My most coveted phone of MWC 2013

Friday, March 15th, 2013 Tom Truong, Product Manager

Which device did I covet the most at MWC 13? While I admit to being tempted by Sony’s latest designs, the star of the show had to be the LG Optimus G Pro. I’m glad to see LG get back into the smartphone game last year, and with the Nexus 4 selling very well, I think this is LG’s prime opportunity to prove itself as a top-tier player in the high-end device market.

Without a doubt, the best thing about the Optimus G Pro is the magnificent 5.5″ 1080P IPS display with a respectable 400 pixels per inch (the HTC One tops the charts with its 460 PPI screen). Unlike other “phablet” devices, the performance on this device was super smooth and instant response. It could be the quad-core Snapdragon 600 cpu, or the 2GB ram that is making this a beast of a performer.

And you cannot do a screen like that justice without an upgrade on the camera: how about a 13MP camera with more scene and timer options than you could ever imagine. As an owner of a Samsung Galaxy Note, I liked how this behemoth of a phone was actually narrower than the Note while increasing the screen size.

Finally, the killer feature for me is always battery life–how did the Optimus G Pro fare? Well, it’s hard to say now, but LG gave it a good start with a 3,140 mAh removable battery. Based on my experience with the Galaxy Note’s 2,880 mAh battery, this device should easily last 1-2 days with real-world usage. Would I miss the stylus on the Galaxy Note? While it’s a cool technology, I honestly have not pulled the stylus out of my Galaxy Note but a few times, and that was to demonstrate to people who’d ask.

So yeah, even with the 7-8 devices I already juggle everyday, I’d definitely make room for this one. I can’t wait to see this phone in a US store some time this spring.

Tags: smartphone