Our screens beat Samsung’s, says LG

Oct 11,2011 LG Electronics, the world’s No. 3 maker of mobile phones, launched the Optimus LTE, its latest fourth-generation smartphone, which supports the faster LTE wireless communications network, yesterday at a Seoul hotel. [YONHAP]
LG Electronics, the embattled Korean consumer electronics giant, is at it again, making large claims about how its technology in consumer products is superior to rival Samsung Electronics.

Earlier this year, the two companies had a high-decibel public battle over which had the better technology in 3-D televisions. This time, LG is taking the offensive on its smartphone screens.

LG Electronics - the world’s No. 3 and the country’s No. 2 manufacturer of cellular phones - held a launch event yesterday for a fourth-generation smartphone that runs on the faster Long Term Evolution (LTE) network.

The event was supposed to promote Optimus LTE, which became available through SK Telecom earlier this month and is also slated to be sold through LG U+.

The device, which runs on a 2.3 version of Google’s Android operating system, sports a 1.5 gigahertz dual-core processor and a 4.5-inch high-definition screen.

At the event, LG officials touted the speed of the device, but then honed in on the glories of its screen and its technology, which is called AH-IPS.

“The Optimus LTE offers an ultra high-definition display that is just unparalleled,” said Na Young-bae, senior vice president and head of LG’s domestic marketing.

AH-IPS stands for Advanced High Performance In Plane Switching. Samsung’s smartphone screens use AMOLED technology, which stands for active-matrix organic light-emitting diode.

“Our market survey shows that customers around the world preferred our AH-IPS display over AMOLED,” Na told reporters. “Our display is more suitable for the smart mobile device era.”

Na said LG’s display outperforms Samsung’s in clarity, color and power consumption.

“Samsung spent astronomical amounts of money for [branding and marketing] its display, but consumers will feel for themselves the actual superiority of our display,” an LG official added.

A Samsung spokesman declined to comment, saying, “Our official position is not to respond to each of LG’s claims.”

Last month, Samsung - the world’s No. 2 maker of smartphones after Apple - unveiled two LTE smartphones: Galaxy S II LTE and Galaxy S II LTE HD.

The controversy over whose screen is better was expected.

The biggest charm of fourth-generation phones’ is their fast speed - thought to be five to seven times faster than 3G phones - which makes them great for video streaming and other high-quality, data-gobbling multimedia content.

The Optimus LTE is LG’s second smartphone that supports LTE. The company released its first LTE smartphone earlier this year in North America.

In response to surging data demand from data-guzzling smartphone users, SK Telecom and LG U+ began offering the 4G wireless service in major cities this summer. The operators plan to expand the 4G coverage across the country as early as next year.


By Kim Hyung-eun [hkim@joongang.co.kr]