LG officially announces the LG G4 Stylus, also known as the LG Stylo in the U.S. and South Korea, a stylus-based new smartphone that is designed to compete with Samsung's Galaxy Note series.
As its name implies, the LG Stylo's main selling point is the inclusion of LG's rubber-tipped Rubberdium stylus, which can be used for drawing and note-taking on the device's 5.7-inch screen. It has the same size as the Galaxy Note 4, the latest and greatest in Samsung's line of massive handsets designed to work with Samsung's positively reviewed S-Pen, although reports abound that a Galaxy Note 5 is in the works.
Size, however, is just about the only thing similar between the LG Stylo and the Galaxy Note 4. Running under the hood of LG's new device is a 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 chipset, which is considerably older and less powerful than the 2.7 GHz Snapdragon 805 on the Note 4. Even the Galaxy Note 3, which was introduced in 2013, has a faster 2.3 GHz Snapdragon 800 processor. RAM is merely 1 GB compared to the 3 GB on the Galaxy Note 4, and built-in storage is only 8 GB, while the Note 4 gets 32 GB, although LG did well to equip the phone with a micro-SD slot for expanding the memory.
On the display front, the LG Stylo also lags behind with a 720 x 1,280 resolution and a ppi (pixel per inch) of 256, compared to the 1,440 x 2,560 AMOLED display with a whopping ppi of 515 for the Galaxy Note 4. The Galaxy Note 3 also has a better screen, with a resolution of 1,080 x 1,920 translating to 386 ppi on a similar 5.7-inch screen.
The camera on the LG Stylo is a decent 13-megapixel shooter that supports 1080p HD video recording at 30 frames per second, optical image stabilization and high dynamic range, all features found in the Galaxy Note 4, which has a 16-megapixel rear camera. In some regions, LG says the G4 Stylus will have a lower-end eight-megapixel camera. The front-facing camera will be a five-megapixel shooter, better than the 3.7-megapixel front camera on the Note 4.
On most fronts, the LG Stylo will not stand up to the Galaxy Note 4, or even to the Galaxy Note 3. However, battery life should help the LG smartphone catch up a bit to Samsung's devices. Sporting a big 3,000 mAh battery, the LG Stylo should have more or less the same battery life as the Galaxy Note 4. Although the latter has a bigger 3,220 mAh battery, the LG Stylo doesn't have to power as many pixels as the Note 4, giving it more juice to power other activities.
LG has yet to announce pricing for the LG Stylo, but judging from the specs alone, it is very likely that the device will not run up to the $700 that the Galaxy Note 4 commands. LG CEO and president Juno Cho says the LG Stylo will be sold "without a premium price." It is clear that the LG Stylo is for people who want to get a stylus-equipped phablet such as the Galaxy Note 4 but can't afford to pay the expensive price.
We can get a better idea of what Cho means from Sprint-owned Boost Mobile, which has announced that it will begin selling the LG Stylo in metallic silver for $199 starting June 7. Sprint will also offer the smartphone via its Family Share Pack and $60 Unlimited Plan for 24 monthly installments of $12, or $288 on a no-contract basis, beginning June 12.
