Along with the LG Optimus 2x, LG also launched their Optimus Black P970. It’s only a single-core processor smartphone but it’s one of the thinnest phone around and boasts of a new type of display LG is calling NOVA.
Let’s get the “thin” comparison out of the way. The Optimus Black is 9.2mm thin. iPhone 4 is 9.3mm while the Samsung Galaxy S2 is at 8.5mm. In the case of the Galaxy S2, that size is at the thinnest form but when you lay it down flat on a table alongside the Optimus Black, LG’s phone is much thinner. If you’re particular on how thin your phone can get, Optimus Black is incredibly slim. And it’s light as well at 109g which is impressive for a 4-inch phone (SGS2 is at 116g while the Arc is at 117g).
Display-wise, the Optimus Black has a 4″ WVGA display with IPS capacitive touchscreen and a 480 x 800 resolution. Not too bad but nothing spectacular too right? IPS is for wider viewing angle but the rest are pretty basic for a 4″ phone. So what is NOVA display and is it better than SuperAMOLED or Retina Display?
LG claims that the NOVA display delivers optimal brightness and readability under bright conditions. It also displays truer white while some phone’s white has some sort of tint to it. It also cuts energy consumption by 50 percent compared to ordinary mobile LCDs.
Anyway, GSMArena did a nice comparison test between the NOVA Display, Retina Display and SuperAMOLED Plus which you might want to read. In a nutshell, it really shows “truer” white as compared to the others and has very good brightness for better readability under bright lights. iPhone 4 still has the sharpest display due to its high pixel density. As for color contrast, SuperAMOLED Plus is still tops having the deepest black among the three. Overall, the Optimus Black’s NOVA display is clearly among the best displays we have right now and can go head-to-head with the leading mobile displays out there.
LG Optimus 2X and LG Optimus Black (brighter display)
Back to the specs, it is powered by a single-core 1GHz Texas Instrument (TI OMAP 3630) processor which is still unclear on how it perform against Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon MSM8255. It also has a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash that can also do 720p HD video recording. Everything looks good actually well except for the Android 2.2 OS (Froyo). However, LG assured us that it will get a Gingerbread upgrade via OTA (over-the-air) soon. You might also want to know that this phone is also not HSPA+ or 4G capable.
With a price tag of Php19,990, the LG Optimus Black is an enticing buy with its very nice specs and if you’re not that particular with having a dual-core processor phone. Just like its dual-core brother, the Optimus Black will start hitting LG concept stores as early as next week.
LG Optimus Black P970 Specs:
- TI OMAP 3630 1 GHz processor
- Android 2.2 (Froyo) upgradeable to 2.3
- 4-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen (480 x 800)
- Optimus UI 2.0, Gesture UI 2.0
- NOVA Display
- 2 GB internal storage, 512 MB RAM
- 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
- 720p @ 30fps HD video recording
- 2 MP front camera
- HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
- Stereo FM radio with RDS
- 122 x 64 x 9.2 mm
- 109 g
- Colors: Black, Pink, Silver, White, Brown
- SRP: Php19,990
