LG Chocolate BL20 review

Smooth and slim - but is this a case of style over substance?

The definitive LG Chocolate BL20 review
The definitive LG Chocolate BL20 review

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There's no Wi-Fi capability on the LG Chocolate BL20, so high speed data comes courtesy of its HSDPA 3G network connectivity.

LG chocolate bl20

The browser is swift at negotiating mobile-optimised sites, and can open full web pages, with flash support too. They look good on screen and are well rendered for the screen size, automatically re-sizing to give you an overall page view of the site. The text is small, but can be speedily zoomed in and out using numberpad shortcuts.

LG chocolate bl20

However, some web pages can take time to fully load – so you'll probably end up hanging around the mobile web unless forced out into the big wide World Wide Web.

LG chocolate bl20

Although navigation involves the usual type of mobile menu option lists, the keypad is configured for several useful browser shortcuts – including zooming, switching to a full screen landscape view, viewing recently visited pages as selectable thumbnails, and so on.

LG chocolate bl20

Two browser windows can be opened at one time and toggled between, and you can also do text searches in web pages, and even save a page to look at later, should you need to have dinner or wash your cat or something.

It makes for more efficient operation than most mid-tier conventional phones, although inevitably it's not as slick and intuitive as some touchscreen browser efforts we could mention (including LG's own, such as on the LG Viewty Smart GC900).

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.