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 Available
now
5th
January 2011
At first glance, the LG Optimus Black looks almost exactly
like dozens of other black slabby Android phones, and to a very
large extent.. that it all it is. But LG have packed something a
bit different into the Optimus Black, and it is something that might
just give forthcoming LG smartphones the edge over the competition.
The main selling point with the Optimus Black is its screen.
It uses LG's "NOVA" technology to give a clear, bright
display.. and crucially it uses significantly less power in everyday
use to rival OLED panels.
LG say that the NOVA display is designed to be the brightest
and most readable panel on the market, with higher levels of
brightness, high contrast and pure whites that can be used indoors
or in direct sunlight. Critically, LG claim that the NOVA display
reduces power  consumption
by 50% during indoor use, and uses much less energy than an
AMOLED screen when displaying a full white background.. and
this translates to longer battery life, which most Android users
would agree can be a real issue.
The display is a 4" unit, and although LG haven't confirmed
it we suspect that it is a standard 800 x 480 pixel resolution.
Inside is a large 1500 mAh battery, and the LG Optimus Black is
just 9.2mm thick and weighs only 109 grams, which is impressive
for a device with such a large screen. One other novel feature is
"WiFi direct", which allows WiFi enabled devices to communicate
with each other directly, which will make things like file transfers
and printing much easier to do.
We don't know what camera it has on the back, but the Optimus
Black does come with a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video
calls. Earlier Android phones lack video calling, but it still hasn't
really taken off in a big way. Perhaps things will change in 2011,
who knows?
The LG Optimus Black will ship with Android 2.2 ("Froyo")
out of the box, with an early upgrade to Android 2.3 ("Gingerbread")
promised. There's no word on pricing, but LG do say that the Optimus
Black will be rolled out worldwide during the first half of 2011.
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