LG were arguably an instrumental manufacturer in presenting the concept of ‘luxury’ handsets to a market previously far more content with bog standard blowers.

The advent of the first Black Label phone – the LG Chocolate KG800  – was an object of beauty and desire, with minimalist stylings and touch-sensitive keys giving a sense of prestige and refinement to mobiles never before seen (at a reasonable price, anyway).

The LG New Chocolate BL40 is the fourth iteration of these aesthetically driven handsets, with the KU970 Shine and KF750 Secret paving the way for a bold and visually striking phone, which is as appealing as it is unorthodox.

Design and Specs

Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room first and foremost. This phone is long. Very long. So long, that we go as far as to say the BL40 is loooong.

With a unique 21:9 widescreen aspect ratio in a 4” touch display, the 128mm length and 51mm width give the New Chocolate a form factor more akin to well, a bar of chocolate.

However, the self-assured style and elegance with which the BL40 is presented cause the user to immediately accept this atypical shape, as the handset echoes the original Chocolate with a polished piano-black finish, red flourishes at the ends and metallic silver accenting. We are definitely amongst LG’s flagship fashion phone elite, and the BL40 exudes that Black Label heritage from every angle.

Taking minimalism to the extreme, the BL40 possesses less buttons than even the most touch-heavy handsets, with a power/lock key accompanying the 3.5mm jack on the top, a curvaceous volume rocker and camera key on the right, and a sole music player shortcut button joining the equally stylized microUSB slot on the left.

The BL40 is devoid of any physical keys on the face of the handset, leaving a huge black expanse for the imposing display.

Placed on a table, the BL40 bears more than a passing resemblance to the obelisk from 2001: A Space Odyssey (albeit an LG branded one), and it is little surprise that the forthcoming advertising blitz hinges upon that visible similarity.

The simplistic form continues on the rear, with nothing bar the LG logo and the Schneider-Kreusnach typography underlining the Chocolate’s credentials as a 5-megapixel camera. A metal recess houses the lens, as well as the LED flash.

The handset is very svelte at 10.9mm thick, with a waif-like figure belying the phone’s meaty construction at 129g. Most importantly, the New Chocolate successfully conveys a feeling of being reassuringly expensive, from the beautifully ornate box to the heft of the device itself.

The quirky form also poses no problems in practice, with the BL40 occupying just as much space as most high-end smart phones in the bag or pocket.

Sparking the Chocolate into life mirrors the current generation of LG phones, the S-Class user interface never looking better than on the crisp 4 inch, 340 x 800 display of the BL40, revealing itself after an Android-aping ‘swipe up to unlock’ screen.

The home page layout consists of four screens showing widgets, contacts, browser shortcuts and menu shortcuts at a swipe. If you so desire, these can also be presented as the four sides of a 3D cube, highly entertaining if a little pointless.

Widgets are very similar to the TouchWiz interface on Samsung devices, small icons for displaying the time, weather, news and the like can be placed wherever you prefer on the screen. This tends to be the first port of call on the handset when unlocked, and as such a perfact place to display this information.

The contacts screen presents a list of friends and family in an easy-to-access virtual Rolodex, whilst the browser page presents thumbnail icons representing favourites and bookmarked sites, iPhone-style.

A quick twist through 90 degrees on the main menu grid handily presents all 32 icons for the Chocolate’s full suite of functionality, split into communications, entertainment, utilities and settings.

Those wanting to get to the important settings quickly from the home page can also access them with just a tap of the status bar at the top of the screen. A discreet drop-down then offers Bluetooth and Wi-Fi switches, alarm settings and even a profile select option. Another example of a great touch well implemented on the BL40.

Yet another way of navigating the device is by gesture, where drawing a symbol on the lock screen becomes a shortcut to features and functions. Great when it works, the only issues are the unreliability of the phone reading an intended gesture correctly, not to mention that they can only be performed when the phone is held in portrait.

All in all, the user is spoilt by the numerous ways that the BL40 and S-Class can deliver a great user interface…but before long the same few menu shortcuts become a mainstay whilst the garnishes are largely ignored.

Multimedia

Despite posing as a fashion phone, the Chocolate BL40 had to come good as a media player with that 21:9 display, emulating the latest range of TVs by offering a true widescreen ratio.

Thankfully, it doesn’t disappoint.

The BL40 fully supports all of the major video formats, surprisingly that includes DVD files (including chapter breaks), without re-encoding. That 4” display genuinely gives a mini-multiplex experience, with fast moving scenes, night shots and contrasting colours all handled with aplomb.

