LG G2 review: a phablet trapped in a smartphone’s body

Posted on by Michael Fisher

About this time last year, I wrote the following in Pocketnow’s full review of LG’s 2012 Android flagship: LG has … an excellent smartphone in the Optimus G. Within its well-crafted, jewel-like casing, industry-leading hardware and one of the most responsive implementations of Android we’ve ever seen combine to deliver a smartphone experience that’s not just adequate, but outstanding. [...] For those in search of an excellent, modern Android smartphone with the proper balance of ...

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The LG G2 is ten steps forward, but one (big) step back

Posted on by Michael Fisher

When it comes to smartphones, I’m a pretty shallow guy. It doesn’t matter what capabilities are baked into your software, how long your battery life is, or how vast your internal storage; if you’re not a good-looking device, you’re not coming home with me. So it was with a halfhearted smile and forced enthusiasm that I walked into the LG event in NYC yesterday, responding to a company rep’s “are you excited?” with a too-blunt “is there coffee?” It’s not that I wasn’t looking forward to the show – I was. But the ...

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The post The LG G2 is ten steps forward, but one (big) step back appeared first on Pocketnow.

Pocketnow Weekly 051: Baby, you’re a firework

Posted on by Michael Fisher

It’s weird when holidays fall in the middle of the week, because either you’re kicking off a long weekend with the special celebration, or you’re returning to work the next day with a fuzzy brain, a sunburn, and sand in your hair. We’re in the latter situation this week at Pocketnow, the American portion of the team coming down from a day of BBQ and a night of fireworks … but in our case, it’s a good thing. Because today’s the day for our weekly mobile tech podcast, and we love us some mobile-tech podcasting. We hope you do, too, because ...

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LG Optimus G – After The Buzz, Episode 019 (Video)

Posted on by Michael Fisher

Most new-device launches go the same way: usually the press gets review units before they’re widely available, and we get to use them for a few days -or a week if we’re lucky- as we work on our review. Then press day arrives. The embargo on media coverage lifts, and everyone posts their reviews and videos at the same time. It’s a huge frenzy, commenters go nuts, and it’s a giant explosion of frantic opinion-sharing activity. For about … a day. And then it all goes away. Sure, there’s followup coverage as people find bugs and hidden features, but after that initial blast, not ...

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LG Optimus G successor to feature the Snapdragon 800 CPU

Posted on by Jaime Rivera

The LG Optimus G proved to be more than just another LG phone. It did a great job at amazing us when it launched in the fall of last year since it marked a new and more elegant deployment of smartphones from LG at times when their past was clouded by cheap phones. Another thing that characterized that Optimus G was that it was the firs smartphone to launch with the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, which has now led the way to more efficient and powerful processors like the Snapdragon 600 and 800. A lot of us have been left wondering when Qualcomm will launch the first smartphone with the ...

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LG hops on waterproof bandwagon with Optimus GJ

Posted on by admin

Waterproof smartphones: so hot right now. Sony got things rolling in 2013 with the Xperia Z, and with models like the Galaxy S 4 Active looming over the horizon, it doesn’t look like waterproof phones are going away anytime soon. The latest to go official comes from LG, which today revealed the waterproof Optimus GJ. As the name implies, this handset shares much in common with last year’s Optimus G. That means the same quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro, 2GB of RAM, and 4.7-inch ...

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LG Schedules Event for End of May: What to Expect

Posted on by admin

LG sure has been keeping us busy with its smartphone events lately. It kicked-off the month with its Optimus G Pro launch for AT&T, and today we learn that it has another event scheduled to take place before the month’s out, capping things off with a May 30 gathering in Macau, China; what could we hope to see? Well, as you’ll notice on the invitation above, it’s clear that we’re dealing with something from the Optimus G family. Of course, that still leaves plenty of options, so what might be ...

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The post LG Schedules Event for End of May: What to Expect appeared first on Pocketnow.

