LG Optimus Vu poses next to a Galaxy Note, almost makes it look small
As we have mentioned before, LG has really been working hard to get back into the US mobile market. They already have both Android and WIndows Phone offerings, but the image above purports to be a leak of a new phoneblet device, which is clearly poised to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Note.
While it only sports a 5-inch display, it is actually has a 4:3 aspect ratio. As you can see, that makes it look at least as big, if not bigger, than the Note's. The rest of the hardware also challenges the Note almost directly, including the 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8MP rear camera and an unconfirmed front camera, and the display resolution of at least 1024 x 768. There is no S-Pen or AMOLED to be found, but other than that the Vu appears to stack up pretty well.
The one obvious problem that I see with the Vu is the software. Clearly, it is running a pre-Ice Cream Sandwich build of Android in the above image, and I don't have as much faith in LG's upgrade process as Samsung's. Not only that, LG's custom UI simply isn't going to be as polished as Samsung's offering, and certainly won't take advantage of the larger screen as well. For example, notice how much LG's dock icons resemble Samsung's, and consider what that implies about their software efforts.
Of course, as soon as the developers get their hands on the Vu, all those bad things can change. The hardware, price, and release date are what will really matter, but we won't find those out until the LG actually announces the device, which will probably be at Mobile World Congress later this spring.
[UnwiredView]
