LG’s overly sized 5-inch Optimus Vu phablet still is barely available outside of South Korea, but today they’ve already announced a second model coming soon. It will simply be called the Optimus Vu II and we don’t have much regarding specs although they’ve made certain we know of its universal remote features and new infrared blaster similar to some Samsung tablets.
So far the details are rather light. With the current Optimus Vu finally getting launched internationally last month, and still not available in the US until September (on Verizon) this is a bit of a shocker. Many are expecting this to be a special edition with the same specs as the current model.
That being a 5-inch 4:3 aspect ratio display with a 1024 x 768 resolution, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and either a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core, or the recently announced Tegra 3 quad-core version we mentioned last week. The main selling point here is a dedicated IR blaster to act as a universal remote paired with a new app from LG. They’ll also offer an instant remote feature right on the Android lockscreen.
Oddly a few of the screenshots leaked today show Gingerbread, while the other shows their new UI over Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. LG will include their new QRemote app for remote capabilities, and it will enable once it recognizes your home WiFi is connected. The new Optimus Vu II should hit Korea in September and will control over 300 brands of TV, set-top boxes, A/V equipment and other technology. We’ll update when we learn more.
[via SlashGear]
Great to have a built in IR, miss my old Windows pda that can work as a remote!