LG Optimus Vu: Hybrid Smartphone with 5'' Screen

The Samsung Galaxy Note clearly wasn't going to be the only 'big smartphone/mini tablet' on the market for long, and now it seems that the handset's first challenger could come from fellow South Korean manufacturer LG, with the Optimus Vu.

Like in 2011, LG's aim for 2012 is to make a comeback in the lucrative smartphone market. This time, though, LG will be making its presence felt in a more visible, more noticeable way. After launching the LG Prada (currently in our test lab) a few days ago, the manufacturer could now be getting ready to present a rival to Samsung's Galaxy Note, whose large 5.3-inch format seems to have found its niche.

The Optimus Vu has a 5-inch, 4:3-format screen (1024 x 768 pixels) and runs on a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm processor. It has an 8-Megapixel camera, an 8 GB internal memory and uses the Android 2.3 OS. The handset has already started to make an appearance on the web, with sightings including this teaser video from LG (see above).

We're likely to get a closer look at this super-sized smartphone at the Mobile World Congress at the end of the month, so stay tuned for updates!

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