When the LG Xnote Z350 launched, based on the Z330 before it, LG claimed it was the thinnest Ultrabook. It’s not any more but it’s still in the ‘Wow’ category. The new LG Z360 is the same. Brad Linder of Liliputing went hands-on at CES 2013 and called it “one of the thinnest and lightest Ultrabooks” he’s ever seen.
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We have the LG Spectrum on hand at HQ to give you review coverage of this huge 4.5″ phone. First thing first, here’s the unboxing and overview:
The LG Spectrum is one of the last big releases from LG before the company switches up the styling of their devices to something they’re calling ‘L-style’. Hopefully it will be an improvement, as the LG Spectrum feels a big bulky even if it is relatively thin.
LG has announced, and will be showing off at MWC (starting tomorrow), the Optimus 4X HD. This is LG’s first quad-core phone and uses the Nvidia Tegra 3 platform. It’s likely that we’ll see a number of Tegra 3 smartphones announced and shown at MWC this year. Tegra 3 has actually been on the market for a few months in the form of the Asus Transformer Prime, but we’ve yet to see it available in phone-form.
I’m happy to report that the Optimus 4X HD comes pre-installed with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich which will help really make use of the 1.5GHz quad-core CPU which is equipped with 1GB of RAM. There is 16GB of in-built memory, and the screen is a monster 4.7″ 1280x720p IPS display which, if anything like the LG Spectrum’s screen, is sure to please in terms of colors and sharpness. There’s an 8MP camera on the back and a 1.3MP camera in the front. Additionally, the phone is equipped with 4G LTE; LG will have to be really careful with this phone to ensure that it has reasonable battery life. The battery capacity is 2150mAh.
Chippy is on the show floor at MWC starting tomorrow, stay tuned for more!
LG has announced the Optimus Vu a week ahead of the upcoming Mobile World Congress convention where they plan to show off the new phone. The Optimus Vu is a massive 5″ phone with a 4:3 aspect ratio — significantly more square than your typical 16:9 Android smartphone. This leaves it with a curious 1024×768 resolution. Exactly how Android applications will take to this non-standard resolution is unclear — though I was impressed with how well Android managed to scale applications to the likes of the HTC Status which has an odd 2.6″ screen with a 480×320 resolution. While I’ve argued that more square screens make for a better one-handed smartphone experience with Android, at 5″ the 4:3 ratio is not likely to help this very much.
LG says that the phone will launch running Android 2.3, but Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is already in the works. LG is billing the Optimus Vu as a device that could be useful for note-taking, but make no mention of an active digitizer screen such as those found on the HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy Note. Presumably then, the Optimus Vu will rely on a standard captive touchscreen which won’t be as accurate or smooth for digital note-taking or support palm-rejection. The company will be offering a “Rubberdium” stylus (presumably capacitive) with the Optimus Vu, though it isn’t clear whether or not this will be an included accessory or a separate purchase. LTE is included for 4G data access.
LG makes no mention of whether or not the Optimus Vu will be launched outside of Korea, where it is set to become available in March.
Specs we know so far:
As mentioned, LG will have the Optimus Vu on display at MWC next week, so stay tuned for more specs and info coming soon.
More photos below:
I’ve been following a disturbing trend over the last few years as the Android platform (and now WP7 as well) matures. Smartphone screen sizes just keep growing and growing, and they don’t seem to want to stop. I have a number of issues with smartphones that have overly-large screens. It pains me to see that, while Android is known for giving users many choices, it’s nearly impossible to get a reasonably-sized flagship phone. For me, for a smartphone to be a ‘smartphone’ at all, and not a tablet, it has to be easily usable with one hand. Of course then the definition of smartphone/tablet will change from person to person, because our hands are not all the same size, however, there is certainly a finite limit for everyone where a phone will become too big to be comfortably used with one hand.
I’m currently testing the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. So far it’s been a rather wonderful phone, and I recently wrote this on Google Plus:
I’ve been using the iPhone for 3 generations. Right now I’m testing a Galaxy Nexus. If they made the same exact phone in a size that’s actually comfortable for one-hand use, I might call myself an Android convert. Curse you 4″+ screens and the awful fad that you are!
