LG announced its answer to Samsung’s low cost phablet, Galaxy Mega 5.8, with its own LG G Pro Lite. The device had earlier on been leaked as the LG G Lite Pro Dual. Don’t get surprised though, LG is yet to get its act together as far as device names go so we have yet another long name device.
Just like the Galaxy Mega 5.8 (GT-I9152) this one has dual SIM support. It also has a few things that the Galaxy Mega lacks like dual speakers and a stylus. Curiously though, the stylus is embedded at the top of the device unlike the bottom as we’re used to seeing in other devices like the Galaxy Notes and even LG’s own Vu line of phablets.
Interestingly LG decided to go with MediaTek on this one. The device has a dual core MediaTek MT6577 chip clocked at 1 GHz. Just like the Galaxy Mega 5.8 this device also packs a qHD display. The 960 x 540 5.5 inch may not win any awards for matching the pace set by 1080p displays but considering the profile of the device and the target market, it should be able to achieve what LG sets out to do with this device. There’s also a beefy 3140 mAh battery tucked under that huge frame that should have enough juice to take the phablet through a day’s work. The good thing is that the battery is removable so you can always add more cells as spares to get more juice when necessary.
The rest of the specs are as follows:
- 1 GB Ram
- A PowerVR SGX531 graphics chip
- 8 GB internal storage that is expandable via microSD upto 64 GB
- LG’s Optimus UI with add-on features like KnockON and dedicated note taking apps to take advantage of that stylus.
- An 8 megapixel shooter at the back and a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front
- Good old Android 4.1.2 is on board. I don’t know why LG just couldn’t slap Android 4.3 in there since 4.1.2 is a bit old. The Galaxy Mega was Samsung’s first device to come with Android 4.2.2 (which was then the latest).
There is now word on pricing but it is expected that LG won’t slap a premium price for such a device. It will be available later this month in Latin America, the Middle East, many parts of Asia including China, India and in Europe it will be available in Russia. There is no word on whether this device will make it to African markets..
