The LG L Fino and L Bello, new entries into LG’s mid-range L Series, popular for its cool styling, have been pre-launched ahead of their official unveiling at the IFA tech show in September. LG knows that when a design isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it. To this it has also added “use it absolutely everywhere possible,” and these two new smartphones have a very similar look to the flagship G3.
Neither can match the specs of the G3 though, and are aimed at people who perhaps have never owned a smartphone before, or at least want to upgrade one with a smaller screen to one that could pass for a top-of-the-range device. Both phones come with the same redesigned rear mounted controls as the G3, plus LG has installed its latest Android user interface, something it promised it would be doing earlier this week.
Related: Our review of the awesome LG G3 smartphone
The L Bello is the slightly more technically impressive model. It has a 5-inch IPS touchscreen with an 854 x 480 pixel resolution, and a 1.3GHz quad-core processor. It’s not confirmed, but LG has used Qualcomm Snapdragon chips in its higher-end L Series phones in the past, so we’d expect it to be the same here. The rear camera has 8 megapixels, while the front selfie cam has a single megapixel, and there is 8GB of internal memory to fill up.
Moving on to the L Fino, it has a smaller 4.5-inch, 480 x 800 pixel IPS screen, and a 1.2GHz processor. There’s 1GB of RAM, just like the L Bello, but only 4GB of internal memory. The rear camera stays at 8 megapixels but loses autofocus, and the selfie cam drops to VGA quality. Both phones will connect to HSPA+ 3G networks, and will come in a variety of colors. LG will also produce a compatible QuickCircle case for the Bello and Fino.
Related: See what we thought about the G3’s QuickCircle case here
Android 4.4.2 is loaded on each, and some of the LG tweaks include Knock Code security, Gesture Shot for taking selfies, and the simplified camera app. LG will have the phones on display at IFA 2014, and intends to put both on sale in Latin America before the end of this month, followed by a wider international launch later on.
