Hasta La Gadget!

When it comes to LG’s latest flagship, it appears there can be no shortage of official announcements. So, while the news from overseas may not be quite so fresh, there’s certainly nothing stale about the Optimus G. Today the company held a second celebration in honor of its powerhouse — the first to pack Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro: a quad-core SoC clocked at 1.5GHz. Buffered by a heaping 2GB RAM and an Adreno 320 GPU this absolutely beastly device is officially coming to American shores in the fourth quarter of this year. The 4.7-inch phone may ship with some slightly different specs, depending on carrier, but they’ll still find a home for the 1280 x 768 True HD, in-cell, IPS display. There’s no specifics about carriers or pricing as yet, but we’ll let you know when we do.

Update: Hit the break for LG’s Optimus G PR video.

Continue reading LG Optimus G and its quad-core 1.5GHz S4 Pro coming to US shores in Q4 (update: video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

LG Optimus G and its quad-core 1.5GHz S4 Pro coming to US shores in Q4 (update: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 08:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We’re in Seoul for the launch of LG’s latest flagship smartphone, the Optimus G, and we finally managed to spend a few minutes with a demo unit. This is a powerhouse — the first handset built around Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro. It features LTE, a 4.7-inch 1280×768 True HD IPS PLUS display, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of built-in storage, a 13-megapixel autofocus camera, a sealed 2100mAh battery, and NFC.

We like the simple and elegant design, which is reminiscent of LG’s Chocolate and Prada models — it’s thin (8.45mm / 0.33 inches) and reasonably light for its size (145g / 5.11oz). The front sports a glass surface with three capacitive buttons and the back showcases the company’s Crystal Reflection process — an attractive patterned glass-like finish that’s a bit of a fingerprint magnet. Materials and build quality are excellent (better than the Galaxy S III) and the Optimus G feels pleasant in hand.

You’ll find a volume rocker and micro-SIM slot on the left edge and the power / lock key on the right. There’s a notification light next to the 1.3MP front-facing camera. A standard headphone jack sits on the top side, with the micro-USB / MHL connector on the bottom. The speaker and main camera are in the back, pretty much where you’d expect them. While the display is definitely high quality, it’s not mind blowing (the One X screen still looks better) — we expected better viewing angles from LG’s True HD IPS PLUS and Zerogap Touch technologies.

Sadly, we didn’t spend much time using the software, but the Optimus G runs Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) with a skin similar to what we saw on the Optimus 4X HD and performance is definitely impressive. We’ll get more seat time with LG’s flagship over the next few days, so stay tuned for more impressions. In the meantime, enjoy our gallery below and our hands-on video after the break.

Update: We’ve added pictures of the white model and screenshots to the gallery.

Continue reading LG Optimus G: hands-on with Korea’s latest powerhouse (video) (updated)

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

LG Optimus G: hands-on with Korea’s latest powerhouse (video) (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 22:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Something big has been brewing at HTC, most often referred to as the DLX or by its less-than-flattering 6435LVW name. While there have been unconfirmed photos of prototypes floating around, a Sina Weibo user has posted what we have reason to believe is an authentic press image of the finished result: meet the One X 5. As the name and image suggest, the phablet-class device should be dominated by a 5-inch (and possibly 1080p) screen that makes even a regular One X look dainty. Internal details haven’t been nailed down alongside the looks, although previous benchmarks have had it using a Snapdragon S4 that might ultimately be a quad-core S4 Pro. There’s no immediate signs of a stylus or other tricks besides that sea of glass. We may not have long to wait before we find out, however. HTC just happens to have a New York City event planned for this Wednesday, and previously detected links between the 6435LVW and Verizon could see the One X 5 quickly reach the US if it’s meant to show at that gathering — although it might get another name change to fit into the Droid family.

Update: We’ve been given a heads-up that this is a device posted as a “concept” by Danny Tu on Flickr, which raises doubt that we’ll see exactly what’s on show here (or see that name). However, it still lines up with earlier photos and what we’ve heard. We’ll keep you posted as to whether or not it reflects reality in the end.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

HTC’s 5-inch behemoth phone spied in press render, may be called One X 5 (update: some caution) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 14:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Sina Weibo (sign-in required)  | Email this | Comments

Much like the run-up to the previous flagship product launch, Qualcomm-backed Xiaomi has just announced that it’ll be selling a small batch of pre-production second-gen Xiaomi Phones, in the hopes to get some keen users to perform last-minute checks before mass production. To be exact, only 600 of these quad-core Jelly Bean phones will be made available online at local time 10am on September 22nd (that’s 10pm ET on the 21st); and even if you have CN¥1,999 ($310) to spare, you’ll still need to be one of the 1,200 expert members from the Xiaomi and MIUI online communities to be able to hit the “order” button. Nice hype drive, if you ask us.

Later on, successful buyers can simply swap their engineering units in for a final version of the 16GB or 32GB Xiaomi Phone 2 — the latter a new addition that co-founder Lei Jun announced on Sina Weibo last Saturday (where he also cheekily asked if anyone need a 64GB flavor). For those who qualify but would rather avoid the digital bloodshed next week, we suggest you wait until the official Chinese launch in the second-half of October; or try Taiwan by the end of the year.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Xiaomi Phone 2 pre-production units available on September 22nd, limited to 600 lucky buyers originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Sina Weibo (login required)  | Email this | Comments

LG must know that word of the Optimus G has been spoiled, even if it’s not quite ready to put all its cards on the table. While it’s only acknowledging the phone’s identity under a ‘G’ codename, the Korean electronics giant is willing to talk a lot about what’s under the hood. Among the truly new revelations: that uncommonly wide 1,280 x 768 screen, now called the G2 Touch Hybrid Display, is a 30 percent thinner gapless panel that puts the LCD right near the glass in a way that just might be familiar to HTC One X owners. We don’t know for certain if it’s one of those newly-shipping in-cell touch panels, but that name certainly suggests LG is setting aside a few of those cutting-edge LCDs for itself. There’s also a treat in store for those who work their phones to the bone — a newly refined battery can go through 800 full recharge cycles before it gives up the ghost, or about 60 percent more than we’ve seen in the past. Combine these with the quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro we already knew was coming, and the Optimus G could be quite the technology showcase for both LG’s native South Korea as well as the US through a possible Sprint model.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

LG teases that Optimus G will have 768p gapless display, long-lifespan battery originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Aug 2012 01:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  LG Newsroom (English), (Korean, translated)  | Email this | Comments