LG's U.S. plans for its new 4.7-inch Optimus phones began to solidify late yesterday, as the company announced that the quad-core Optimus G flagship phone will appear on Sprint and AT&T shelves by the end of the year. At the same time, a leaked photo from a proven source suggests that the Optimus L9 -- the Optimus G's less powerful, yet just as big brother -- could wind up at T-Mobile before long.
We spent some hands-on time with the Optimus G at an LG event late last month and walked away seriously impressed. The handset checks all the boxes with its 1.5-GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU, 2GB of RAM, 13-megapixel camera, and vibrant 470-nit display, but the features that come preinstalled on the Android 4.0.4 ICS device proved just as interesting. Perhaps the most interesting is QMemo, which lets you jot notes on the screen at any time. The Optimus G's packs a few intriguing video tricks up its sleeve as well, letting you watch a video at the top of the display or even on an external screen while you continue with your work.
Yesterday afternoon, the @evleaks Twitter account posted pictures of a T-Mobile branded LG Optimus L9. Anonymous tweets aren't normally a reliable source of news, but @evleaks has proven its mettle in the past with early, accurate photos and naming information for the Nokia 820 and 920.
According to Engadget, the LG Optimus L9 is basically a more mainstream-friendly version of the Optimus G. It still boasts a 4.7-inch Super IPS+ screen, for example, but it rocks a 960 × 540 resolution rather than the Optimus G's 1280 x 768. Rounding out the specs are a dual-core 1-GHz processor, a 5MP camera, 4GB of onboard storage and a 2150 mAh battery.
