Full-HD smartphone from LG

The Optimus G Pro, the newest version of the Optimus G series and the first LG smartphone offering a full high-definition (HD) screen, will hit stores in South Korea on Wednesday (20 February), the company said.

The new handset is powered by Android software and is 15.2 centimetres long and 7.6 centimetres wide. It goes on sale in Japan and North America in the second quarter of this year.

The Optimus G Pro features a 5.5-inch display with a definition of more than 2m pixels, twice that of smartphones with ordinary HD screens.

Global handset manufacturers like Taiwan's HTC and Sony of Japan have recently rolled out models boasting full-HD screens -- most commonly used for TVs -- to gain an edge in the increasingly competitive smartphone market.

Samsung Electronics, the world's top maker of both smartphones and mobile handsets is expected to unveil a new full-HD version of its headline Galaxy S model soon.

"With smartphones getting bigger and bigger, its visual function becomes ever more important," LG said in a statement. "An ability to offer high-resolution images is paramount," it added.

LG, the world's number two flat-screen TV producer and the fifth largest manufacturer of phones has struggled for years in the rapidly-growing smartphone market, with its Optimus series lagging far behind Apple's iPhone or Samsung's Galaxy S.

But heavy promotion of new models saw LG's smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of 2012 climb by 56% to 8.6m units.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge