New LG BL40 Chocolate phone goes king size



LG have announced a brand new top-end LG Chocolate phone that can only be described as king size! The LG-BL40 features a whopping 4.0" screen with a huge 800 x 345 resolution.

All that screen real estate means you can feature a lot - and I mean a lot! - of icons on the homescreen, which LG have gleefully done.

Question is, though - is it too big? Read on to find out...

LG BL40 overview

LG BL40 phone showing the camera
The LG BL40 is the fourth phone in LG's top end Black Label series of phones. The Black Label series has traditionally focused on style, with the LG Chocolate phones being the first of the Black Labels.

The BL40, in contrast, is not quite as stylish as its predecessors, if only because of its huge size!

That said, LG have gone out of their way to make sure the BL40 isn't quite as functional looking as your usual huge-screened phone, such as the Toshiba TG01 (which also boasts a 4" screen). To this end, the screen is made of "..curved tempered glass and is seamlessly encased in a glossy black finish and iconic red highlights."

And I have to admit, it's quite a handsome looking phone - but then again, my last two phones have been the T-Mobile G1 and Nokia E90, neither of which won awards for their style, so what do I know?!

LG BL40 Features

LG BL40 phone browsing the Web
Although LG have been a bit shy in revealing the features of the phone so far, we do know that the screen - obviously! - is going to be its centerpiece.

Not only is it huge, but LG are making a big play about how it changes the way you interact with your phone.

According to LG, the screen features a 21:9 aspect ratio "for a panoramic, cinema-like quality and optimal mobile computing experience" that apparently makes browsing the Web much easier.

This is true - to a degree. My old E90 had a similarly huge screen (800 x 352 pixels with 16,7 million colors), which did making browsing easy. With no need to scroll left or right, Web pages could be viewed easily.

However, my smaller-screened G1 is actuallyt easier to use, because if you need to scroll left or right, you simply move the Web page around with your finger, or zoom in or out to the page. It's so much more intuitive, and speed of the G1 is such that it all happens instantly.

Having used both types of screen, then, I prefer the touchscreen approach of the G1, and would argue that screen size isn't necessarily all that important (which I never thouight I'd say!).

One tasty feature of the huge screen, though, is what LG are calling a "Dual Screen UI" - the ability to show two completely different types of content on the screen at the same time, with a video (for example) playing on the left of the screen, while you browse your calendar on the right.

If this works intuitively with a good response time, this could make using your phone so much easier, and make you much more productive overall.

Throw in the 5 megapixel camera, super-thin form factor, striking good looks and the plethora of other features that LG will no doubt throw into the mix, and the LG BL40 has the potential to be a cracking new feature phone - assuming it'll fit in your pocket!

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