Hands-on with LG's Optimus G
updated 06:13 am EDT, Tue October 9, 2012
LG's Android superphone due out in November
Electronista's been itching to get our hands on Lg's Optimus G since it was announced back in August. Anything billed as a "superphone" gets our ears pricked up, and we were interested in seeing what LG could accomplish with a quad-core S4. Put plainly, the Optimus G doesn't disappoint.
The LG attendant took a good deal of pride showing off some of the capabilities of the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro Krait quad-core chip powering the Optimus G, and rightly so. The first thing he showed us was an example of the phone zooming in on live video as it played. As you'll see in the video below, it's really smooth, a solid testament to the power of the Optimus G's internals. Granted, we can't see ourselves needing to zoom in on live video too often, but it's definitely a fun feature to have, and it really just speaks to the power of the device.
The other impressive feature, also seen below, was the ability to alter the transparency of a video and go about multitasking as it continues to play. Again, a very cool feature, though its utility is somewhat questionable. Can you honestly think of any video so important that you couldn't pause it to send a text message? Again, though, the smoothness with which the feature is pulled off really demonstrates the power of the Optimus G.
Beyond those two features, this is still a very solid handset. Its 4.7-inch WXGA IPS-LCD display outputs at a crisp 1280x768. The rear camera actually shot the video you'll see the attendant zooming in on, so it's of considerable quality. It runs Android 4.0.4 right now, but upgrading to Jelly Bean should be no problem for this beast of a smartphone. We didn't get a solid release date from LG, but you can expect the Optimus G to be in AT&T stores this holiday season. If you're looking to outdo your Samsung or Apple phone-owning friends, this just might be the device for you.
