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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Battery life is acceptable on the LG Chocolate BL20 - with LG calculating that its 900mAh battery pack can keep the phone running for up to 450 hours on standby or provide up to 5 hours talktime.

LG chocolate bl20

With fewer power-sapping features than big-hitting high-end touchscreen phones, we found it delivered a steady two to three days of power with our typical use, though heavier usage of features like the music player will take a greater toll on power consumption.

Organiser

LG doesn't spring too many surprises on the organiser and tools front. The memo and calendar widgets may be useful extras, but most of the organiser apps are standard functional stuff – calendar, tasks, memo, plus there are alarm clock, voice recorder, stopwatch, calculator, unit convertor and world clock tools onboard.

LG chocolate bl20

There's also a photo memo option that works with the Text Scan camera tool, and a date finder, which enables you to look up a date a certain number of days ahead - which could be handy for some cool and happening hip-cats, we guess.

Connectivity

The LG Chocolate BL20 is equipped for dual-band UMTS 900/2100 3G and tri-GSM 900/1800/1900 network usage (meaning it will work in the US).

It supports HSDPA high-speed 3G mobile data connectivity (up to 3.6Mbps) and GPRS/EDGE on GSM networks.

As a mid-tier phone, it doesn't have Wi-Fi onboard. Bluetooth 2.1, with A2DP, is supported, and synchronisation can be carried out over the air with a PC using Bluetooth and the supplied LG PC Suite software, or via the supplied USB data cable.

Other

LG has kept the Chocolate BL20 minimalist in the extra apps department. There's a Yahoo search facility pre-loaded, which when selected takes you online, but there were no other apps to speak of in our review sample.

LG chocolate bl20

On the games front, there were just a couple of Java options – Sudoku Café and Mini Game Planet, which offers a selection of simple games – but don't go expecting the dizzy-making blowing games from the Chocolate BL40.

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.