Review: LG Chocolate Touch
Screen
The screen is OK, but doesn't compare favorably to some of the newer handsets being announced lately. It measures 3 inches and packs in just 240 x 400 pixels. Many other touch displays are measuring 320 x 480 or greater, so this is a lower-end display — and its obvious when you look at it. LG went with a resistive touch panel on the Chocolate Touch. It isn't as bright or sharp as I'd like it to be. You can definitely see pixels and rough edges here and there, but it gets the job done. There are certainly worse displays out there. Readability was just fine inside, though outdoors posed a bit of a problem for the LG. Sunlight washed out the display from time to time, depending on what sort of background you have on the screen.
Signal
Signal performance was solid with the Chocolate Touch. It always managed to find and remain connected to Verizon's network with no problems. The signal level indicators never seemed to stray below three bars of coverage. Practically speaking, I didn't miss any calls to the Chocolate Touch. I never received any mystery voicemails. SMS messages arrived promptly, and I never dropped any calls. In other words, the Chocolate Touch gets the phone part of being a phone right.
Sound
The ringtones are adequately loud with the Chocolate Touch. One thing to note. Because the speaker is positioned on the back side of the phone, it could become muted if you place it on a soft surface, such as a pillow or couch. Hard surfaces, such as a desk, are fine, but the Chocolate Touch becomes much more difficult to hear if you put it down on a cloth-covered surface. It includes a vibrate alert that I found enough to get me to notice an incoming call. The earpiece speaker was very loud. In fact, if you're in a quiet room, you don't need to use the speakerphone at all, you can hear calls just fine through the earpiece. You can hear calls when in noisy environments, too. Coffee shops and malls were no problem. Quality of phone calls was good. I noticed a few weird echoes, but most of the time calls were clear and free of noise.
Battery
The Chocolate Touch's battery performed well. I was able to get it to last about 2.5 days consistently, even with moderate amounts of music playback. Even heavy web and messaging use didn't detract from battery life too much. Two days was the least I got, so you shouldn't have to charge it every night.