LG Optimus Vu lumbers into view in hands-on video
The LG Optimus Vu is one cumbersome phone -- it even gives the Samsung Galaxy Note a run for its money.
When we first clapped eyes on the Samsung Galaxy Note, we thought it wasn't possible to behold a more ungainly, awkwardly proportioned phone. Until, of course, the LG Optimus Vu reversed its wide load into Mobile World Congress last week.
Luke previewed the phone at the grand Spanish tech show, and as you can see in the video above, holding this porky gadget stretched his poor fingers to full capacity, possibly putting him at risk of tendinitis of the digits.
The Vu packs a 5-inch display, which despite being slightly diddier than the Note's 5.3 inches, sports an unusual 4:3 aspect ratio, making it rather broad across the hips. To stand a chance of sliding this whopper into your trouser pocket, you'd have to be wearing pretty shapeless combat pants. If having waist-height access to your phone is vitally important, perhaps investing in a stylish bumbag might be a good idea.
The name that's been bandied about to describe oversized blowers such as the Vu and the Note is 'phablet', which makes me shudder with horror. That said, having size on its side does give the Vu some benefits over smaller phones, and I reckon it would lend itself particularly well to reading ebooks and browsing the web.
Skulking inside the Vu's chassis is a 1.5GHz dual-core processor which should purr quite happily through hi-def video and demanding games with next to no lag. The Vu runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which isn't the latest version of Google's operating system, but it will have an update by the time it goes on sale later this year. Perched on its back is an 8-megapixel camera and with 32GB of storage on board, you certainly won't be short of space to stack up your snaps.
If you'd like to peer at the Vu's hulking frame in finer detail, hit play on the video above, or take a look at some of the other phones we got up close and personal with at Mobile World Congress.
Do you think this big blower is one step too far, or would you be quite happy to see more supersized mobiles waddle into view? Let me know what you think in the comments below or over on Facebook page.