LG's 5.5-Inch Optimus Pro Has a 1080p IPS Screen (Hands On)

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5986617/lgs-55+inch-optimus-pro-has-a-1080p-ips-screen-hands-on

PPI might not matter much, but LG's new Optimus Pro, which we've seen in Korean form, has a 1080p screen, and it's pretty damn gorgeous.

It has a 1.7GHz processor, 3,140mAh replaceable battery, and a 13MP rear camera. As for the display, it's wonderful, but isn't quite as bright as you'd like. I popped into settings to turn up the brightness, and was a little surprised when it was already at full blast. But it's really, really impressive. Sticking your nose right up against the glass (very sanitary with a phone a bunch of tech bloggers have been grubbing), you'd have trouble making out a single pixel. Text looks great, and video is beautiful.

Body-wise, it's what you expect from a Note-like megaphone. It's thin, but not incredibly thin. Holding it in one hand feels absurd, but only if you go in thinking of it as a phone. As a mini tablet, the jump to 5.5 inches of real estate actually makes the pixel perfect display a lot more impressive, considering we've sort of gotten used to compromising on displays for tweener-sized gadgets, like the Note and iPad Mini.

The Optimus G Pro is on Android 4.1.2—as are all the phones LG announced today—and it runs quite smoothly. LG's skin isn't the most intrusive of the major OEM carriers, and it doesn't seem to slow things down, but it does move some common settings around a bit in ways that can be confusing if you're not used to it. The camera on the G Pro is 13MP, but didn't seem overly quick after a few quick test shots. Very quick and unscientific test, but also sort of the way you'd use the camera in real life.

The Optimus G is getting some upgrades, like an update to Android 4.1.2, and a few new LG UX additions, but mainly it's being released worldwide.

LG also announced phones in a few new lines. There's the F series, which is intended to make LTE more accessible in mid-tier phones, and the L Series II, which is focused on style.

The F5 and F7 are 4.3- and 4.7-inch phones with mid-tier guts (dual core processors), but are actually really comfortable to hold. They have slightly harder lines than Samsung's Galaxy series, but retain most of the charm. They're good looking phones, and Jelly Bean runs pretty smoothly on them.

The L7 (above) is a 4.3-inch phone, and actually pretty divergent in its "style" push. It's not glossy, like most Korean phones, instead going for a textured back piece. It's got underpowered guts—a 1GHz dual core processor!—but does run decently loading up apps and games.

Prices and availability weren't made immediately available by LG, but we'll let you know when it is.