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LG Optimus G |
LG Electronics officially took the wraps off its latest high-end smartphone, the quad-core Optimus G, which it said will lay the foundation for all of its premier smartphones going forward.
The gadget, which LG has been teasing the past few weeks, is the first LTE smartphone to sport Qualcomm's (NASDAQ:QCOM) 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor. LG said the new processor will allow for better performance, battery life and enable more fluid mobile gaming.
LG, which has been struggling to catch up in the smartphone race with larger rivals Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics, has seen its star fall recently. The company has fallen to be the No. 5 global handset maker in many analysts' surveys after years of consistently being ranked No. 3. LG has been focused intently on building smartphones with LTE connectivity and earlier this month noted that it has sold 5 million LTE smartphones since its first one, the Revolution, went on sale in May 2011 through Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ).
NTT DoCoMo will be the first to unveil a Japanese edition of the Optimus G, LG said, and the global version of the device will be launched in South Korea in September, followed by other markets worldwide. LG has had an uneven track record lately of getting its high-end devices subsidized by Tier 1 U.S. carriers, though it certainly has strong relationships with all of them. LG's first smartphone with a dual-core processor (from Nvidia) was launched by T-Mobile USA in April 2011.
In addition to the high-powered processor, the device features a number of hardware innovations that were produced as a result of LG's collaboration with its sister companies in South Korea. With help from LG Display, the Optimus G sports a 4.7-inch WXGA True HD IPS+ Display with a resolution of 1280x768 pixels. LG also said the Optimus G will be the first smartphone to be equipped with LG Innotek and LG Display's newly developed G2 Touch Hybrid Display for touchscreen panels, which it said is thinner than current touchscreen panels and easier to see in outdoor sunlight.
LG Chem has also developed a high-density 2,100mAh battery that provides more power capacity and prolonged charging cycles, LG said. The device features a 13-megapixel camera and runs on Android 4.0, or Ice Cream Sandwich.
For more:
- see this release
- see this The Verge article
- see this CNET article
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