There's always a lot to say about flagship smartphones every year. We love to talk about their specs, but probably more importantly we like to compare them to what other flagship phones have to offer. We kind of pit them against each other to see which performs the best, as you've probably seen in our Dogfight series of videos over the years. Last year, one of our most popular Dogfights was against two of the first flagships of the year that debuted rather closely to each other, which was the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and the HTC One.

Another device that came out just one month after the HTC One, the LG Optimus G Pro, was a popular device but didn't exactly garner the same attention as the Galaxy S 4 and the HTC One did. Perhaps it's because both Samsung and HTC, at one point or another, have been coined the "King of Android", therefore both companies had many eyes already set on them. While LG had been doing sufficiently with their Android handsets, nobody has ever exactly thought of them as "King"... yet. As I have made mention in one of my more recent articles, LG isn't just that average, mid-range handset maker anymore. They're making more powerful handsets and rapidly catching up to the competition. LG's not just making good handsets now, but they're also making headlines.

So when I hear that LG plans to change things up a little this year by releasing their G Pro 2 in February rather than in May, I have to wonder if this will make people pay a little more attention to LG than they have in the past. After all, it would be one of the first flagship devices that we'll be able to get our hands on in 2014 - before the Galaxy S5, and before whatever HTC is cooking up for their next gen HTC One device. Most people who are salivating at the mouth for something new at this point are probably ready to see something, anything that will satiate that hunger, and while I'm not saying that the Galaxy S5 or the HTC Two(?) will be any less important this time around, for once LG will have the sole spotlight - at least for a little while.

The question now is whether the G Pro 2 will actually be able to hold a candle to what people are expecting of the Galaxy S5 or the next HTC One. There isn't much to actually know about the device other than what rumors suggest, and when it comes to that it seems like we're looking at a 6-inch device with a 1080p display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, and 3GB of RAM according to sources at Android Central. It also seems, according to leaked images, that the G Pro 2 will continue to support the rear buttons that LG introduced in their G2 device last year, which actually might make or break whether this device could outshine other flagships released around the same time. From what I can tell so far, it's about half and half whether people like the configuration or not. 

Whether the G Pro 2 will be able to make a lasting impression or not is a huge factor here, but I will say that I think LG is at least doing themselves a favor by being the first to the finish line this time around. If nothing else, people who are ready to feast their eyes on something new will at least be able to check out something while they wait for other phones to surface over the course of this year as well. 

Readers, what are your predictions for this LG flagship? Do you think it will be good enough to outshine the Galaxy S5 or the next gen HTC One, or do you think it will be outshined once it is no longer the only new flagship on the market? Let us know your opinions in the comments below!

Image via Engadget, CNet