LG Chocolate Touch (BL40)

The second generation Chocolate phone from Korean manufacturer LG will be available in the UK from the 8th of September. Carphone Warehouse will be offering the handset with contracts exceeding £35 a month. The new BL40 is the fourth member of the Black Label series which LG launched back in 200, and is a beuutiful if frustrating creature.

The BL40 has been dubiously christened “The Chocolate Touch” and its most striking feature is an ultrawide 4-inch LCD touchscreen. The overall look of the phone is strange but oddly attractive; long and thin, black with a snazzy chocolaty red flash at the ends. The front has no physical buttons whatsoever, and the rear is only punctuated by the camera lens, with a little bit of lettering to boast about the Schneider Kreuznach lens.

The BL40 has a silver racing stripe down its long edges, with the phone’s only actual buttons built into it. These include a dedicated camera button, volume/zoom controls and a screen lock button. There is also a built in micro USB port. It’s quite refreshing to see that LG have resisted the temptation to ape the “Home Button” trend which was kick started by Apple’s iPhone and has been imitated by most smartphones ever since.

So, no buttons means that you’re reliant on the usability of the tempered glass touch screen itself. We found the screen to be pleasingly responsive with a minimum of lag. The swipe function works well and on the whole the navigation is far more intuitive than that of older LG models, like the Crystal or the Arena.

The flip from vertical to horizontal display is also fluid, with barely a whisper of a delay between the two modes.

LG seems determined to stay true to its proprietary 3D interface, and who are we to stop it? The swirly cube thing is a very good looking feature and will impress your easily impressed friends. The 2D “side swipe” option is less showy and fairly easy to use.