Sum n substance:

Thumbs up: Killer looks, brilliant screen and resolution, satisfactory camera features, decent video playing quality.

Thumbs down: Disappointing battery life, dual screen UI not used much.

Inside the trunk:

Features: TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors / Photo Geo-tagging, face, smile and blink detection / Dolby Mobile sound enhancement / Downloadable polyphonic ringtones / Gesture controls / Proximity sensor for auto turn-off / Multi-touch input method / Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate / Schneider-Kreuznach optics.

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: The latest one from LG under the Black line collection is definitely a show stealer to say the least. No surprise for guessing that this one again is aimed at the Fashionista out there. But along with the high glam quotient comes a highly irresistible feature set. Basically this one is for the user who loves to admire the looks of the phone than probably using it much.

It could be called the pioneer in the world of cinematic screens. It comes loaded with a full 21:9 screen which is definitely a plus point for all the people who love to watch their movies on the move.

It’s got a vibrant red metal and black look to it, which by far is my favourite combination. I mean who wouldn’t love a red and a black combination?? Anyways on the top of the chassis is a 3.5 jack for the headphone along with the lock/power key. The right side houses a wave like volume rocker along stylistic camera key.

What’s surprising here is the absence of the touch sensitive keys in the front. Basically the front side just has the huge screen and a video camera along with LG logo and a speaker. The rear also doesn’t have much of embellishments except for the camera lens and the LG logo giving it a highly classy feel. Though this one is quite a long phone and could easily compete for the title of the longest phone, this one comfortably fits into the male pocket.

One of the reasons I don’t appreciate LG much is the fact that the Interfacing that it uses is highly disappointing. But it looks like LG is trying hard to work on that with the launch of this one. It has the same S-class UI but this one is far more responsive compared to the Crystal and the Arena. The responsiveness of this one is  highly innate and it hardly just required me to swipe my finger upward to unlock the phone. The wipeability feature of the chocolate is highly impressive. It also has something called as the gesture unlocking. Which means that you just have to jot in a gesture for a particular application and voila… the application is open right in front of you. Like for instance if you want to open the messaging application all you need to do is probably put in an ‘M’ and there the application opens up.

Coming to the most impressive feature that this one has to offer… the 800×345 resolution screen which in the words of LG is ‘true’VGA. Whatever it is, it is truly breath taking. What always gets me thinking is the fact that why doesn’t LG use OLED screens for its phone. But this one could make anyone mistake it for an OLED screen. The images are just so animated and lively, the colours are just so deep, the contrast is just so perfect… I could go on and on about the awesome display quality, to sum it up its just FANTABULOUS.

Keeping the phone size in mind I kind of expected the call quality to be pretty much decent and this one surely lived up to my expectations. Hardly any static or interference, some hint of background voice at times, but on the whole the quality is nice. Also at the callers end they hardly had any problems as such. The video calling doesn’t have anything much enticing to offer except for the clear detailed videos of yourself and the person on the other line, but the voice quality on the speakerphone is nothing great to talk much about.

I would recommend using the phone in the landscape mode for a better messaging experience. What is unsatisfactory here in this case is the fact that you can just see one line of the text that your typing on the screen. I totally understand that this one has a slim screen but then again it wouldn’t hurt much if I could see more of my scribblings on the screen. Something innovative that LG has come up with is that you can ‘cc’ people while messaging them. Also you could easily push E-mail from a variety of servers like yahoo, hotmail.etc.

The claims of a dual screen UI (viewing two screens at the same time) could be noticed only in the messaging mode. When switched too the landscape mode I could see the message I was typing on one side and on the other side I could see a preview of the message.

This one comes loaded with a 5 megapixel Schneider Kreuznach lens which makes picture taking a pleasant experience. Also for all those who want prettier friends this one has something called the beauty shoot mode, LOL. I wont recommend this one taking pitures under the bright light because then the entire foreground gets totally obliterated. Plus this one isn’t that great when it comes to taking pictures which have a huge palette of colours. The flash is a  commendable feature and I could easily say that somehow it manages to throw in more light as compared to the sun… sounds weird but its true.

Now coming to the  most mind blowing feature of the chocolate. I was just waiting to experiment with the Media player option of this one. Well it’s the most brilliant experience too actually be watching a movie on the 21:9 TV. The movies played on the media player were pretty much decent. It can easily handle AVI, MP4, DivX and Xvid formats. This one for sure is an awesome PMP and a swish mobile phone as well.

Talking about the applications, this one has  a nice set of cool applications which are more than enough to give you company when you are feeling dull and bored. Also the organizer of the Choccolate is pretty much basic and offers the regular stuff like the calculator, to do list, memo functions, multiple alarms etc. to keep you occupied.

