Wow talk about rich in calories. The screen of the LG Chocolate BL40 can hold 32 icons. It is 4.0 inches wide with high-definition 800×345 LCD. That makes it really kick ass. Because the screen is big, you can view two applications running at the same time, each occupying half the screen.

The BL40 comes with the usual perks — WiFi, HSDPA, a 3.5mm jack (yay!) and runs on the same OS as the LG Arena, which is damn good for LG. It seems also that the UI itself for the touch screen has matured, making response time really good for LG’s line of smart phones.

We should stop calling it the BL40. It should have a sexier name. Maybe Rich Chocolate.

[photo c/o LG Press Room]

Post from: Cellphone9

The LG VX11000 “enV Touch” is LG’s latest midrange consumer touch screen phone. It comes with a pretty standard set of features that is highlighted by the manufacturer’s attention to detail in the finish. Specs would include a 3.2MP camera, music player, video recording capability, hearing aid compatibility, Bluetooth, miniSD expansion, and a really exciting Dolby surround sound speaker.

The enV Touch comes with a 3 inch screen, which is carved out to be bigger than the Voyager by 0.20 inches. For more details, you can check out the complete specs and gallery.

Post from: Cellphone9

Today the Samsung S9110 is really more of a statement that we’ll be seeing more of these watches that double as phones in the future. Seems like a pretty standard package to communicate — voice commands are in, but I’m not quite sure if this has a Bluetooth headset package. Well, for USD 650 if you have money to burn you can grab this if you’re in the bad habit of leaving your phone behind.

[photo source]

Post from: Cellphone9

I attended an intimate dinner with the guys from LG Mobile and she showed off their latest entry level device, the LG KS360. This device is positioned to be an entry level QWERTY keypad phone priced at P8,9xx.00 (roughly USD $200) making it the cheapest QWERTY enabled phone in the market today. The unit does not come with fast Internet connectivity or a really superb camera. For all intents and purposes, this is a messaging phone for the masses that need to transition to a numerical keypad.

I must note though that the unit comes with a pseudo touch screen which only activates when you turn on the dialer when the unit is closed. Interesting — a sparingly used touch screen feature!

[photo c/o author ]

Post from: Cellphone9

Here’s a short peek into something that LG will unveil this coming CES 2009. The LG GD910 is a watch that doubles as a phone. The specs show that you can only do 2 hours of talk time, much less than the “proclaimed” industry standard so that means Lg should either be telling the truth, or talk time is really reduced to less than 2 hours. No judgments to be made yet as we haven’t seen the phone up close. But 2 hours on paper? Hmm.

The phone also has Bluetooth, and 3G connectivity. The GD910 relies heavily on voice commands since there are only three hardware menu buttons on the side of the neat little touch screen. Making calls via voice recognition shows off how the watch detects your voice and repeats the numbers you want to “dial” (Did you say 1,2,3,4,5 …. and you reply with “Yes”). You can use the voice commands to activate functions such as the music player. The three menu buttons are used to receive calls, reject or end calls and a center menu which you can hold down to display the main phone menu or the status menu to show off your signal strength, incoming messages, etc.

The built in audio seems to be loud enough, as seen from the video. The watch also supports video calls via 3G with a camera built on the front face of the device. The watch strap is made of leather and I’m assuming like all standard watches, can be interchanged with other straps if you’re allergic to leather.

Post from: Cellphone9

Verizon announced the availability of the LG Chocolate 3. The new Chocolate bar comes with an outer scroll wheel and is by far the second mobile phone to come with a built in FM tuner (the first was the Nokia N78, which works really kick ass btw).

The new Chocolate 3 comes with the following features:

2.0MP camera with video recorder
1GB internal memory
External scroll wheel
FM Transmitter
microSD expansion

[image courtesy of Mobiledia]

Post from: Cellphone9

Some companies lie in the middle, like Motorola and LG who don’t churn out as many iterations of their phones as Sony Ericsson or Nokia. Which is why both can afford to use names like “ROKR” or “LAZR” or “RAZR” or “Chocolate,” “Shine” and “Viewty.”

We’ve got some network posts on the naming schemes of two of the bigger manufacturers – Sony Ericsson and Nokia:

How Nokia names their mobile phones and categorizes them according to market niche

How Sony Ericsson names their phones and categorizes them according to region and incremental feature upgrades

Post from: Cellphone9

Nowadays, a touch screen phone like the LG Viewty would necessitate certain features like wireless Internet. Unfortunately the nice big screen of this Viewty KU990 model is laid to waste as it doesn’t support WiFi.

Oh no. Did I just put the phone down in the first paragraph? Well, in fairness to aesthetics, LG has always been innovative with its real estate design, as seen with the LG Chocolate. The LG Viewty is supposed to be a phone that does not compete with such models like the iPhone or Nokia N series. It seems to be a fashion phone, primarily, with some neat features like photo editing and YouTube video viewing. It also has a nice 5MP camera. Xenon flash seems to be the new trend with camera phones as this is the same thing equipped on the Nokia N82. It’s so good, CNET has this to say:

Many camera phones take good pictures but don’t look that great themselves — fortunately the LG KU990 Viewty is not an ugly camera phone. In fact, we can go so far as to say it’s one of the best-looking camera phones we’ve seen so far. [CNET Review]

From the reviews online, the Viewty seems to be a good camera phone – if that’s all you’re looking for. I really suggest they improve on this model further by adding other productivity features such as wireless Internet and BlackBerry email. That would kill.

Photo courtesy of CNET.

Post from: Cellphone9

This is by far the most affordable fashion hack I’ve seen. For only $989.00, you can own an LG Prada that’s dipped in 24 karat gold.

Prada, one of the World’s leading designers, have teamed up with LG to unveil this completely touch screen mobile phone. The Prada Phone by LG (KE850) is a breakthrough in the industry, with its sophisticated design and elegant looks.
Other features of LG include a web browser, email client and MP3 player. This fantastic looking phone is probably the hottest designer phone at the moment.

I like the web copy on this one. It’s a 24 karat coat that just so happens to have other features like email and blah, blah, blah. I really wonder if “feature packed” is directly proportional to uber fashion line. Are these features that the affluent will even appreciate?

Thanks to Angelica from Geek Sugar

Post from: Cellphone9

Apple is doing it. So is LG. And the tech industry has been abuzz with Google partnerships. Take for instance the LG “Google” phone that upon further inspection, doesn’t really offer much apart from Google-bundled applications. The only reason I would see why I would want this particular model would be because it looks like a slightly better Chocolate.

If phone manufacturers did it right, a Google partnership would offer incentives to making searches on your phone. This in paper does make sense to advertisers, as your phone’s real estate is confined to a 240 x 320 screen that allows for more conversions for text links.

[image source credit]

Post from: Cellphone9