By The LG G2 is the Korean company’s flagship smartphone for the year, but they’re giving another group of fans reason to be excited. I’m speaking about Vu fans (I’m sure some exist) as the company has announced the third rendition of this uniquely-built series of phablets.
The LG Optimus Vu 3 bumps up to a 5.2-inch display, but the quirky 4:3 aspect ratio makes it a lot different from what you’d find on something like the G2. That display houses a resolution of 1280×960. Internally, it’s not to be reckoned with — this thing is packing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 chipset clocked at 2.3GHz. You can’t get much better than that right now.
Other specs include a 13 megapixel camera with optical image stabilization, 24-bit 192kbps audio, and more. The stylus embedded into the bottom of this thing makes it a direct competitor for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, though we’re not sure if it’ll house similar technology such as pressure sensitivity and hover detection.
We aren’t being told which version of Android it runs just yet, but we’d be surprised if it were anything higher than Android 4.2.2 at this point. Sitting on top of that will be LG’s latest user interface, which will include features like Knock On (turns the display on or off by tapping on it twice), some apps for the stylus, Q-Slide and more.
The LG Optimus Vu 3 is expected to launch on all 3 of South Korea’s major companies on the 27th of this month. It’ll remain to be seen if it will get a launch in the US, though past launches in the series tell us that LG might not be too comfortable doing that.
The Vu is mostly popular in South Korea, but the 4:3 aspect ratio is failing to gain meaningful traction anywhere else. Regardless, it’s a pretty nice looking device that changes things up in a market where flattery and imitation has become the norm. Take a look at it in the photos above.
well, this phone reminds me in the aspect of design, of the original galaxy note.
Why
4:3 is awesome! i don’t really watch videos on my phone but i DO browse websites. MORE CONTENT! want.
Really man? 4:3 is for 2008… Even websites now a days are being optimized for 16:9 or 16:10. I don’t see how you can have more content with 4:3 today. No good videos, no good games, some websites but you’ll most likely have to zoom in/out often to see text.
really what percentage of websites are optimized for 16:9 for vertical position viewing? As I believe most phones are usued in the verical position, wider is better on a small phone, allows less side scrolling. Not saying I want a 4:3 phone but vertical usage of a 16:9 phone means lots of left to right scrolling, 4:3 fixes some of that. I do not believe most use a 16:9 phone horizontally to view websites as that creates far to much up/down scrolling and almost no visible reading space. My opinion is 100% directed towards web surfing on phones
I was referring to mobile-optimized websites. Correct me if I’m wrong, but those kind of websites switch from 16:9 to 9:16, allowing just vertical swiping movements.
4:3 resolution phones will be detected as a mobile phone, therefore the website will switch to a mobile view. Since it’s 4:3 resolution, it’s not gonna do a very good job with converting the website to fit the 4:3 resolution, without excessive panning in/out by the user.
m.domainname.com is bad practice.
Websites are urged to be built “mobile first” and with responsive code. You see much more on 4:3. Thanks.
You’re welcome?
Those that are ‘optimized’ for 16:9 usually means ads down the right 3rd of the screen.
Not true, David. Just not true.
More content browsing websites on a 4:3 resolution than you would have on a 16:9 resolution phone?
If anything, it would be same website content. But on 4:3, you can’t enjoy 1080p videos, and some games in the Googly Play Store may not support that resolution, since the LG Vu is the only phone that has it and it isn’t that popular (more people using 16:9 phones vs 4:3 phones).
It’s obvious that the Vu is sort of popular in South Korea for LG to make new gens of the Vu, but I suspect it’s gonna stay in the Asian markets.
Isn’t that true?
When looking for a new lcd monitor to replace my old crt, I passed over a 16:10 because 16:9 is such a strong standard. Don’t want to deal with conversions
I came to make fun of the phone, but I stayed for the hot Korean chick
this is the LG’s ugly love child with Samsung
The iPad Nano runs Android?
The fact that this is the third iteration of this phone series shows that there are people who want it, sure a lot of people wouldn’t buy and neither would I but there is a market for this.
those flip covers though!? Nice! Samsung needs to steal those lol
There is one very positive aspect of this 4:3 ratio. That’s in portrait mode, the keyboard must be very comfortable. At least for me, I fat finger all the time on a 4.6″ screen (Galaxy Nexus).
Beautiful Korean girl is holding nice smartphone.
http://www.techgreet.com/lg-vu-3-unveiled-with-5-2-inch-screen/
It does look like the bastard child of a Galaxy S3/4 and an Ipod Nano. LG VU, a Vu of what not to make a new smartphone look like. It’s amazing how you can screw up a phone with great specs. Enough with the niche filling junk phones.
The phone sells, so get over it lol
Ill try not to let it warp my VU on things,lol
Looks like a pudgy little Note. Personally, I’ve always found the Note form factor ridiculous, and would never have predicted their popularity, while I found the form factor of the VU grotesque! On the other hand, the VU had the decency to look like an LG; this thing is a brazen copy of a Samsung. Admittedly, though, great specs.