly indispensable in this age. Quad-band GSM and UMTS are present, along with HSDPA for network specifications. MicroUSB is included for wired connectivity. A MicroSD card slot can add up to 32 gigabytes to the already plentiful 1.1 gigabytes of available memory.

If you can imagine pulling this out of your pocket or purse and watching the looks of your friends and enemies you will no doubt want to be an owner of the LG BL40 Chocolate. It is long, lithe, and luxurious. It continues the “Black Label” Chocolate dynasty with patent flair.