silviajhonson: LG Optimus G: hands-on with Korea's latest powerhouse (video)

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

LG Optimus G: hands-on with Korea's latest powerhouse (video)

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 1280x768 True HD IPS PLUS display, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of built-in storage, a 13-megapixel autofocus camera, a sealed 2100mAh battery, NFC and runs Ice Cream Sandwich. We like the simple and elegant design, which is reminiscent of LG's Chocolate and Prada models -- it's thin (8.45mm / 0.33-inch) 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 reflective 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. 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 back, pretty much where you'd expect them to be. While the display is definitely high quality, it's not mind blowing (the One X screen still looks better) -- the viewing angles are decent, but we expected more from LG's True HD IPS PLUS and Zerogap Touch technologies.

Enjoy our gallery below and our hands-on video after the break.

Gallery: LG Optimus G hands-on