Videos can be watched in portrait if required, albeit terribly narrow in a letterbox given the aspect ratio of the device. Search and volume controls are easily brought to the fore with a single tap, although the lack of a ‘resume’ function means scanning through a movie to pick up where you left off in the event of accessing other phone functions.

Surround sound support with Dolby Mobile and the array of formats that the BL40 can handle make it a great cinematic mobile, although the 1GB of internal memory will not be nearly enough for popcorn junkies. That said, it’s nothing a microSD card (up to 32GB) can’t fix.

That memory card comes in equally handy for the 5 megapixel camera, as the BL40 is a joy to take photos with.

The shutter button brings the snapper online in less than three seconds, and the screen’s breadth allows for the various settings to be placed on borders to the side, rather than as overlays to the prospective image. Whilst this might be deemed a waste of space on smaller screens, the BL40 still has plenty of room for an ample viewfinder.

Sliders for adjusting brightness and digital zoom are easily within thumb’s reach when holding the BL40 in both hands, whilst a host of supplementary functions including image stabilization, manual focus, beauty shot and red-eye reduction are available to capture the perfect photo.

The BL40 is equally capable as a video camera with the flick of a (virtual) switch, the ability to upload moving pictures to YouTube or send to others via HSDPA or Wi-Fi proving a cinch to access.

Calling and connectivity

In all honesty, the web browsing capabilities of the LG New Chocolate is not nearly as revolutionary as they would have you believe as there are few, if any, websites able to handle the quirky display that the BL40 has to offer.

The slick proprietary browser is not entirely comfortable with sites configured for mobiles, as ironically they are designed to cope with the narrow nature of a handset’s screen.

Viewing these on the broad expanse of the BL40’s screen in landscape results in acres of empty space to the right of an article, whilst portrait mode zooms out so far in an attempt to capture the entire page in its thin rectangular display that the text becomes almost illegible.

Once a balancing act of zooming and rotating is performed, the BL40 browser seems to settle down and allow for swift, if a little fiddly, surfing.

Swipe scrolling is often not a smooth, kinetic flow down a webpage, rather splitting a site into distinct portions. Not quite as intuitive as the freedom of viewing on other handsets, but the multi-touch manual zooming goes a long way to address the situation.

One problem that is very apparent is one of memory, more specifically a lack of it. Full fat versions of a number of image-heavy sites proved too much for the slender BL40, resulting in a polite ‘memory full’ message followed by a nasty seizure.

We fear that it was not even a matter of trying to push the phone too hard, as popular news portals that barely trouble Opera Mini on more basic devices were equally overwhelming for this candy bar handset.

A shame given the promise that such a big display had to offer in terms of internet capabilities, the Chocolate feels somewhat average as a mobile browser.

As a messaging device however, the Chocolate is a pleasure. A split screen enabling the list of mails on the left whilst the content appears on the right is a revelation, whilst the full QWERTY keyboard is slow to react at times, but spaced perfectly for speedy replies.

A slider at the base of every message enables you to perform any reply under the sun, from voice calls to extracting a phone number, even placing it on a calendar to act as a reminder.

The e-mail functionality in the BL40 is equally competent, with Microsoft Exchange support an interesting decision in a phone of this ilk, but a welcome one for those that need it.

Dialling a number is easy as massive buttons take up the lion’s share of the display, whilst the scrolling contacts carousel becomes a good reason to add thumbnail photos of your nearest and dearest.

Phone call quality is clear as a bell, but the lack of a proximity sensor means that ears might be making the odd accidental button press when chatting away.

Robust A-GPS functionality is also on board, doubling as a modem is also nice touch for the BL40 providing you have a PC laptop to use it.

Verdict

The LG Chocolate BL40 is more than just trading on the nostalgia of fashion phones past, it is a shining example of the marriage of bold design and high-end functionality that the Black Label range symbolises.

Wielding specs usually far beyond the luxury handset remit, the BL40 manages to be a great day-to-day messaging device, also with the traffic-stopping looks that one wants and expects from a flagship phone.

The 21:9 display may be deemed a gimmick by some, but the New Chocolate justifies its presence with a customized interface, multimedia capabilities and a browser that all take full advantage.

Missteps in that same browsing experience as well as an occasionally woolly interface on the Chocolate sees it stop short of being a fashion icon, but being on the cutting edge requires risks, and the BL40 is bound to be remembered as a trend setter for all the right reasons.