As of the moment, the Samsung Galaxy Note II still reigns supreme in the phablet category of the smartphone competition and this is not surprising at all given the fact that no other manufacturer ever came close to coming up with a massive device powerful enough to compete with the second generation Samsung phablet and offer it more than token competition. LG tried its luck last year when it released the LG Optimus VU but still failed miserably because our smartphone-crazed brethren thought the LG phablet not powerful enough to give the Samsung phablet a serious run for its money.
LG however will not be deterred by little setback on its first try and is planning to continue with its plans of getting some well-deserved attention in the phablet category. In fact, the manufacturer has already announced the successor for its first generation phablet back in the fall but this is the first time that the LG Optimus VU II is coming to US shores via CES 2013 over in Las Vegas.
Though the LG Optimus VU II has already gone a major overhaul in terms of its hardware DNA and got a lot of upgrades, there is a chance that the second generation LG phablet will share the same fate as its predecessor because it still packs the same form factor which is very unwieldy and difficult to comfortably grasp. And with its massive size, you can already expect a lot of two-handed operation on the handset especially if you have dainty hands.
As mentioned earlier, the LG Optimus VU II reached official status when it was announced by LG last year in September but the handset is yet to make its way to shelves in our side of the world and this is the first time that the second generation LG phablet is being introduced to the smartphone-buying public in US shores. The LG phablet has dimensions of 132.2 x 85.6 x 9.4 mm and it tips the scales at 159 grams but because of the unusual aspect ratio of its display, the LG Optimus VU II has a form factor and shape that some people consider awkward and others would even dare call ugly.
This is not to say that the LG Optimus VU II lacks power under the hood though. The handset is still stuck in the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich generation though but it has impressive components under the hood. Its operation is powered by a QualComm MSM8960 SnapDragon chipset (which incidentally is the same chipset under the hood of the venerable Samsung Galaxy S III) and this SoC brings into play a dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait processor and a staggering 2GB of RAM. The amount of internal storage the phablet packs hasn’t been made public yet but the LG Optimus VU II comes with a dedicated microSd card slot for memory expansion purposes so a measly internal memory on the handset shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Display-wise, the phablet sports a 5.0-inch HD-IPS LCD panel with a resolution 1024 x 768 pixels while its camera department boasts of a rear 8MP shooter and a front 1.3MP snapper.
