LG BL20 hands-on: putting the 'slider' back in 'Chocolate'

For all its good looks and lickable icons, the BL40 hardly feels like a "Chocolate" phone -- abandoning the featurephone functionality and slider form factors that are usually associated with the moniker. Well, the newly surfaced BL20 (previously spotted as the BL42) is here to solve all that. The slider handset has capacitive touch controls below the screen, but the screen itself is not a touchscreen. The functionality has also been trimmed back from the BL40's app extravaganza, but the interface looks and actual hardware seem very similar. We had a little trouble getting around in the German interface, but if you can handle our bumblings you can check out a video of the phone after the break.

LG BL20 hands-on

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2009 7:15AM]

first

[CJ Posted Sep 5th 2009 9:20AM]

I dunno if I should uprank you for putting a 'first' idiot in his place, or reporting you for being a racist dick.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2009 7:22AM]

2nd

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2009 7:32AM]

hey redcard
10 years ago.....hm
when every body use dial up and win98
there is no blogging and comments like this .....

[Gad Get Posted Sep 5th 2009 7:31AM]

3rd

[Gad Get Posted Sep 5th 2009 7:31AM]

4th

[Gad Get Posted Sep 5th 2009 7:31AM]

5th

[Gad Get Posted Sep 5th 2009 7:32AM]

(See how lame that is?)

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2009 7:49AM]

Yeah your pretty lame.

[Gad Get Posted Sep 5th 2009 7:51AM]

Hey, now you're getting it!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2009 8:53AM]

This is great. 10 comments in and no one even mentioned the topic itself. So here goes: I don't like how the one with the slider looks like.

[Maeztro Posted Sep 5th 2009 8:57AM]

I'm Officer Reese...what seems to be the problem here?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2009 9:56AM]

He got chocolate in my peanut butter.

[rcarm Posted Sep 5th 2009 10:25AM]

He got peanut butter on my chocolate.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2009 8:58AM]

:),hey redcard be polite man or woman or nonesex allien or every thing else

[kitsune Posted Sep 5th 2009 9:03AM]

The part with the navigation buttons is way too big. And the screen too small.

[CJ Posted Sep 5th 2009 9:26AM]

That's what you get when you have capacative buttons.

You need a large surface area, because you'll be pushing end/send all day if you don't

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2009 9:05AM]

Nice job navigating in German P-Millz! :)

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2009 2:01PM]

Paul: 'Damn it, I can't read German! Must... get... out.. of this screen!'

[KeegdnaB Posted Sep 5th 2009 9:26AM]

To make a post on topic,

I remember my first gen VZ Chocolate (VX8500) and even though towards the end of its life, it caused me endless headaches from the constant turning off and the two halves starting to split down the middle......god damn did I love that thing like a child.

However, since I have successfully moved on to an enV2 and more recently a BB Tour, I don't think I could ever go back to a on-qwerty. The nostalgia factor hits with this, but its a dated design in my book.

[abusethedog Posted Sep 5th 2009 11:25AM]

I had the first Chocolate too. It was like, the first phone I ever had that could play music. Never used it for much other than sending texts and calling people, though. Oh yeah, and watching VCast... is VCast still around? It was pretty annoying to me because I could only watch 5 minutes at a time, so I had to go find the parts to the show I wanted to watch. I went through two of those Chocolates... the first one totally spazzed and refused to work or turn on (gave me a blank screen). Got it replaced with another one, and ended up giving it away.

I don't think I could go back to a non-qwerty either. I have the G1 and I must say, I love that phone. I don't even care that it's outdated, because it has so many features that I absolutely love and use all the time. Until T-Mobile comes out with another Android with a physical keyboard, I'm sticking with it.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2009 12:58PM]

i currently own the VX8550 or Chocolate 2. Great phone, i love the thing. But after dropping it a measly foot or so the screen went black. Went to get it placed, but wonderful verizon said i was out of warranty. So i took it apart, fixed it (the ribbon cable connecting the two halfs came apart), and now it works fine. Minus that same issue of randomly turning off. It gets to be very annoying. I was looking forward to getting the Chocolate Touch, but if it ends up being that picture leaked the other day, i think im just going to wait for a good android phone on verizon...

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2009 11:02AM]

"chocolate slider" great euphamism for poo

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2009 4:51PM]

I actually love the design of the new Chocolate.
I'm into "fashion gadgets".
I actually loved my VX8550 and the touch buttons.
I don't know why people complain about the buttons.
You know it had touch buttons when you bought the phone!
If you didn't want touch buttons, you should have gotten a RAZR!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 6th 2009 10:06AM]

Don't you ever utter that " I'm into fashion gadgets" sentence when some of my friends may be likely to hear you!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 6th 2009 11:49AM]

I'd take regular chocolate over that phone. Its ugly.
plus it doesnt taste as good. I'd bet.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 12:04AM]

Seriously? Did he miss the "end" button on the bottom half of the slider?

Interesting phone, perhaps ...