4.7″ LG Optimus G to Land Globally in Oct.-Nov.

LG Electronics, Inc. (KSC:066570) recently watched fellow South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KSC:005930) suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of Apple.  But an opportunistic LG, whose smartphone division has been seriously improving of late, finally turning a profit, is looking to fill the void in the American market that mass bans of Samsung’s lineup may bring.

LG today officially announced the Optimus G, a gorgeous 4.7-inch 1280×768 pixel display-equipped Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” (with an 4.1 “Jelly Bean” update on the horizon) smartphone.  The phone is powered by a quad-core 28 nm Snapdragon 4 from Qualcomm, Inc. (QCOM) (which ironically will likely be produced on Samsung’s Texas chip line).

The phone also packs a healthy 2,100 mAh battery, a 13 megapixel camera, and 2 GB of DRAM.  Visually the phone is striking with no face buttons — which should be helpful in avoiding potential Apple design lawsuits.
The only disappointment is that only the Japanese will receive the special candy red and black variant; global markets will receive black and white unicolor varieties.  The Japanese version will also include other perks — waterproofing, infrared data transfer, osaifu-keitai mobile wallet, and OneSeg and Nottv mobile television services.

The Japanese LG Optimus G receives a special color. [Image Source: The Verge]
The new phone is equipped with LTE.  It will launch in Sept. on all three major South Korean mobile carriers and in Japan in Oct.-Nov. on NTT Docomo, Inc.’s (TYO:9437) LTE network.  A U.S. launch is expected, but the month and carrier availability are still up in the air at this point.