LG BL40 Chocolate phone gets hands-on, preview

Now that LG have officially announced their latest Chocolate phone, the BL40, it seems the floodgates have opened for unofficial hands-on.  Russian site mobile@mail.ru are the latest, offering up not only plentiful shots of the 4.0-inch 800 x 345 "cinema-like" touchscreen handset in its various menus and options pages, but alongside some of LG's other recent marvels.

There's also a quick shot or two of the BL40 fighting for the title of thinnest-handset with Nokia's slender E71, together with feedback on the various features the 5-megapixel feature-phone offers.  The S-Class UI LG are so fond of looks a little stretched, but their new split-pane additions – to suit the long, thin display on the BL40 – apparently work pretty well.

Generally the feedback is good, though we still can't help but wish that LG had dropped Android onto this unusual device rather than their own, limited OS.  The LG BL40 is tipped to arrive in Q3 2009 in 54 different countries; price tba.

[via Engadget]