Besides a large screen 4 inch 21: 9 and its compatibility DivX, the LG BL40 Chocolate offers a seductive design, but must tolerate gaps…
More : Design, end, large 21: 9 screen, multi-touch
Less : Interface sometimes little reactive
The LG Chocolate BL40 is different from any other touch phone that we tested this year. Remarkable sound and ultra screen format 21/9th reinforces the idea of finesse and width of this phone. Available since October, this Chocolate is expensive but in addition to its impressive screen, it has a camera 5 megapixels, a FM transmitter and it support DivX.
Beautiful to the eye
Unlike the previous LG handsets to touch screen, KM900 Arena and the imposing Viewty Smart GC900, Chocolate BL40 (see video of before first) made immediately strong impression. This is firstly due to the elongated and narrow, very original shape from the concurrence… LG has really succeeded a beautiful frame, end, careful and piano black. Before the taking in hand, we thought it would be too large. Error of judgment because it is very pleasant to take, especially because it is less extensive than that of other smartphones.
A superb screen
The key element of this phone, is its fantastic screen diagonal 10.2 cm (4 inches). A capacitive touch screen. As the phone itself, the screen is elongate and narrow. In fact, it has an aspect ratio 21: 9, and therefore can display the image of a film without having to trim the edges. It is a strong point to the iPhone or HTC. When you work in landscape mode, this means that the screen is much broader than high. It is both very well, but also very annoying.
This is fine for many things. First of all, the 4 inch in this format 21/9 means that you can view movies in their original format. Can ensure you that the result is absolutely brilliant, as the screen is very bright and has a relatively high resolution of 800 x 345 pixel. This format also allows LG to propose a more precise view in different home screens. For example, in messaging applications: contacts are on the left side, with the messages that appear on the right, as on a PC. It also benefits the navigation on the web with pages that display in full width.
-Side drawbacks, it is particularly visible in landscape mode. In Web pages, text rendering is very small and difficult to read. Therefore, need you zoom to increase the size of the text to a more acceptable level. This reduced to nil interest to have a larger screen. In addition, when you perform a zoom, you’ll then need to move the page width to read everything, as on any other téléphone…
Also, when you use landscape keyboard in mode in the browser, for e-mail or an SMS, it occupies almost the entire screen, leaving only a few lines of text at the top.
We cannot prevent us from thinking that LG would have done better to slightly larger screen in landscape mode, even if it was at the expense of its 21/9 aspect.
Like other LG touchscreen phones, the Chocolate take the S-Class interface. It is bright and colorful, with well-designed icons and animations of the most beautiful effect, as this 3D animation of a screen to another to switch.
But the menus can be confusing because there are duplicates in the options. For example, applications can be accessed either via a context menu, a display of the grid with icons divided into menus carousel function, or in a view of the landscape which shows all the icons on a single screen.
After some time, it regretted not having an iPhone with a home simplifié…nous screen we found money want simple iPhone Home screen.
Most recent processor
Even if LG abandoned AMD for a faster processor Qualcomm, the Chocolate is still a bit slow, and it is felt when one uses the screen. Also, it is not satisfied by text input options. In portrait mode, the phone displays a classic keyboard with several letters per key, whereas in mode landscape, the QWERTY keyboard is found in the narrow and we end up pressing the wrong key. Things worsen when one finds that intuitive writing system is not as good as that of the iPhone or Hero. Suggestions are vague and poorly goings. Also, the phone does not include the tip of the iPhone, which allows to support twice the SPACEBAR to make a point and a space at the end of a sentence.
In other areas, LG has made some improvements to the S-Class interface. Zoom multi-touch in the Web browser and the Gallery of photos, you can now use double keystroke to automatically zoom in on a table or a column of text. Cover Flow-like mode, this in the browser of photos and video has also been enhanced, providing a more detailed view of the image that you browse. In passing, we thank the Qualcomm chip because there is no time lag between the loading of an image and the time where it zooms in on it. It was especially annoying on the Arena. To copy – paste, the phone incorporates the system of the iPhone, but it wasn’t on our copy of test.
Perfect connectivity
If this LG has convinced us, it is also for its equipment without faults. The connection part is excellent, with the quadri-band, the HSDPA and Wi – Fi for fast access to the Internet. He left a GPS very fast to find your position, the Bluetooth with support of the standard A2DP for wireless stereo headphones sound, and an FM transmitter for throwing out an auto-radio.
The phone is equipped with a 3.5 mm standard headphone jack. So, you can use the headset of your choice if the delivered does not suit you. The sound quality is remarkable in video and audio. In addition to being compatible with conventional video formats, the LG supports DivX and Xvid formats. You can also read video on a television, if achêter the cable TV out option.
The photo sensor is a notch above that which is found on the iPhone. It has a resolution of 5 megapixels, with autofocus and LED flash. Shooting with good lighting really impressed from what usually offer the smartphones. Notably, there is a panoramic mode in which the phone shows you where to position the lens for each shot in the panorama. Then, automatically, he recomposes the image. The device can also record videos (30 images per second in VGA resolution), and there is a rather successful video editor to annotate its sequences. The LED flash is not powerful enough to offset the weakness of the sensor by low light. There also lots of noise in the night photos.
The call quality is excellent and autonomy is comparable to that offer competitors with about 6 hours in communication. This means that you may wait a day and a half before the reloading for normal conditions of use.
Use the LG Chocolate BL40, is like watching his favourite football team play. Players play as in a dream, but they are unable to fit their strikes. Despite the quality of its magnificent beautiful panoramic screen, its design and its functions, the LG collapses at draw on goal because of its interface. The S-Class interface is boring and slow, and it lack of intelligence. Therefore, even if there is more interesting than the iPhone or HTC Hero features, this phone is one notch below its too complicated use.
|