LG Chocolate BL20 Review

Welcome to the LG BL20/BL42K Chocolate review. The BL20 Chocolate also known as the BL42K was released in late 2009 and is the replacement for the original KG800 Chocolate model that was released back in 2006.  The ‘Chocolate’ model brand is LG’s ‘fashion’ mobile phone.  The Chocolate is a stylish mobile phone – because it looks stylish by looking like a small featureless black box.  Despite the name the phone is definitely black and not chocolate brown. Maybe licorice would be a more suitable name?

The Chocolate’s construction is solid slider phone covered in glossy occasionally transparent black scratch resistant plastic or glass.  The only thing that looks tacked on is the rear main camera. Surely they could have designed the phone without the camera sticking out.  Getting a suitable protective case is recommended since any permanent scratches would decrease the joy of looking at a all black phone!  Speaking of which the top, bottom and keypad are a bright reddish orange color that stands out but strangely suits the phone’s overall design theme.

The Chocolate’s main feature is the front touch sensitive main navigation buttons.  When activated they glow a nice red and provide a haptic or a buzz when touched correctly.  The display screen itself is not touch sensitive. The slide out keypad while feels good but not as nice as say the Sony Ericsson models but works better due to the larger keys. We still think it is hard to beat the standard keypad on Nokias for those expert at blind SMS.

Using the latest Chocolate model is actually pretty good!  The navigation system is a fast and updated version of it S-Class icon interface with a few new animations.  However variable application launch times are to be expected. The hidden screen is a 2.4 inch model that also looks good and large enough for most. The keypad is not the best for JAVA games but at least you can install them and other apps.

The Chocolate has all the latest functionality for a mobile phone in 2010. Being a 3G capable phone you have usable internet download speeds and well a decent browser for this type of phone.  The 5Mp camera produces very good pictures but not the best and the novel feature included is an optimized camera setting for taking pictures of text or other graphics.  We don’t think this feature it is a selling point though.  We didn’t try the function due to a lack of time.  In fact we where hard pressed to write about anything outstanding about the Chocolate.

Overall the Chocolate is a pretty decent mobile phone.  However there is not anything exceptional apart from its stylish looks.  It will do voice and calls, text and emails and some web browsing with ease.  If that is all you want then this is a good choice just don’t pay too much for it.  That said it is relatively one of the few models that work well on the 850Mhz 3G networks.

Specifications

• LG Chocolate BL20/BL42K
• Network
  Tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900
  Dual-band 3G 850/2100
• Design
  Slider
• L106.9 x W50.8 x D12.3 mm
  Weight 115 grams
• Display/s
  2.4 inch
  TFT 240 x 320 pixels
• Camera
  5MP
  LED flash and Auto focus
• Video Camera
  240 x 320 pixel @ 15FPS
• Connectivity
  Bluetooth V2
  microUSB
• CPU
  ???Mhz
• Memory
  Up to 60MB available to user
  16Gig micro-SD card slot
• Ring tones
  MIDI, MP3, Video, vibration and others
• Features
  Music and Media player
  Organiser/Calender
  SMS, MMS, IM, Email
  JAVA MIDP 2.0
  FM radio
  Speaker Phone/Hands free
  3.7V 900mAh
  Up to 18 days Standby
  Up to 5 hours Talk Time
• Price history
  Under $299 AUS 2010 (Outright)