This morning hundreds of eager members of the press – including yours truly – converged on LG Event held at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center to see the unveiling of LG Electronics new phone. The new LG G2 phone was designed for ease of use and to save the user time. The idea is to be able to handle the phone easily and naturally. So they put ALL the buttons on the back of the device. If you think about how you normally hold a phone your thumb and middle/ring fingers straddle both edges of the device and your index finger is positioned on the back. So LG Electronics decided that the best place for buttons would be right where your index finger is. And that’s a really clever idea!
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| From LG G2 |
Depending on what you are doing and what screen may or may not be open the buttons change actions. For example, long-pressing on the volume keys launch the QuickMemoTM and the camera. A feature called KnockON means to turn on the screen tap on the screen twice quickly. You can also turn on the screen by pressing the back button if you happen to be holding the phone where your finger is in easy access to the button. I seeing the design logic now! But there’s More! The ability to use a phone with gloves on is becoming a ubiquitous feature. And….
Answer Me – when enabled you answer the phone by putting the device to your ear. An added feature is that the ringtone is automatically lowered before it answers the call.
Plug & Pop – when a headset is plugged in the device apps using audio files are listed for immediate use.
Now they claim longer battery life on the LG G2. This comes partly because of the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 800 Processor that powers the LG G2. Of course we won’t know how well the batter preforms until the phone goes out in the real world but here’s one explanation:
Edge-to-Edge Display and Best-In-Class Power Capacity
LG upped the ante by incorporating a5.2-inch Full HD display in the LG G2, the largest display designed for one-handed operation in today’s popular 2.7-inch width smartphone category.In addition to the expansive viewing experience, LG’s innovative Dual Routing technology reduced the phone’s bezel to a mere 2.65mm on the side edge. And with proven IPS technology, the LG G2 offers superior graphics, accurate colors and clear images without any distortion.
For more efficient energy usage, the LG G2 employs Graphic RAM (GRAM) technology. GRAM reduces the display’s energy use by up to 26 percent on a still frame and increases overall usage time on the device by approximately 10 percent. And with a generous 3,000mAh battery that is thoughtfully designed to take maximum advantage of the interior space, the LG G2 is more than ready for a full day’s work or play.
The LG G2 comes with a 13 megapixel camera. This camera has Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS) technology to prevent blurring when taking fast moving images.
Here’s a photo I took with one of the LG G2 phones at the event. The camera has a few features like panorama and color effects like negative (which is what I tried with this picture). This isn’t the largest size the phone can take but it’s 2340×4160 pixels. While I was playing around with the camera I noticed it has Multi-point AF. If I recall correctly there were about six points that I could focus on. It was automatically locating what it felt were the important focus points and I could move them at will.
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| From LG G2 |
The LG G2 comes with HiFi sound. The claim is that the sounds is a higher quality than CD. That’s some bragging and I’d have to let my brother (audio engineer par excellent) be the judge of that. However, here is their explanation:
Studio Quality Hi-Fi Sound
In recent years, there has been an increase in consumer demand for superior sound in smartphones as high-quality multimedia content becomes more ubiquitous. Smartphones have become hubs for entertainment of all kind — TV shows, movies, games — and consumers expect the sound to be just as good as the image. The LG G2 is the first smartphone on the market today to feature 24 bit/192kHz Hi-Fi playback that reproduces studio-like quality sound, far superior to a CD. Now consumers can hear a level of audio realism that hasn’t been possible before in a smartphone.
Slide Aside — Enables easier multitasking by simply “sliding” open apps off to the side using a three-finger swipe
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| From LG G2 |
Guest mode – for people who let their children handle their phones (WHY???) now these folks can protect their private info and prevent their rascals from calling Japan or ordering a nuclear warhead on ebay.
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| From LG G2 |
QuickWindow:
[youtube]http://youtu.be/6-5DrKdyM8c[/youtube]
The LG G2 will be rolled out in over 130 wireless carriers in the next eight weeks starting in South Korea followed by North America, Europe and other key markets.
Specifications:
- Processor: 2.26GHz Qualcomm®Snapdragon™ 800 featuring quad Krait CPU
- Display: 5.2-inch Full HD IPS (1080 x 1920 pixels / 423 ppi)
- Memory: 32GB / 16GB
- RAM: 2GB LPDDR3 800MHz
- Camera: Rear 13.0MP with OIS / Front 2.1MP
- Battery: 3,000mAh
- Operating System: Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2
- Size: 138.5 x 70.9 x 8.9mm
- Colors: Black / White
I’d say that the LG G2 is quite an interesting device. The Android OS (Jellybean) feel comfortable and the new ergonomically designed features are exciting. Can this be the direction smart phones are going? I hope so.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/QdBpmfk56UQ[/youtube]