LG BL40 New Chocolate, the intriguing successor of highly popular style-conscious phones such as the Chocolate, Shine and Secret, fully deserves the honor. It looks like the kind of gadget that is always on the other side of the store window or in the hands of someone demonstrating a prototype that never sees the light of day.

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LG BL40 New Chocolate at a glance
General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 1900/2100 MHz, EDGE class 10, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
Form factor: Touchscreen bar
Dimensions: 128 x 51 x 10.9 mm
Display: Unique 4" TFT capacitive touchscreen with 21:9 aspect ratio and 800 x 345 pixels resolution, multitouch support, scratch resistant glass
Platform: Latest S-Class UI
Memory: 1GB internal memory, microSD card slot
Camera: 5-megapixels auto-focus camera with Schneider-Kreuznach lens, LED flash, geo-tagging, image stabilization, face detection, Smile Shot, Blink detection, Intelligent shot, Beauty and Art shot, VGA video recording at 30 fps
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack
Misc: Accelerometer for screen auto rotate, Proximity sensor for screen auto-turn-off, FM radio with RDS, FM transmitter, DivX/XviD support, Dolby mobile, TV out, multi-touch input, office document viewer
Battery: 1000 mAh battery

Given there's no phone out there quite like the BL40 Chocolate, it's hard to see who this phone is aimed at. LG maintains it's one for the fashionista, thanks to the Black Label tag, yet a full 21:9 (cinematic) screen is definitely one for the hardcore PMP lover.

You can tell by the styling that this phone is meant for the user who likes to enjoy looking at his or her phone as much as using it. The chassis is a combination of metal and glass, with vibrant red plastic at either end, with the top housing the 3.5mm headphone port and the power/lock key.

The left-hand side of the LG BL40 Chocolate has a dedicated music key to take you straight to your tracks, which needs to be held down for a while to get it working. It's embedded into the thin metal stripe running around the outside of the chassis, and is a nice look for the phone. There's also a hinged microUSB slot here as well, with a very solid-feeling cover, similar to the one seen on the LG Crystal recently.

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A similar system is on place on the right-hand side too, where the volume up and down buttons are built into the chassis like a kind of wave, and the camera key is a raised, metallic ellipsis. It sounds very fancy, and to be honest, it very much is.

What's odd is there are no touch sensitive keys, like those we saw on the original LG Chocolate. It's basically a fully black front, save for the LG logo, the speaker and a small video camera.

The rear of the LG BL40 Chocolate is the equally shiny, but this time plastic, solid black cover, again very minimalist, with the LG logo, a small amount of lettering to let you know the lens is Schneider Kreuznach and the 5MP camera with LED flash. Overall it's a very well laid out phone (if not a little bit odd looking) and in the hand it works rather well.

Pros Cinema mode looks fantastic with high-res files. Widescreen makes horizontal scrolling redundant when web browsing. Responsive capacitive touchscreen
Cons Abnormally long. Restrictive pillar-box format limits web page length. Disappointing dual screen feature. Fiddly interface