However , quite sadly the battery life of the Chocolate is quite poor. The screen is quite vibrant and bright and all of that but that definitely drains a lot of power. Well all I could conjure from this one is that probably LG had to compromise on something to fit everything into such a slim frame, and probably this is the one it decided to compromise on.

Nitty- Gritty: This one’s definitely for all the fashionista’s. Well its got looks, its got the style, its stuffed with more than brilliant features which could have Shania Twain change the lyrics of her song to “ that surely impresses me much”… go ahead give it a shot… if you have the bucks and are on the search for a high end dainty phone then this one is for you.

Sum n substance:

Thumbs up: combo of a watch and a phone,  dandy designing, surprisingly lightweight, high endurance, excellent touchscreen responsiveness.

Thumbs down: the VGA camera, low resolution display.

Inside the trunk:
Price at launch £500.00
Dimensions 49 x 39 x 13.8
Features Videocalling / VGA camera
Weight (g) 84.00

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: Finally the much awaited watchphone from LG has seen the light of the day. Though it was expected that this one would cost around 500 euros, this one has been launched for a lesser price than what was being assumed. Well, I am pretty excited to review this one just for the fact that it is loaded with a touchscreen, Bluetooth and yeah not to forget a camera too. What waits to be seen is whether this one is just a imposture or if it truly stands true to the claims that it is making. Anyways I guess by the end of this review the answer to this one would be crystal clear… so moving ahead…

This one is quite a sleek one, considering all the features that it encapsulates this one for sure is worth all the talk. Its got a leather strap which has to be strapped around the wrist using a clamp in kind of a fit. The major drawback with this one is that the clamp keeps on getting loose again and again and has to be tightened regularly. Its got a small 1.4 inch touchscreen which I guess is small for all those who have been using the regular 3 inch touchscreen, but then again I must add that working with the smaller one is quite more comfortable.

The SIM card slot has been placed behind the battery at the back of the watch. And trust me, I wouldn’t advice anyone using this one to keep on fiddling with the SIM card plainly because it is quite a difficult process to remove it again and again and plus it would require a coin or something like a coin too actually blow the lid off the battery.

This one has 3 buttons on the side, the talk button, the end button, and the navigating button. Using the talk button the menu page can be opened and it can be used for selecting the other applications. The end button simply takes you back to the main screen and the toggle button helps you scroll back and forth. The glitch being that at times you might just pull out some of your arm hair while trying to get your fingers on the tiny buttons. LOL.

It’s quite a lightweight number considering all the stuff it has been loaded with. I could easily just use it as a watch without even bothering about the weight of it. Plus to add  to the set of the features, the charging facility provided with this one is quite fascinating. The charger has an absolutely astounding design which fastens the phone to a metal plate and then even connects it to a USB charger for computer compatibility.

If you are expecting any thing more than calling, texting and possibly listening to some music then I am sorry to say this one isn’t for you. But y would anyone want a watch to do anything more than this?? Anyways the interface of this one is quite a basic one. The reason being the size of the screen. I mean c’mon… how much do you want on a 1.4 inch touchscreen?? Obviously no one would want a mess right on their wrists.

Well, it’s quite difficult to imagine talking through the phone… I mean imagine talking through the phone and shuffling it between your mouth and ears just because the speakerphone isn’t all that great. By the way, I must add that thankfully this one has a not so great kind of a speaker just because talking in public with the angle of the watch near you struggling to talk would do nothing, but just make you look like a complete whack-job. I would recommend using a Bluetooth headset. Any Bluetooth headset syncs in perfectly with this one. And the quality of voice with this one using Bluetooth is also pretty much clear. With hardly any static or interference and also the callers had no complains.

You could use the phone when making video calls. But I suggest taking it off your wrists and then using it for the video calls. The video quality isn’t all that great but its quite distinctive and that’s all you could expect from the VGA camera that this one comes along with.  The 3G coverage on this one is pretty exceptional as well, I hardly had any problems no matter where I was.

Using the messaging service on this one was quite damn easy, unlike what I expected it to be. I hardly faced any problems using it with the T9 option that comes along with it. It also has the regular multi tap option. One teeny weeny complain that I have with this one is that the message doesn’t start with a capital letter so I kind of had to fiddle around a bit to get that fixed.

Before I move on to the camera, I just need too add that the camera surely is just a piece of add-on. I think it was placed there just because there was some more space to be filled and what else better than a camera to fill in a few blank spaces. LOL. Anyways the clarity of the camera is hardly anything to talk about, plus you could hardly use it just to probably click pictures of your own self, nothing much or nothing less. This one surely wasn’t placed in there as a highlight or probably one of the reasons to buy the phone. Obviously this small device can’t live up to al your whims and fancies.

The music payer that this one comes equipped with is quite a decent one. The sound quality is also quite clear and also navigation through the music player is quite a pleasant experience thanks to the superbly responsive keys.

