Following up on this morning’s announcement during the LG keynote, Verizon Wireless has officially announced the LG Spectrum while confirming pricing and launch details.
As expected the phone will launch on January 19th for $199.99 after a new 2 year agreement and data plan. In a major change from the first generation of devices, the LG Spectrum heralds the next generation of LTE smartphones that are less expensive than the first generation of phones that were ~$100 more expensive than 3G only Android smartphones and the iPhone 4 after agreement, greatly increasing the appeal of LTE smartphones.
Specifications for the phones consist of the previously confirmed 4.5-inch True HD IPS display with a 329 pixels per inch density, Corning Gorilla Glass, Android 2.3 Gingerbread with a future update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich during the first half of 2012, Qualcomm 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, ESPN’s ScoreCenter app, Dolby Digital Plus audio processing and output, 8.0 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and 1080p video capture, front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera for video chat, HD video editing on the device, Mobile Hotspot capability for up to 10 Wi-Fi devices, Bluetooth 3.0, 16 GB microSD card pre-installed with support for 32 GB microSD cards, SmartShare support and HDMI mirroring of phone content capable via MHL.
With the phone featuring a 720p display, many of the biggest changes will be in web browsing and multimedia, as the density of the display will make streaming content to and from the phone easier while making web browsing much easier with more desktop alike page rendering. Let’s hope this new generation of LTE smartphone also fixes the issues with Verizon’s mobile hotspot.
