Official: LG Optimus Vu, another ridiculous 5 inch smartphone with a stylus

LG officially announced the Optimus Vu last night. Why did they opt to show it off on a Sunday is something we may never understand. Anyway, it’s exactly the same device we’ve known about for weeks, except that now we have a pretty press photo featuring a South Korean model struggling to crack a smile while holding this obscenely large piece of consumer electronics equipment. Let’s dive right into the specs for those who may not be familiar with the Vu: 5 inch 1024 x 768 pixel display, dual core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon, 8 megapixel camera, 8.5 mm thick, LTE support, built-in stylus, and best of all it runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread. LG has promised that the Vu will get Ice Cream Sandwich in three months, but we’ll just have to wait and see if they’re going to stick to that schedule. As for when it’ll hit the market and how much it’ll cost, we sadly don’t know anything about the latter. The Vu will hit South Korea next month, but nothing has been said about Europe or North America.

At this point it’s only right to bring up the elephant in the room, the Samsung Galaxy Note. It’s a love/hate device in smartphone enthusiast circles, with people who love it saying it’s the best smartphone that’s ever shipped, whereas the people who hate it say Samsung’s product designers must’ve been drunk, high, and possibly on speed, to come up with something as ridiculous as a 5.3 inch smartphone. If you’re a fan of this form factor, then who are we to judge, just enjoy the product. Samsung managed to sell 700,000 Notes in South Korea, so it can’t be that bad.

For what it’s worth, we think 4 inches is the perfect size. The Samsung Galaxy S proved that to us. Hell, just look at the Nokia N9, which is the exact same size as the Lumia 800, but features a 3.9 inch screen.