Today, we’re getting our first real look at the G2, LG’s follow-up to its promising but a little self-hampering Optimus G. It’s a powerful little sucker, with a single, back-mounted button that controls, well, everything.
Inside, the G2 boasts a blazing 2.26GHz, quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor — the first major handset to do so — and 2GB of RAM to power its 5.2-inch 1080×1920 IPS display. The G2 will support lightning-fast LTE Advanced, and has a specially moulded, extra-large-but-still-mightly-slim 3000mAh battery under the hood to try and maximise battery life even under all that strain.
The G2’s front and rear-facing cameras are 2.1MP and 13MP respectively, and tie into one of the G2’s clever design moves: a rear-mounted button that can not only control the volume, but also trigger the camera on a long-press. In fact, this button is actually the only physical button on the whole phone and — theoretically — it’ll keep you from shifting the G2 in your hands and accidentally dropping it. The logic goes: “Well, your finger is probably back there anyway. Why move it?”
It’s weird, but if it actually feels natural, it could be pretty righteous.
Screen-wise, the G2 also uses something called “dual-routing” to minimise the guts of the screen as much as possible, keeping the phone small, the screen big, and the bezel practically non-existent at a mere 1/10th of an inch. The idea — much like what we saw in the Moto X — is to keep those big ol’ screens Android phones have come to be known for, without actually making the phone too stupidly big to use with a single hand.
And aside from having a small bezel, the screen is pretty too, with a 1080 x 1920 resolution on its 5.2-inch IPS display.
When it comes to the cameras, the G2’s has an optical image stabiliser to help take pictures in high-motion scenarios like a moving car, or when you’re on the run for whatever reason. OIS tech isn’t particularly new, but previously it’s been restricted to lower-ish quality 4MP or 8MP cameras. The G2 is the first time we’ve seen this tech on a 13MP camera.
Naturally, the G2 also comes with a slew of somewhat questionable software features. The G2 will automatically pick up a call if the handset is ringing and you lift it to your ear, for instance. And a feature called Plug & Pop launches apps you’re likely to be looking for (like music, duh) when you plug in a pair of headphones.
They’re not exclusively superfluous though; a feature called Text Link essential creates app-links within text messages, letting you create events in your calendar or look up stuff on the web straight from a link in a text message, kind of like that feature Gmail rolled out a while back, but on your phone. Likewise, the G2 has a guest mode that could be pretty useful for when your handing your phone to Mum and need to make sure all those nudie pics are hidden.
All this is pushing toward an overall goal of providing a particularly intuitive user experience, kind of like a certain Motorola phone we’re pretty keen on, except the G2 has some seriously high-end specs to back that mission up. We won’t be able to tell for sure how well it all comes together until we get our hands on this thing, but if nothing else the guts look primo. Hopefully the rest of the G2’s tricks add to the experience and don’t just get in the way.
Stay tuned for our hands on this morning.