LG Unveils 5.5-Inch Optimus G Pro Smartphone

LG today formally unveiled the Optimus G Pro, a 5.5-inch smartphone that will make its debut at next week's Mobile World Congress.

The device is a followup to last year's LG Optimus G, which boasted a 4.7-inch display. With the 4G LTE Optimus G, however, LG is introducing a smartphone with its largest display to date.

That 5.5-inch full HD IPS display delivers 1,920-by-1,080 pixels and 400 ppi. There's a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera for full HD video capture and a 2.1-megapixel front-facing one for video chat. A 3,140 mAh battery will allow for "hours" of full HD video watching, LG said.

The Optimus G Pro will run Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, as well as a 1.7-GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor. There's 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

Some of the features available on the Optimus G include Dual Recording, which allows people to capture video with the front- and rear-facing cameras at the same time, producing a "picture in picture" experience. Virtual Reality Panorama, meanwhile, allows for a full 360-degree photo capture.

Several features from the Optimus G will also make their way to the Optimus G Pro, like QSlide, which allows you to show two different screens on your display at once, as well as Live Zooming, which lets you to pinch the screen to seamlessly zoom in up to five times while watching video, and QuickMemo, which lets users add commentary, notes, and drawings to screenshots and share them with friends and family via social media and email.

"The Optimus G Pro was developed specifically to deliver vivid and superb picture quality in a large display smartphone form factor," Dr. Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, said in a statement. "We will continue to expand our position in the premium LTE smartphone segment with our superior display technology and unique user experience."

The Optimus G Pro will be on display at LG's MWC booth in Hall 3.

Reports of the Optimus G Pro first emerged in January when Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo confirmed it as part of its spring device lineup. According to Engadget, the Optimus G Pro will debut on SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus in South Korea this week before rolling out in Japan and North America.

In the U.S., the Optimus G was released for AT&T and Sprint. For more, see PCMag's full review.