LG expands Optimus lineup, emphasizes LTE devices

BARCELONA, Spain--LG revealed four new Optimus devices, the G, Vu, F and LII, at a press event here at the Mobile World Congress trade show. Of note is the Optimus G Pro, which is the company's follow-up to the Optimus G device released to select markets in August 2012. 

LG Optimus G Pro

LG Optimus G Pro

The Optimus G was the first handset to feature the Snapdragon S4 Pro Quad-Core processor from Qualcomm.

"As of Mobile World Congress, we're announcing the Optimus G will roll out to 50 markets worldwide," said Andy Kim, LG's senior vice president of global marketing and communications.

CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood noted that the Optimus G Pro is a "dramatic improvement over dreadful Optimus Vu in awkwardly named Phabet category."

The Optimus LII series has three devices: the L3, L5 and L7. The L3 has a 3.2 truecolor IPS display and 3 megapixel camera. The L5 has a 4.0 truecolor display and a 5 megapixel camera, and the L7 has a 4.3 truecolor IPS and an 8 megapixel camera. All three phones have a 16 GHz processor. An LG representative confirmed that the L3 would come to select markets in the first quarter, and the L5 and L7 would come to market in the second quarter. Pricing and availability were not released.

The Optimus F devices, the Optimus F5 and Optimus F7 are both 4G LTE compatible. The F5 will come to market in the second quarter. No release details were given about the F7.

The only tablet demoed was the LG Optimus Vu, a hybrid LTE tablet.

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