Check out our review of the LG G2 smart phone.
Samsung, HTC, Sony, and even Huawei have all announced and released their flagship smartphones for 2013, and while LG has put the Optimus G Pro on sale in several countries – including America – it hasn’t had wide enough distribution to challenge the Galaxy Note 2 and all its pals for supremacy. Instead, it looks like LG has been reconsidering its smartphone strategy, and is now about to release its true 2013 flagship Android smartphone.
Before we begin, there’s the issue of the device’s official name. The invitation certainly does suggest it’ll be called the G2, and we’d heard LG was about to drop the Optimus name from its high-end Android phones. Will it be replaced with something else, or is this exciting-sounding phone simply going to be called the LG G2? We’ll find out soon. Whether it’s called the LG Optimus G2 or the LG G2, here’s everything you need to know about it.
Facts
August 7 Unveiling: LG has scheduled an event for August 7 in New York. When it first announced the event, it didn’t bother with much promotion. However, today it has begun circulating invitations. They show a glossy material with the words, “Great 2 Have You,” written over the top, with the letter G and number 2 both emphasized in a larger font. Thanks to LG’s less-than-subtle hint, we take it the G2 will be introduced on the day.
LG G2: Following the teaser trailer, LG has confirmed its next flagship smartphone will be called the LG G2, signifying the retirement of the Optimus name, at least on its top-of-the-range devices. The press release says the G2 will be the first in its new, “G” range of premium phones, although it stops short of telling us it’ll be announced on August 7. Not that there is much doubt now.
Teaser trailer: Accompanying the invitation is a teaser trailer, entitled To Me, You Are Perfect. From G. Set in New York, our Chuck Taylor-wearing protagonist wanders around the city, and is continually bombarded by the titular phrase. It’s scrawled on buildings, written on Post-It notes, and even suspended from balloons. It’s a message that could have been relayed in 30 seconds, but the promo video runs for more then three times that, and is otherwise devoid of information.
Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor: So, we’ve got a good idea the LG G2 will be revealed on August 7, but what about the phone’s features? LG and Qualcomm sent out a press release in June saying the successor to the original LG Optimus would be powered by a Snapdragon 800 processor with LTE connectivity. At the time we hadn’t seen any hardware using the monster quad-core chip, but since then the Sony Xperia Z Ultra has been announced, along with the LTE-Advanced version of Samsung’s Galaxy S4.
Rumors
Flexible, shatterproof screen: That’s about it for the facts about the LG G2, now on to some juicy rumors. The phone itself has been discussed for some time, and the most enduring rumor concerning its specification is the presence of a flexible screen. Now, this won’t mean the LG G2 will be a flexible phone, just that the screen could be made from a flexible material, and therefore very difficult to scratch or break.
LG has said it’s working on a 5-inch flexible display, and has even shown off a working example at a trade show, while in April the company’s president promised to introduce a phone with a flexible OLED screen before the end of the year. A comment from LG’s head of mobile in Europe has also claimed the LG G2 will have a unique feature to make it standout, making it easy to put the two pieces of surprisingly official information together. That said, another LG executive said a flexible screen-equipped phone wouldn’t be out this year, dampening the fires slightly on this particular rumor.
Super thin HD panel: LG has announced a super thin new display panel for smartphones, which measures 2.2mm thick, has a 2.3mm bezel, and a 1080p resolution. LG calls the 5.2-inch display the world’s thinnest and narrowest of its kind, and states it’s capable of producing a brightness of 535 nits, which is slightly more than the Apple iPhone 5, but still shy of the Nokia Lumia 920’s 600 nits. Although LG hasn’t explicitly mentioned where the panel will first appear, hence why you’re reading this in the rumor section, there’s a good chance it’ll show up on the LG G2, which has been linked with a 5.2-inch screen size, and a minimal bezel.
Power and Volume on the back: Pouring further water over the chances of a flexible display are the various leaks of the device itself, especially as it has given us a glimpse of something which could also be described as a different and unique feature. These pictures show an LG phone with the volume and power keys not on the side and the top of the phone’s body shell, but top-center on the rear of the phone, sharing space with the camera lens.
5-inch 1080p screen: By shifting some of the controls from the edge of the phone, LG may have been able to not only make the phone very slim, but also make the screen’s bezel very small. The screen is said to be somewhere between the 5-inch and 5.5-inch size, with a 1080p resolution.
13-megapixel camera: Another rumor suggests the LG G2’s camera will be impressive, with a 13-megapixel count and optical image stabilization technology. The promo video does feature several people using regular cameras, suggesting LG will be making a big deal over the camera’s capabilities on the G2.
3GB of RAM, LTE Advanced: Joining the Snapdragon 800 processor could be as much as 3GB of RAM, or at least on a version of the LG G2 headed for the SK Telecom network in South Korea, where it could connect to its LTE-Advanced network. Samsung’s Galaxy S4 had to be fitted with the Snapdragon 800 chip before it was released there, so LG may want to beat its rival in another area.
Leaked video: An LG smartphone with the model number LG-D803 has been leaked on video, where it’s claimed to be the G2. It gives us a better look at the phone’s design and the rear-mounted volume and sleep/wake key.
Second official teaser video: Continuing on from the first teaser, LG has released a new video which you can see below. The one minute 40 second runtime is taken up with statistics about how we spend our lives, like the amount of friends we’ll make and the tears we’ll shed, with LG again telling us it thinks we’re perfect. If you’re wondering what this has to do with the LG G2, you’re not alone, and you won’t miss much by skipping to the last few seconds where we get a glimpse of the phone itself. The brief look shows the rear-mounted controls we’ve been hearing so much about. Otherwise, that’s it for information on the phone.
Putting it all together
So, if the reports all turn out to be correct, the LG G2 will have a 5-inch-plus 1080p shatterproof screen, a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor with up to 3GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel camera with OIS software, rear mounted controls, and a super slim chassis. We’re expecting the phone to launch just before October, and when it does arrive, LG will be releasing the phone in more markets than usual, including the often ignored UK, which still hasn’t seen the Optimus G Pro.
Updated on 07/11/2013 by Andy: Added information on LG Display’s new super thin 1080p display.
Updated on 07/18/2013 by Andy: LG has confirmed its next range-topping smartphone will be called the LG G2.
Updated on 07/23/2013 by Andy: Added latest teaser video.
Article originally published 7/10/2013.
