LG Chocolate BL40

Overview

Tall, Slim and Attractive

LG Chocolate BL40 Design and Build Quality

The stylishly designed LG Chocolate BL40 is a tall, slim device with an all-touchscreen. The piano-black chassis really gives it a sleek and elegant look.

User Interface and Comfort to Use LG Chocolate BL40

A capacitive touchscreen will invite you to a responsive experience when using the device. Like other LG touchscreen devices, the BL40 uses LG's S-Class user interface. The icons are bright and colourful. A rotating 3D cube will allow you to swap to different menu screens. The interface itself is a little too confusing. There are too many ways to accomplish the same task. For instance, when you want to find an application, you can either go to shortcut, go to a grid display, or change to landscape view to find the icon.

Telephony and Phonebook

Roughly 1000 contacts can be stored with 27 different fields of information. You can also store up to 1000 text messages.

Messaging and Emails

SMS and MMS messaging are both supported on the BL40. You also have easy access to your emails. The touchscreen will switch to landscape mode when you flip it to its side. This makes it even easier to send a text or email.

Gallery, Photo Viewer and Video Player

The photo gallery will allow you to store and delete your pictures. The video player supports DivX and Xvid formats. In addition, there is a TV output if you purchase the connector separately.

LG Chocolate BL40 Music Player and FM Radio

A FM radio is absent on the BL40. There is an FM transmitter that allows you to beam music to a car stereo or home hi-fi. MP3 playback will allow you to listen to your own music. You can add your music files via the microSD slot. The BL40 has about 1 GB of memory built in as well. Audio quality is very good whether you play music on a pair of headphones or the speaker.

LG Chocolate BL40 Camera and Image Quality

A 5MP camera has auto-focus and an LED flash. In good lighting conditions, your shots will look good. There is also a nice panoramic mode that allows you to stitch your pictures together.

Video Camera and Video Quality

You can shoot video at 30 frames per second at a VGA resolution. There is also an on-board video editor to help your clips look better. Unfortunately the LED is weak and will not prevent low-light shots from looking dim.

LG Chocolate BL40 Connectivity Options

The BL40 is available on GSM bands 850, 900, 1800, and 1900. UMTS bands on 1900 and 2100 MHz are also supported. There is Wi-fi support for faster internet browsing. To use wireless headsets or audio streaming, A2D2 support via Bluetooth is available.

Web Browser and Applications

There is a built-in browser that will allow you to access the internet.

Value for money and Verdict

You can purchase the BL40 for a price of Rs. 14,020 (approx., may vary). This is a very sharp looking device with a slew features. The call quality is also very good. The BL40 is priced fairly high for what you get. With a confusing user interface and the lack of quality in the feature set, you should look at other devices.