It doesn’t have much of multimedia features to like keep you really busy or possibly even entertain you when you are bored, but then again its got some really nice organizational features like the calculator, to do list, alarm clock and a memo function. On a lighter note I would recommend this one to all the mathphobic kids out there. What could possibly be more fascinating than having a calculator right on your wrists. LOL.

Coming to the battery life, this one was alive for about three days in a row without having to be recharged. Yeah I did use a bit of the music player and yeah the Bluetooth connectivity for making calls. And its endurance is pretty much impressive for me atleast.

Nitty-gritty: The most astounding fact about this one is that it’s a combo of a watch and phone which makes it a killer on itself irrespective of the other features it comes along with. Yeah some of the people might find it quite ridiculous to have a phone on your wrist, paying a huge amount for it, when you could easily buy a separate watch and a phone with better features at almost the same price or even less than it.

But then this one is a real cool find. And probably if you’re Paris Hilton… go ahead splurge on this one. LOL…

Thumbs up: generous touch screen, QWERTY keypad is decent enough,awesome call quality, 3-megapixel camera.

Thumbs down: does not support JAVA, speakers aren’t that great, navigation joystick could have been a bit better designed.

Inside the trunk:

• Technology CDMA
• Band CDMA 800/1900 (Dual Band)
• Phone Design Slider
• Caller ID Yes
• Wireless Interface Bluetooth 2.1
• Additional Features TTY compatible , Voice command , Touch screen , Speakerphone , 16 GB microSD card slot , Airplane mode , Micro USB

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: LG has always managed to come up with some really astounding touch screen phones and though it wasn’t the pioneer in the touch screen market it definitely rules the roost. Now  it has collaborated with Alltel and U.S mobile  to bring to you one more of its masterpieces. Without any further ado lets move forward to the review.

Razzle-dazzle: I wouldn’t be wrong if I say that the LG tritan is dominated by its touchscreen which measures 4.45 inches by length and 2.24 inches by width and 0.65 inch in thickness. It is highly comfortable in the hand with its curved corners though it is a bit bulky.

Its got a stunning display with highly animated colours at a resolution of  240×400 and  it also has a 262,000 colour support. The graphics are terrific and I was spell bound at the sharpness of the text and images. When the phone is idle the display gets overlayed by a screen which displays the day and the date and the missed calls if there are any along with the to-do list for the day. Also it comes equipped with an accelerometer which changes from the portrait mode to the landscape mode .

It has not one but four home screens which includes the main home screen, widgets home screen, the contacts home screen and the multimedia home screen all of which can be switched by just swiping your finger across the display and the name of the home screen  your on is displayed on the header. The top part of each home screen can be tapped to reveal rotating shortcut tiles that lead to the Bluetooth toggle, a new text message, the alarm clock, memory information, sound settings, the location toggle, and power save mode.

Talking about the touchscreen, whenever your touch gets registered it vibrates. Also there is a touch calibration wizard to ensure accuracy. What is kind of disappointing is that sometimes when I was just plainly scrolling down the lists, something else would get activated bymistake. Well, LG has tried to fix it up anyways by providing small real physical keys  underneath the touchscreen. The phone dialer keys are done up really well I must say, plus even while messaging we can either use a virtual QWERTY keyboard or the keypad, but still I prefer the physical QWERTY keyboard.

Amongst the advanced features being offered by the Tritan are the GPS navigation, the voice recorder, USB mass storage mode, stereo Bluetooth, and a document viewer that lets you view Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF documents. Also you can access your mail using the U.S cellulars EasyEdge service.

Inside dope: Hmmm…the design part surely left me flabbergasted, and I should say the performance part didn’t leave me disappointed by any means either.

I tried calling using the U.S roaming service and was highly taken aback by the awesome call quality which hardly displayed any amount of static. Plus, the caller was pretty much satisfied with the quality of the calls too, with very less background sound.

The LG tritan is loaded with a decent music player which supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, and WMA file formats. I would recommend using headphones for better music playback and sound quality because the speakers aren’t actually that great.

The 3-megapixel camera that the Tritan is adorned with was also pretty decent. The image quality, sharpness and the colour of the images was fabulous. The video camera is also not left far behind, though I would personally prefer it to shoot short videos.

The LG has surely lived upto its untarnished image when it comes to battery life with this one, which has a battery life of 3.5 hours and a standby time of 8.5 days.

The LG Tritan is available for less than $80 for both carriers with a mail-in rebate–Alltel requires a one-year contract, while U.S. Cellular requires a two-year agreement for that price.

Nitty-gritty: If your looking forward to getting a spectacular new phone and don’t mind the extra costs…Go ahead and grab it… its basically simplicity personified with a touch of elegance.