LG's lengthy BL40 gets the hands-on treatment it deserves

After witnessing an all-too-brief run-in with LG's hot new slice of cocoa last week, the BL40 has finally found its way into the appreciative hands of a few Russian tech bloggers. Over at [e-mail], the elongated handset has splashed down and taken a moment to pose for the camera. There's nothing here that your mother wouldn't approve of, but since when is that an indicator of something's worthiness? Trust us, you'll want to give that read link some lovin'. Some good, good lovin'.

[Thanks, noname]

[MaxL Posted Aug 6th 2009 11:30AM]

Long phone is LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

[DJ Posted Aug 6th 2009 10:55AM]

The BL-40 looks pretty cool, but I have doubts about the size of it, and if the hardware will be good enough to use this as anything besides a dumb messenging phone. Flash support means nothing if the phone can't run it right (as the Hero can vouch for) and if it doesn't have the hardware to run video well, then there is no use for this screen.

And 5" really is a little long for a cell phone.

[jon Posted Aug 6th 2009 1:34PM]

@the i

Wow, then the iPhone's screen must really suck.

BL-40=800x345

iPhone=480x320

Nonstandard screen, not optimized for battery performance. Are you trying to give Apple fans a bad name?

[johdaxx Posted Aug 6th 2009 1:52PM]

I hope, if this phone accomplishes nothing else, that it will point out to people that every new phone out there doesn't have to be a silly iphone look-alike. Kudos to LG. Now get some US 3G in that pup.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 6th 2009 2:22PM]

LG keeps moving away towards expressly long, and almost unusable, screens.

Coming from an awesome phone, the Dare, which had that nice medium between width and length and responsiveness that made it so easy to use, I've tried the enVTouch and Versa, and those screens are completely ridiculous. Well, for me. Far too narrow, and yet they keep the same diagonal. Quite misleading until you try it in person.

What are large-handed people to do?

LG, Koreans are not the gold-standard of average size. If you market and sell your phones to ham-fisted Americans, like myself, at least make the screens friendly to our larger frames. As it is, this phone is narrower than all three previous phones I've mentioned and about an inch longer. I probably couldn't comfortably use this phone, even if all the features suited my wants, which they do.

I'll just have to "settle" for the next Omnia or Storm. Darn : )