LG unveils new HD smartphone

South Korean firm's first full HD handset London - Arabstoday South Korean smartphone manufacturer LG has unveiled the latest addition to its Optimus G series - the Optimus G Pro. The flagship handset is apparently LG's first smartphone to offer a full high-definition experience and is aimed at competing with Samsung's "phablet" range which has proved hugely popular. The Optimus G Pro boasts a 1080p 5.5in display that packs in 400ppi - twice as many as smartphones with ordinary HD screens - offering brighter and clearer images. The new handset, due to go on sale in Japan and North America in the second quarter of this year, is powered by a 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 processor and runs on Android 4.1. Global handset makers like Taiwan's HTC and Sony of Japan have recently rolled out models boasting full HD screens - most commonly used for TVs - to gain an edge in the increasingly competitive smartphone market. The world's largest manufacturer of smartphones, Samsung Electronics, is also expected to unveil the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, a new full-HD addition of its groundbreaking  "phablet" Galaxy Note range, later this year. Since its release in October last year, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has already sold 5 million units across the world. "With smartphones getting bigger and bigger, its visual function becomes ever more important. An ability to offer high-resolution images is paramount," LG said in a statement. LG, the world's number two flat screen TV producer and the fifth biggest phone maker, has struggled for years in the rapidly-growing smartphone market, with its Optimus series lagging far behind Apple's iPhone or the Galaxy S. But heavy promotion of new models saw LG's smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of 2012 surge 56 percent from a year ago to a record 8.6 million units. Early reviews of the smartphone are positive with online tech publication, The Verge, calling it "one of the more convincing efforts in the company's drive to become respected as a high-end manufacturer."