LG has a habit of introducing new hardware in the weeks leading up to major trade shows rather than holding its announcements for the events themselves. It showed that recently with its unveiling of the G Pro 2, and the company has done it again today with the debut of the G2 mini.
Teased earlier this month, the LG G2 mini features a design similar to 2013's G2, but in a (slightly) smaller overall package. While the original LG G2 sports a 5.2-inch 1080p display, the G2 mini features a 4.7-inch 960x540 display. Yeah, that's not really all that mini. Inside of G2 mini's body lives either a Snapdragon 400 or Tegra 4i processor, removable 2440mAh battery, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage that can be supplemented by a microSD card. The G2 mini also sports an 8-megapixel rear camera, complete with a set of rear power and volume buttons, and 1-megapixel front-facing shooter.
LG says that the G2 mini will arrive in Russia next month with Android 4.4 and a custom user interface. From there, this shrunken device will travel to the Middle East, Latin America, Asia and Europe.
Introducing "mini" versions of flagship hardware seems to be one of the hot trends in mobile right now, with Samsung, HTC, Sony and now LG all hitting their high-end handsets with a shrink ray recently. While there's nothing wrong with offering these smaller handsets, many of them end up being considerably lower-specced than their full-size siblings, meaning that consumers that are actively seeking a smaller phone often need to compromise on specs to get the size that they want. That seems to be the case with the G2 mini, which offers the styling of the G2 but loses many of the features that make it attractive.
LG hasn't said how much the G2 mini will cost once it begins arriving on store shelves, but considering its spec list, the device shouldn't put too much of a hurt on buyers' wallets. Stay tuned for more details on the G2 mini, and perhaps even some hands-on time, next week during MWC.
UPDATE: LG has issued an official press release for the G2 mini, reaffirming that the device features a 4.7-inch 960x540 display, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, microSD slot and Android 4.4 KitKat. There will actually be a few different versions of the G2 mini: a Latin American model will include a 13-megapixel camera, 4G LTE and a 1.7GHz quad-core Tegra 4i processor, a separate LTE model will be powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core MSM8926 processor and 8-megapixel camera and a 3G-only variant will feature a 1.2GHz quad-core MSM8226 and 8-megapixel shooter.
More images of the G2 mini are available in the gallery below.
Via The Verge, GSMInfo.nl, LG Newsroom
