LG G2 SIM-free in the UK now for £490 with a free case

LG's mighty new flagship smart phone, the G2, is invading the UK with a killer one-two punch of a Snapdragon 800 processor and a sub-£500 SIM-free price tag.

Online retailer Unlocked Mobiles has the Korean company's newest blower on sale for £490, with a free case that has a useful little window so you can see notifications. The free case is a limited deal, but it doesn't say when it ends. Elsewhere you can bag a G2 on its lonesome for £462 from Handtec or £473 from MobiCity.

If you can't afford that much upfront, you can find two-year contracts from £35 per month (from Three, via Carphone), or £37 per month (from O2) with 4G. Three will launch its 4G service in December, for the same prices as its current 3G deals.

The G2 is a mighty 5.2-inch beast with all the bells, whistles and ribbons you could possibly want. Its specs list reads like a who's who of contemporary popular phone componentry, with Qualcomm's potent Snapdragon 800 the belle of the ball.

This hard-working phone engine is the latest off Qualcomm's production line and is powering very high-end mobiles coming out towards the end of this year. The first we got our hands on was the Sony Xperia Z1, a phone our reviewer Andy Hoyle described as the fastest he's ever seen. It's also inside the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, which we're eager to run through our gamut of tests, and is rumoured to power Google's new Nexus 5 and the Nokia Lumia 1520 too.

Elsewhere, the G2 is similarly high-end, with a Full HD 1080p screen, a 13-megapixel camera capable of recording Full HD at 60 frames per second, a hefty 3,000mAh battery and 4G, for superfast downloads. It also has a fun rocker button on the back, under the camera and its LED flash, that you can use to launch the camera or the note-taking app. In the middle of a call, it lets you adjust the volume easily without taking it away from your ear.

One downside is that it comes running Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, which is not the latest 4.3 version, nor the upcoming 4.4 KitKat that's set to light up the Nexus 5.

If you're considering a new high-end Android phone very soon, I'd say it's worth waiting a few weeks for the Nexus 5, which is due to be unveiled before the end of October. Its predecessor the Nexus 4 was an absolute prime bargain, and I'd expect the Nexus 5 to be similarly well priced.

Are you sold on the G2? Or waiting for something less pricey? Have your say down in the comments, or on our high-end Facebook page.