Bonnie Cha

Recent Posts by Bonnie Cha

LG Optimus G Pro Coming Exclusively to AT&T

LG is scheduled to host an event tonight in New York, where the company was expected to announce the U.S. availability of its flagship smartphone, but it looks like AT&T let the cat out of the bag early.

The carrier just announced that it will offer the LG Optimus G Pro starting May 10 for $200 with a two-year contract, with preorders starting May 3. Customers of other carriers wondering when they might be able to get their hands on the smartphone will be disappointed, because this will be an AT&T exclusive.

First introduced at Mobile World Congress, the Optimus G Pro features a 5.5-inch, full-HD touchscreen, and a 13-megapixel rear camera and front-facing 2.1-megapixel camera. Running Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2, the smartphone also comes preloaded with eye-recognition software that allows you to control the handset’s video player with eye movements.

Using the front-facing camera, the Optimus G Pro can track the position of your eye, so if you’re watching a movie and it detects that you’re no longer looking at the screen, it will pause the video and then resume when it senses you’re looking at the display again.

Sound familiar? That’s because the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a similar feature. LG will have a bit of a challenge taking on Samsung’s latest Galaxy phone, which has built up quite a following, and also faces stiff competition from the HTC One.

LG has struggled to compete in the U.S. market, partly because many of its high-end models aren’t widely available from carriers with subsidized pricing in the way Samsung’s devices are. Both the Galaxy S4 and HTC One are being sold at all four major carriers. I’ve asked LG whether it will bring the Optimus G Pro to other providers after AT&T has had the exclusive for a while, and will update the story once I hear back.

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