The Pocketnow Weekly Podcast, Episode 040

Posted on by admin

We didn’t expect to run the Weekly with a skeleton crew two weeks in a row – and it’s a good thing we didn’t have to. Mere minutes into this week’s Tony-and-Michael-only podcast, Taylor Martin arrives to save us from the spectre of a fun, but low-energy, two-man show. In its place: jokes, laughs, and a lot of industry insight you’re gonna wanna put your ears on. We talk phone batteries that can jump-start your car, what place Twitter has in music, whether we should be excited about Motorola’s X phone or Nokia’s aluminum Catwalk, and the ...

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LG Optimus G Slowly Receiving Jelly Bean on AT&T

Posted on by admin

It’s finally here, slowly that is. After almost a full month since Sprint launched their Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update to the LG Optimus G, the software update is now reportedly reaching AT&T customers. Sadly we haven’t been able to confirm this officially, as AT&T hasn’t sent out any press notifications about it. What matters is that some customers are already reporting that it is arriving to their devices. LG really surprised us last October with the Optimus G. None of us here had any ...

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Carriers Already Dumping LG Optimus G?

Posted on by admin

While it lacks the bells and whistles of all the latest 1080p Androids, LG’s Optimus G is a pretty decent little Android, and would arguably be even more so if it hadn’t been overshadowed by its cousin, the Nexus 4. Still, it’s a relatively new phone, coming to AT&T and Sprint just over four month ago. That’s why it’s so surprising to hear talk already that the Optimus G could be going EOL. Now, this may be a mistake – an inadvertently selected row or something – but as you can see on the spreadsheet ...

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Galaxy S 4 Announced, HTC One Going Verizon, Optimus G Pro Gets Better & More – Pocketnow Daily

Posted on by Jaime Rivera

Watch today’s Pocketnow Daily as we talk about LG’s new strategy to compete with the Optimus G Pro against the Galaxy S 4, and yes HTC is in the same wagon. Then we move to some leaks suggesting that Verizon won’t wait for the HTC One, and will launch it close to the rest of the carriers. Windows Phone 7.8 is up next as the new update rolled out today should fix all its bugs. We then talk about the US launch of the BlackBerry Z10 and which carriers get it first after their second event planned. We end today’s show talking about Samsung’s announcement of the ...

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LG Places Optimus G Billboard In Galaxy S IV-Centric Times Square

Posted on by Anton D. Nagy

Not only did LG announce an eye-tracking / eye recognition feature to land on the Optimus G Pro before Samsung could make its official announcement of the S IV, rumored to have such capabilities, but it is now bringing the battle right to Samsung’s heart with its latest move. Trolling? Maybe! Not more than Samsung’s Apple-related commercials (and others) for that matter. Marketing? For sure! Times Square is where a huge gathering is expected today for the Galaxy S IV unveiling — and ...

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Sprint LG Optimus G Updated To Android 4.1.2, Sony Xperia J Too

Posted on by Anton D. Nagy

Sprint’s version of the LG Optimus G has just received its official Android 4.1.2 update and, aside from the goodies included with the Jelly Bean iteration of the platform (like Google Now and Google Chrome instead of the Android browser), there’s also better voice search as well as a brand new camera app. The Sony Xperia J is also reportedly getting the same platform version refresh with build 11.2.A.0.21 and kernel version 3.4. With this refresh the Xperia J joins the Xperia T and Xperia V in the update game and Xperia TX owners should get it next in the near future. ...

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LG Announces More Than 10 Million LTE Phones Sold

Posted on by Anton D. Nagy

LG made an official announcement according to which the company has now managed to sell over ten million smartphones with LTE capabilities worldwide. The LG Optimus G was definitely a key factor and the company “will continue to expand our footprint in the global LTE market with a wider range of differentiated, high quality LTE smartphones”, said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of the LG Mobile Communications Company. With a forecasted increase of LTE phones LG is setting its targets for 2013, as the South Korean phone maker wants to “double its LTE smartphone ...

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LG Needs a Proper Optimus G Successor

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

The first Optimus G was a pretty nice little smartphone from a company that’s really been hard to feel enthusiastic for over the years. At least, between misses like the oddball Optimus Vu and the low-to-midrange L series it dumped on the market last year, it was starting to feel like it had been a seriously long time since there was an LG smartphone worth getting excited about. Ultimately, the Optimus G was itself overshadowed by the Nexus 4, a cheaper version with the benefit of Google’s software support, but had that not ...

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