LG has already pre-announced the G2 Mini smartphone for arrival at Mobile World Congress, and a full spec list now looks to have been revealed. Sadly, the phone is more Galaxy S4 Mini than Xperia Z1 Compact. The craze amongst smartphone manufacturers to make smaller versions of high-end smartphones took off in 2013, and LG is one of the last companies to jump aboard the bandwagon.
We’ve been hearing about the G2 Mini for several months, and rumors about its spec sheet were always split, with some indicating the phone would retain much of the G2’s hardware, and others saying it would be a far more basic device. It’s the latter which has proven correct. Instead of being a G2 with a smaller screen, the phone is closer to the Optimus L9 2, which was released during the summer last year.
The screen measures 4.7-inches, which is hardly mini territory, and has a basic 960 x 540 pixel resolution. This matches the Galaxy S4 Mini, and is lower than the 720p resolution offered by the HTC One Mini, the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, and the similarly sized Motorola Moto X. Powering the phone is a 1.2GHz, quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor and 1GB of RAM. This is the same setup found inside the Motorola Moto G.
An 8-megapixel camera is fitted above a set of rear-mounted controls, just like those seen on the G2 and the new G Pro 2 smartphones, a feature which goes some way to making the G2 Mini more interesting. A 1.3-megapixel front camera, 8GB of internal storage memory, a MicroSD card slot, and 4G connectivity complete the spec list. Android 4.4 KitKat will be installed, along with LG’s own UI. LG is also expected to produce several variants, including one with a dual-SIM option, and another using Nvidia’s Tegra 4i chip instead of the Snapdragon 400.
LG will be selling the G2 Mini internationally from March, with Eastern European countries first on the list, followed by the rest of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. We’ll be getting our first proper look at the G2 Mini at Mobile World Congress next week.
