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Sharp SH-04B early review: Chocolate phone helps you work, rest and play

If you like a lot of chocolate on your phone, join our club. The Sharp SH-04B is a chocolate-inspired mobile. Sweet

Richard Trenholm
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
Richard Trenholm
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Only the crumbliest, flakiest phones taste like phones never tasted before. There's something a little flakey about the Sharp SH-04B, an innocuously named but utterly barking clamshell phone shaped like a half-melted chocolate bar.

We spotted it on the NTT DoComo stand at Mobile World Congress. NTT DoComo is Japan's biggest mobile operator. This is a company that abbreviated its name from the phrase 'do communications over the mobile network'. Delicious.

The 04B is one of those long, thin clamshells you don't get over here anymore. A bit like Trios. Rememeber those? Triii-o! Trii-iii-o! The lady who sang that also sang "Whaaaaaow, Bodyform!" Fact.

The most impressive thing about the Bourneville blower is its 8-megapixel camera. There's a second, low-resolution camera on the inside. Both pack CMOS sensors.

It's also waterproof, so don't worry if you spill it in your Mars Milk. It contains a digital TV tuner and Bluetooth, and the wrist straps have fake biscuits on the end.

Have a break, have a click through our gallery for a taste of the chocolate phone.

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With about six different softkeys and a circular d-pad, we couldn't figure the thing out at all. It also has a picture of an ant on it.
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The 76mm (3-inch) WVGA screen even displays chocolate-themed menus and wallpapers. It also features a friendly little panda.
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The back of the phone is more bling than a Galaxy Caramel, dominated by the enormous 8-megapixel camera.
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The 04B is also available in pink, for anyone who thinks a phone that looks like a chocolate bar is just too masculine. Only 13,000 are being manufactured, and they're all in Japan, so we won't be seeing the 04B in our phone shops. Or in Thornton's.

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