Plemix

Wow…the stunning fourth handset of the Black Label Series, New Chocolate (LG-BL40) is now on my desk. This is another highlight-able phone after the transparency device-Crystal recently. LG never shied away from experimenting. The New Chocolate is not merely the next of the Chocolate, but in touch with the technology growth, just like Viewty Smart closes to Renoir and Crystal walks with the Arena. Let’s save the time and check it out.

What’s inside? The New Chocolate, a battery, a charger, a data cable, a handsfree, a CD-ROM as well as a user’s guide.

This bold new shape is designed with sleek sophistication plus an unconventional 4” wide screen. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but one thing for sure: it offers you more than the phone in the market with its extremely large display.

At the top, we have the 3.5mm audio jack and the Power/Lock key. Both are easy to access and nice to use.

Turn to left side, there’s a single key which starts the music player. The microUSB port is on this side as well.

The volume rocker and the shutter key are on the right side of the device. You may notice that the shutter key is very stylish, wide and rounded, and quite comfortable to use.

The 5MP camera is alongside the LED flash placing at the back. It is keeping the "less is more" style as the front.

Take off the battery, you may access to the SIM card compartment and the microSD card slot which is expandable up to 32 GB.

With the widened 21:9 panoramic display plus 3D-styling with some visual effects on the menu icons, you may enjoy the new level of visual comfort by operating the apps. And it is very finger-friendly. The main menu can be view in portrait and landscape mode as well.

With LG’s upgraded and intuitive S-Class UI, everything from homescreen to dropdown menus rolls, sweeps in, unfolds and rotates are extremely smooth and responsive. We are now on the Cube interface. The four homescreen panes correspond to the four sides of a tall 3D block.

The keyboard on the New Chocolate. The QWERTY keys are big enough and it is much harder to tap the wrong key. The touch feedback is very responsive, and typing is very accurate.

The new Chocolate is essentially reinventing the way we view and use mobile phones. The unconventional wide screen enlarged the optimal space for “on-the-go” computing, offering entirely new experience on entertainment: Playing on the perfect music players, which is with the small virtual vinyls which can be lined up on a rotating dial to display the albums. Watching a widescreen movie via theatre-like movie player is very brilliant. The 7.2 HSDPA provides speedier internet and e-mail. The New Chocolate packs enough skill to make comparison with some powerful smartphones in the market like Hero and Onmia HD.

N97 mini is just like its name, a more compact version of its big brother the Nokia flagship N97. As a whole, the device is exactly the same as the previous which is with the tilting mechanism of the display, but only a bit smaller. There is purely cosmetic to the design though, the most significant one seemingly being the lack of both a sliding camera cover and a D-pad on the QWERTY keyboard. Let’s have a closer look on it.

What’s inside? Beside the phone, you get a battery, a stereo headset, a travel charger, a data cable, an external stylus, CD and user’s guide.

The 3.2” touchscreen is dominating the front of the phone, leaving only the call, end call and menu buttons lying on the edge. It is just the mini version of N97 which got 3.5” touchscreen.

At the top, we have the 3.5mm audio jack (in the same location of N97) and the power key is just next to it.

The left side hosts the stereo speakers at each end and the microUSB slot and the screen lock knob in the middle. There is no protective cover for the USB slot and the screen lock triggers a mild vibration every time it is engaged.

The camera key and the volume rocker are on the right.

The Nokia N97 Mini is shorter and more “pocket friendly” than the Nokia N97. And the accelerator is very responsive. When you slide open the phone, the screen changes to horizontal view immediately.

The keys are same size as the N97. And the only different is N97 mini has removed the D-pod on the Keyboard.

N97 mini is more “top-notch” than the Nokia N97 mainly due to the quantity of metal on the exterior. And it is designed in Finland.

The backside of the handset features the 5MP camera and the dual LED flash. The back cover is made of stainless steel which feels sturdy and expensive. However, it missed the protective cover of the camera. Not a big deal though.

N97 mini packs 8GB memory and can also be expanded a further 16GB by MicroSD.

The upper one is N97 and the N97 mini is at the bottom. They look exactly the same. Actually, N97 mini is slightly smaller in measurement.

N97 mini (which is measured 113 x 52.5 x 14.2 mm) is a bit thinner than N97 (which is measured 117.2 x 55.3 x 18.3 mm).

Many applications onboard such as Youtube, Facebook etc. You can also explore a dazzling array of downloads from Ovi Store and customized your own menu.

The audio quality of N97 mini is great because of two stereo speakers at the bottom of the phone. And the video is run quite smooth without hitch.

Actually, N97 mini is not only the things on N97, but a bit more than that. It packs most of the features in N97 and adds some more improvement to it: Becomes more fashionable with upgrading the stainless steel cover to replace the plastic cover, slightly smaller and slimmer overall.

The cheapest QWERTY keyboard mobile phone, LG GW300 is on my desk and ready to be served to the happy masses with the low-end pricing. LG are quite keen to build on a winning concept on QWERTY. Start from LG KS360, Best Handset Award nominee and then the midrange bestseller, LG KP500. After that, they have LG GW520 with QWERTY slider and finally come out with the GW300 which looks similar to a Blackberry. QWERTY keyboard no longer only appeared in the high-end device, but low-end also. Can’t wait to have a look on this cheapest luxury device.

Considering the price tag, no one is really expecting wonders with the retail package of the GW300. It included the phone, a battery, a handsfree, a USB cable, a charger, a CD-ROM and a user’s guide.

The GW300 comes with the well spaced out QWERTY keyboard looks similar to a Blackberry Bold or HTC Snap, in as much as it has a similar shape with rounded edges and its front face is taken up by a 2.4”display and a QWERTY keyboard. The phone measures 115.5 x 61 x 12.8 mm and weighs just 95 grams.

GW300 has a very friendly four-row QWERTY keypad and excellent touch orientation. But doesn’t have the trackball here, maybe let’s not to request too much on the cheapest QWERTY phone.

3.5mm audio jack onboard here which is lacked on HTC Snap.

On the right, we have the camera shutter.

The lanyard eyelet and microUSB port are located at the top left corner.

And turn to the left, you may find the volume rocker and the microSD slot which is expandable up to 4GB.

The 2MP camera which is the same as the HTC Snap is located at the back and the speakers grill is hidden in the flower-shape hollow. The speaker is very loud here to make sure that you won’t miss any incoming calls.

The main menu here which is alive with color, much better than the over simple one in HTC Snap and similar to the Nokia menu.

It comes with an MP3/Mp4 player which is able to play most audio and video files while a stereo FM radio offers the ability to tune into local and national radio stations.

LG GW300 is an accomplished handset with a variety of basic features. The QWERTY keyboard is user friendly. Bluetooth wireless connectivity and a 3.5mm audio port for using regular stereo headphones are the other goodies inside plus a fair camera and the most eye-candy price. It is such a good choice for many. There’re the other choices of mid-range devices like Samsung B7300 Omnia Lite, HTC Snap.

LG GW300 Video Review