For me, the 4.65″ screen on the Galaxy Nexus is just too big. I constantly have to shuffle the phone around in my hand because Android places the two most frequently used aspects of the interface (the menu buttons and the notification drawer) at opposite ends of the phone. The size of the phone and the required shuffling means that I’ve got a poor grip on it, and I’ve been rather worried about dropping it during use. Again, those with larger hands will not have the same issue at 4.65″, but at some point they will run into the same problem.
To show the trends of Android smartphone screen sizes over time, I compiled screen size and release date data from 155 smartphones from five major manufacturers (Motorola, Samsung, HTC, Sony, LG). I’d like to thank PDADB.net for their comprehensive release date info. (click to enlarge graphs)
As you can see, since the introduction of the 3.2″ HTC Dream / G1, screen sizes have consistently increased. Today we’re seeing 4″, 4.5″, 4.7″, 5″, and even 5.3″ smartphones! A simple projection (seen on the main chart) suggests that before 2013 is out, many handsets will have 5″ screens, while the flagship phones of that time may have even larger screens (if this trend continues) of 5.5″ or perhaps 6″.
With a slope of 0.0016, LG is increasing its Android smartphone screen sizes the most rapidly of these five manufactures. Despite pioneering some of the largest phones on the market at certain points in the timeline, Motorola is actually showing the slowest rate of increase in Android smartphone screen size with a slope of 0.0009, but of course this isn’t very far off from the leader!
A good question to ask is what’s prompting the growth in screen size. It seems natural for manufacturers to have experimented with screen sizes as the platform grew legs. Different screen sizes are a point of differentiation for an Android phone manufacturer — a way to stand out in a sea of similar options. Bigger screens were also an easy way for companies to try to beat out the iPhone on features, even if the ‘bigger is better’ argument doesn’t hold much water in this case. Now it seems to have turned into a snowball effect whereby manufacturers are trying to one-up each other to have the biggest screen in town (all the while, Apple has stuck with 3.5″ since the introduction of their handsets). You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve heard the phrase “biggest and baddest” when marketers are referring to a new Android phone. They use this phrase as though bigger is always better, but I must say — when it comes to comfortable one-handed smartphone use — it is not.
My question is this: where do we draw the line? As I mentioned, despite variations in hand sizes, everyone reaches a limit of comfortable one-hand usability at some point. I don’t have the raw data to back it up, but I believe that Android smartphone screen sizes are rapidly surpassing the maximum size for comfortable one-handed use by the average Android customer. None of this is to say there aren’t advantages to having a larger screen (particularly when it comes to media viewing), but given that people much more frequently use their smartphones for apps rather than media viewing, the argument for surpassing a users one-handed comfort zone to provide a better media experience is a poor one.
It’s not so much that screen-sizes are increasing (the chart clearly shows that other sizes are still available), but the bothersome fact is that it’s near-impossible to get a flagship phone unless you’re willing to buy one of the massive phones on the market. If you want a phone that comes in a size that’s comfortable for one-handed use, you have to be willing to settle as a second-class Android citizen — the only options available to you will likely have slower processors, less RAM (and may be based on an older platform) than the newest and biggest flagship phone currently on the market.
LG has announced a new Ultrabook. the LG Xnote Z330 with a 13.3” display and a 1.2KG / 2.6lb weight.
The size of the notebook has been kept to a minimum through the use of the LG Shuriken display technology so you’ve effectively got a 13.3” screen in the space of a 12” laptop although looking at the Toshiba Z830 specifications, it’s the same width. The Xnote Z330 is up to 14.7mm thick and is said to have a 6hr battery life. The new Ultrabook is due for availability this month but there’s no word of availability outside South Korea at the moment.
LG Xnote Z330 Specifications:
After scouring the net for an update on the LG Xnote P220 finding and entering all the details and images into our database I’ve decided that the P220 isn’t an Ultrabook. But it’s awesome enough that it needs a close look, even if it’s just for the screen.
The LG ‘Shuriken’ display [more info in this article] is the main feature here offering a 12.5” 1366×769 IPS screen in the same size as an 11.6” screen. it looks so impressive with the thin frame.
As we entered IDF in San Francisco this morning the first booth that greeted US was the Ultrabook both. Front and Center.
I little look round the booth reveals that there will be 6 new models shown. While 5 ate likely to be ODM devices looking.for a brand, one of them isn’t. LG/Compal Ultrabook Anyone?
The Dell Adamo is also shown on a poster.
Stay tuned because that booth opens in just 2 hours.
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