Don't adjust your monitors, ladies and gentlemen: this is allegedly the upcoming
Chocolate Touch for Verizon, and despite our most heartfelt hopes to the contrary, it couldn't possibly look
less like the
BL40. We guess the crazy stylized back is pretty cool, but frankly, this design doesn't inspire any more emotion from us than a
Versa -- and that's a big problem for a phone that's supposed to help properly rep LG's chic Black Label line in the US. Call us bonkers, but we're gonna go ahead and hold out hope that this is actually something other than the Chocolate Touch -- LG's always got a ton of hardware in the pipeline for Verizon, after all -- and foolishly believe that they'll still launch a totally authentic, unfettered version of the real deal this fall. Hey, it could happen, right?
[Thanks, NKT]
That looks like a fatter version of the EnV Touch or Voyager, rather than a Chocolate, either way, the current touch LG phones look exactly the same, with the choice of an attachable keyboard, a stuck on keyboard, or no keyboard at all.
What? What happened to those pics with the Chocolate Touch with that awesome 4" screen. They replaced that with THIS? That sucks =(....
Once again, the States resume being the country of vanilla phones...w/ chrome,
"Chrome"
I'm not gonna lie. When I first saw this I LOL'd. This would be such a major letdown for so many people. Honestly, though, would anyone be surprised if this turned out to be it? This is just the unfortunate state of US phone releases.
yikes! the real chocolate touch was something exciting and different to look forward too. This looks like an enV touch w/o the keyboard. Sad state of affairs, but lamentably typical.
this is so pathetic that i believe its true. come on now, who really thought a US carrier would sell something as cool as the bl40? not me. we never get cool phones. our carriers have their heads so far up their asses that phones like these are what comes out. and that explains the back of this monstrosity.
How do you know it's not cool? Have you used the phone?
that looks like an update to the dare series
Ugh. I just threw up in my mouth a little. After spending the last couple of months creaming my jeans over the BL-40, I am so upset by this. What's up with those wonky buttons? And the "broken" effect on the back? Yelch. I don't care if it's got the most awesome interface on the planet, it's f'ing hideous.
This would be a huge letdown. Can our Mr./Mrs. 'verizon tester' shed any light on this BL40=ChocolateTouch issue?
I've been eligible for an upgrade for over a month now and i was waiting for the LG BL40. I may just have to wait (and pray) for the Pre to hit Big Red in January. Oh, the woes of being a phone snob! why can't I just be satisfied with one of the crappy phones Verizon has to offer?
LG DARE 2?
So I switched departments and now deal mainly with the Android launches that are in the works. But I can definitely shed some light on the Chocolate Touch. First, I will say that this picture is the picture of the Chocolate Touch launching in October. Verizon was testing a few prototypes for a long period of time. The BL40 included. The main issues that kept the device from being launched in time for the holiday was disagreement over Wifi. I will say adamently that 90% of the folks in the lab loved this device and pushed very hard for it to be included in our lineup. Long story short, there was a lot of bullsh!t beaurocracy and the response we received in regard to why the BL-40's plug was pulled was because "The focus groups showed that it only reached out to a very small segment of our customer base". They also pointed that because of the wifi it made it difficult to classify the device. Whether it would fall under a smartphone type plan or multimedia plan. I am not the type of person that has my nose up my companies @ss so I will call it like I see it.....they wanted to be able to control revenue by making it so customers would have to purchase apps and such through the upcoming launch of the VCAST app program that will soon be available. I will say that the BL-40 still has a good chance to be available on Verizon and I have fellow employees who are still working on this device on a daily basis. I might consider giving Chris a number to anyone who wants to contact Verizon to voice their opinion.
Please consider passing out that number. I would love to mouth off the idiots that make decisions at VZW. I have been hoping the BL40 would be Verizon redeeming themselves finally, and to see this sadly doesn't surprise me. Sure, perhaps they have great coverage, but when that coverage is utilized by lame dumbphones it kinda makes their service moot.
I hope Verizon eventually gets the BL40, or a great Android phone. But I still worry they will ruin wonderful hardware with horrible software as they always do.
I am very disappointed that the BL40 is not the Chocolate Touch. "The focus groups showed that it only reached out to a very small segment of our customer base". Verizon has an opportunity to extend their costumer base in a direction that will pay off as people expect from their phones. The iPhone is redefining the concept of a "phone" and Verizon doesn't seem to see that. Verizon, which is already very behind in the handset department cannot afford to wast any more time bringing top of the line phones to market. Hopefully Verizon will see this and come out with the BL40 (and some similar phones), whether under the chocolate label or not.
Kelloggs,
This is the battle folks like me have fought for a very long time. We deal with big whigs every day that make decisions with blinders on and have very short sighted vision. One of the main reasons, I may soon be jumping over to RIM.
I wouldn't be surprised if this was it I meAn look at the chocolate 3 same cheap shiny plastic and there were photos leaked of buisness plans saying that this is going to be like the dare 2 and to me that phone looks like a dare even though I hate to say this that might be the sad future we will probably get... look how they skrewed the chocolate with the thrid version of the device switching to flip was a retarded move and now it looks like they are gonna abonden this sinking ship with this sad excuse of a device
Ya seriously i've had my LG VX9400 for the last 2.5 years and have been eligible for an upgrade since march, one problem all the Verizon phones are exactly the same either a gay flip phone or a gay touch screen. They no longer have any unique phones, seems like all of them are just "new generations" of old phones. Also I love being able to use T9 word and don't really want a full keyboard because every one they have has miniscule buttons and touch screens absolutely suck to text on. Some of the smart phones are decent but I'm a college student and don't really have the extra cash to drop on a data plan. I am also sick of the bullshit software they put on every damn phone they sell. Bluetooth is basically useless, and so is the music player because its solely windows media which kinda sucks for all of us mac users. Verizon needs to get its ass back in the game before its ass gets dumped in the trash. Please pass out that number, I really think they need to hear what people really think.
I like the look of this phone. I currently have the Dare. I cant wait to get this phone.
This is like a Dare 2... I switched out my BF's phone, his daugters phone, his moms and mine for the Dare's ( I personally own 2 of them for backup) a couple months ago and I will def be hooking this one up first thing in the AM with free overnight shipping for friday delivery LOL... I like it and the Dare is possibly the best phone I have ever owned.. I hope this is an update to it.
I hear that verizon does not supply the ear phones with this phone
I guess Verizon just wants to squeeze more money out of us. I will go to walmart to get a good set of earphones for less than half the price Verizon charges.