LG’s Optimus Black is their hero handset for 2011. It’s sleek, it’s bright, and it’s expected to land in Australia around May.
The LG Optimus Black is seen as the hero handset for LG’s fresh push for 2011. It’s a sleek 9.2mm at its thickest point, running Froyo, and features a screen LG is calling NOVA. Yep, everyone has a name for their screens these days.
The killer feature for NOVA is its daylight mode that pumps up the brightness to 700 nits, far beyond most handsets and into a brightness level that makes it genuinely usable in daylight. Compare that with its indoor brightness of 280 nits. But it’s also smart with its screen’s power usage, running about 40% more efficient than other screens. And where AMOLED screens would draw 530mA power while viewing a bright white screen like the Google search page, the NOVA screen draws a standard 160mA power whether it is viewing black or white screens.
LG sees this power saving as a major battery win, with expected life between charges pushing out to two days where many current smartphones run a day or a day and a half before they dry up.
LG expects the Optimus Black to launch in Australia around May. While they are still in discussions with carriers, they feel this is likely to launch with more than one carrier and it will launch in either the $79 or $49 cap range.