It’s a curious looking thing alright, but LG’s near-square Optimus Vu handset has already proved a bit of a hit in Korea where it has shifted over half a million units.
Looking to farm the same kind of pastures as the hugely successful Galaxy Note, the LG Optimus Vu thrusts its oversized loins around with a beefy, quad-core 1.5GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 chip, all packed into a trouser pocket-straining 139.6 x 90.4 x 8.5 mm frame, weighing 168g.
The smartypants chip utilises a clever 4-Plus-1 quad-core CPU that contains a fifth battery saving core for power-hungry activities like gaming and video streaming.
The 5 inch 4:3 ratio IPS display is a beast of a thing, with the ‘phablet’ style screen serving up a resolution of 768 x 1024 pixels.
Around the back can be found an 8MP camera, while there’s a generous 32GB of storage inside, although the UK version loses the LTE connectivity option.
Powered by Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich Android operating system, there’s no word on UK pricing or availability yet, but we’ll keep you posted.
Here’s the press release:
LG ANNOUNCES GLOBAL AVAILABILITY OF OPTIMUS VU:
Largest LG Smartphone to Be Launched in
Europe, Asia, Middle East/Africa and Latin America
SEOUL, Aug. 20, 2012 -– On the heels of its successful debut in Korea and Japan, the Optimus Vu: will make its global debut starting in select markets in Europe, Asia, Middle East/Africa and Latin America starting in September. With the world’s first 5-inch 4:3 aspect ratio display, the Optimus Vu: blurs the line between traditional tablets and smartphones for a truly unique smart device experience.
Since its March debut in Korea, the Optimus Vu: has sold over 500,000 units, demonstrating public acceptance of its form-factor. The reception the device received in Korea prompted LG to launch the Optimus Vu: in Japan this month, where it has also been received positively by Japanese consumers.
For the global roll-out, the Optimus Vu: will be equipped with NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 mobile processor, the super 4-PLUS-1™ quad-core with 5th battery-saver core, that offers a superb balance of performance and power requirements. 4 cores are used for high performance tasks such as games and multitasking. For voice call, email, music and video playback, only 5th battery-saver core is enabled and it consumes very less power.
When paired with the high-resolution 5-inch, 4:3 ratio IPS display, the Optimus Vu: becomes something special –- a device that’s both pocketable and spacious. The Optimus Vu: will come with an upgraded version of QuickMemo™ and Notebook, two features which make great use of the large display real estate.
“The different form factor makes Optimus Vu: unique even in the 5-inch smartphone category which we expect will catch on once they become more widely available,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company.
