Mobile Phones Guide
Design
Sex and the Chocolate
Strictly speaking, the Chocolate adopts a candy bar form factor common amongst many other devices. Even so, the Chocolate manages to stand out with its absolutely huge 4-inch screen. In theory, that sounds like a lot of screen real estate. But its unusually elongated shape doesn't give you more room to work with on the portrait mode. Flip it over to landscape orientation, and you'll have a new perspective to work with. But let's not get ahead of ourselves with the unique features that come with the landscape mode. What we will say right now is that the Chocolate is going to take some getting used to no thanks to the unusual aspect ratio for its 4-inch capacitive touch screen display.
The Chocolate's surface gleams and shimmers with its tempered glass display, and is supposedly scratch-resistant. As such, you might find the Chocolate a tad heavier than normal. For us, it was just nice, and the added weight does give it a level of sturdiness. Besides, the unusually glossy surface adds the sense of premium ownership to the user. Unfortunately for all that glitters, it is also susceptible to serious smudging. While you won't get stained by this Chocolate, it is you who would end up staining it with your finger oils and prints across its whole body. Not surprisingly, a lot of time will be spent on wiping the Chocolate's surface to keep it pristine and clean. Our advice? Live with the fingerprints if you can.
There isn't a lot of noticeable buttons on the Chocolate, but they do exist. Such as the Volume and Camera buttons that seamlessly integrates itself into the silver border running along the Chocolate. Surprisingly, they were easy to locate without relying on eye contact. Thus proves the point that with the right design concept, a device can retain its usability level while keeping its aesthetic beauty. Design isn't the only strong point as the Chocolate is also quite focused on its multimedia aspect. The proof is in not only a 3.5mm audio port on the crown of the device, but also a button on the left that instantly activates the music player.
During our earlier Nokia 6710 Navigator review, we mentioned how its microUSB and microSD slot is well-designed with an inward-sliding cover. The Chocolate adopts a similar, albeit slightly different concept here. The microUSB cover slides outwards instead, but thankfully, the cover is small and thin, plus it doesn't look out of place at all.
