Korean manufacturers are at the top of the line as smartphone manufacturers. Samsung being a Korean manufacturer has acquired the title of highest sold smartphones in US overtaking Apple iPhone. This is a very good sign in a way where we see a reformation of the market. Apple was known for their premium products at a notorious price, and with some strict competition, this may well change. That is good in the eyes of the consumers because they will get a better set of option. Another Korean tech giant fighting in the same platform as Samsung is LG. They are not arch rivals as such, but they are strong competitors nonetheless. Samsung has a smooth and curved look on their smartphones while LG has this tough looks with straightened corners, which gives it a more masculine look.
Samsung usually takes innovative approaches and try to target at different markets. One of their successful endeavors is Samsung Galaxy Note which is neither a smartphone nor a tablet. It created the pseudo term ‘Phablet’ for a class of its own and has been sold over 10 million for the several months it was released. This has been a clear indication of Samsung’s ingenuity in engineering consumer centric products while we can see some other firms coming up with the same phablet devices which would increase the competition for Samsung. One such manufacturer is the Korean rival of Samsung; LG. LG Intuition is more or less circulated as an international model before which was known as LG Optimus Vu, and now it comes as an improved version with 4G LTE connectivity. Let us check out these two handsets to find out which would be worthy enough to be in your pocket when they are released.
LG Intuition
LG Intuition seems to be the US version of the international LG Optimus Vu handset. However, it seems to have some improvements of its own. Intuition is powered by 1.5GHz dual core processor with 1GB of RAM. It was the Scorpion dual core with Adreno 220 GPU in LG Optimus Vu, but we hope it will be the Krait dual core processor with Adreno 225 GPU in LG Intuition. It has 5 inch XGA IPS display featuring a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels reinforced by Corning Gorilla Glass, to be scratch resistant. It comes with 32GB of storage, and we hope there’s option to expand the storage using microSD cards. Android OS v4.0.4 ICS is rocking the handset with a stripped user interface created by LG.
LG Intuition comes with 8P camera that can capture 1080p HD videos at 30 frames per second. 1.3MP front facing camera can be used for conference calling facilities. LG has introduced some camera enhancements and features including beauty shot that soothes and brightens the skin tone, say cheese shot that captures a snap at your voice, and face tracking along with customizable shot modes and advanced image editor. The in-built Video Wiz can be used to edit videos and make your own movies right in your smartphone. LG Intuition is a CDMA enabled smartphone with Verizon’s 4G LTE connectivity. Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity ensures continuous surfing in the internet while having the option to host a hotspot to share your super-fast internet connection. It also has NFC enabled, so we can expect some cool new features from LG Intuition. LG has included 2080mAh battery in Intuition which we think is somewhat meager although LG reports battery life up to 15 hours.
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (Note II) Review
Samsung’s Galaxy line is the prominent and flagship product line that has earned much respect towards the company. It is also these products that have the highest return for Samsung’s investments. Hence Samsung always maintains the quality of these products at a very high level. At a glance, Samsung Galaxy Note 2 isn’t any different to that image. It has a majestic look that closely resembles the looks of Galaxy S3 with the same Marble White and Titanium Grey color combinations. It has a 5.5 inches Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with vibrant color patterns and the deepest blacks you could ever see. The screen was viewable from very wide angles, as well. It features a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 267ppi with a 16:9 widescreen. Samsung promises that the screen is more optimized to today’s visually oriented apps. It goes without saying that the screen is reinforced with Corning Gorilla Glass 2, to make it extra scratch resistant.
Following the footsteps of Galaxy Note, Note 2 is slightly bigger scoring dimensions of 151.1 x 80.5mm and has a thickness of 9.4mm and a weight of 180g. The layout of the buttons hasn’t changed where it features the big home button at the bottom with two touch buttons on either side of it. Inside this housing has the best processor that is featured in a smartphone. Samsung Galaxy Note 2 comes with 1.6GHz Cortex A9 Quad Core processor on Samsung Exynos 4412 Quad chipset with Mali 400MP GPU. The powerful set of hardware components is governed by the brand new Android OS Jelly Bean. It also features a 2GB RAM with 16, 32 and 64GBs of internal storage and has the option to expand the capacity using a microSD card.
The information on network connectivity is bound to change given the unit produced didn’t feature a 4G. However, when it is introduced to relevant market, necessary changes would be introduced to facilitate 4G infrastructure. Galaxy Note II also features Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n with DLNA and the ability to create Wi-Fi hotspots to share your internet connection with friends. It also has NFC along with Google Wallet. The 8MP camera has become a standard in the smartphones these days and Note II features a 2MP camera on the front for the use of video conferencing. The back camera can capture 1080p HD videos at 30 frames per second with image stabilization. One of the specialties in Galaxy Note series is the S Pen stylus provided with them. In Galaxy Note II, this stylus can do a lot more compared to the conventional styluses featured in the market. For instance, you can flip over a photo, to get its virtual backside and scribble down notes just as we do on actual photos sometimes. It can also act as a virtual pointer on the Note II’s screen which was a cool feature. Galaxy Note II also has the function to record your screen, every key stroke, pen marking and stereo audio and save it to a video file.
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 features a 3100mAh battery that may be able to survive for 8 hours or more with the power hungry processor. The increased mileage of the battery will suffice for the bag of tricks introduced with the Galaxy Note II compared to the original Note.
A Brief Comparison Between LG Intuition and Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (Note II)
• LG Intuition 1.5GHz dual core processor with 1GB of RAM while Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is powered by 1.6GHz Cortex A9 Quad Core processor on top of Samsung Exynos 4412 Quad chipset with Mali 400MP GPU and 2GB of RAM.
• LG Intuition runs on Android OS v4.0.4 ICS while Samsung Galaxy Note II runs on Android OS v4.1 Jelly Bean.
• LG Intuition has 5 inch XGA IPS display featuring a display resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels while Samsung Galaxy Note II features a bigger screen of 5.5 inches featuring a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 267ppi.
• LG Intuition has 2080mAh battery while Samsung Galaxy Note II has 3100mAh battery.
Conclusion
As you can clearly see, LG has started to follow the steps of Samsung to release a phablet, and the underlying intention would be to capture some of the Samsung’s market share. Samsung Galaxy Note was released only months ago, and sales records show over 10 million handsets were sold. This is remarkable for a smartphone with a different form factor. Samsung might have had their doubts when they were introducing Galaxy Note as it was extraordinary large. However, whatever doubts they may have had in terms of availability of the market is foregone with the sales record. It may well be a strong reason for other manufacturers to move in to this void in the smartphone-tablet merger version of the market. LG Intuition is a good phablet alright, but by the looks, it doesn’t really come closer to the performance offered by Samsung Galaxy Note 2 where Note 2 features a Quad Core processor and Intuition only offers a dual core processor. Besides that, Note 2 also features a better display panel with a higher resolution which is an attractive option. Samsung Galaxy Note 2 also offers the compatibility with S-Pen stylus, which seems to lack in LG Intuition, although LG might fill that void. LG Intuition is to be sold at $599, which might be a fair price.