14 DAY TRIAL // The weird-looking LG Optimus Vu has just been quietly introduced in India. The smartphone is now listed on LG India site and it's been priced at Rs 34500 (640 USD or 490 EUR) outright.
Although the smartphone has yet to be officially launched in India, LG Optimus Vu can now be purchased via multiple leading retailers across the country for similar prices.
The Optimus Vu was unveiled back in February at the Mobile World Congress 2012, in Barcelona. Unfortunately, the smartphone made it on shelves later than expected due to some manufacturing issues.
However, LG managed to launch the Optimus Vu in South Korea several weeks after the official announcement in Barcelona, but the global rollout of the phone had to wait until August.
Moreover, the South Korean company decided to modify the phone's hardware configuration for the global Optimus Vu due to unknown reasons.
The Indian version of Optimus Vu packs a 1.5 GHz quad core processor, possibly Nvidia Tegra 3, which is complemented by 1GB of RAM. Furthermore, the smartphone packs 32GB of internal memory, but no microSD card slot for memory expansion.
The thing that makes LG Optimus Vu unusual is the 5.0-inch HD IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display that supports 768 x 1024 pixels resolution.
Keep in mind that even though the smartphone is shipped with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich platform onboard, LG announced several days ago it will release a Jelly Bean update for Optimus Vu in Q1 2013.
Another strong point of the Optimus Vu is the enhanced 8.-megapixel rear photo snapper that features autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording. The phone also packs a secondary 1.3-megapixel front facing camera for video calls.
The Indian version of Optimus Vu does not support LTE technology, but it offers HSDPA+ (21Mbps) and HSUPA (5.76Mbps). NFC (Near Field Communication), Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are included as well.