You've heard it before: the more things change the more they stay the same. It wasn't that long ago that we reviewed LG's flagship Optimus 4X HD, the world's first quad-core HSPA+ handset. Despite representing the company's best engineering and design effort to date, it wasn't quite able to match the competition's global offerings -- Samsung's mighty Galaxy S III and HTC's lovely One X. Today, just a few months later, quad-core LTE superphones are the state of the art. Samsung's selling the global Galaxy Note II, HTC's just announced the One X+ and LG's betting everything on the Optimus G -- the first handset to feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro together with an LTE radio.

The Optimus G is a pivotal device for the Korean manufacturer, especially in the US, where rival Samsung is massively popular and LG's success has been hampered by a series of forgettable products (hello, Intuition) and a lackluster track record for software updates. It's so critical that LG even invited us to spend some quality time with the Optimus G at the launch event in Seoul last month. In the US, LG's partnering with Sprint and AT&T and there's strong evidence that Google's upcoming Nexus will be based on the Optimus G. So, does the company's latest powerhouse measure up to the competition? How different are the US versions from the Korean model? Does LG finally have a winning formula with the Optimus G? Find out in our review after the break.

Gallery: LG Optimus G review (Korean model)

Gallery: LG Optimus G review (Sprint model)

Gallery: LG Optimus G review (AT&T model)

Gallery: LG Optimus G review (comparisons)

Continue reading LG Optimus G review: a quad-core powerhouse with Nexus aspirations

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, LG

LG Optimus G review: a quad-core powerhouse with Nexus aspirations originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.