LG Optimus Flagship with 5.5-Inch 1080p HD Display Coming Next Month?

With rumors that multiple smartphone-makers are releasing phablets with a 1080p HD display, LG may also be joining the game with its own Optimus flagship with a 5.5-inch 1080p full HD screen that could be released as early as next month. A report published by Korean ET News suggests that LG may unveil that model at the Mobile World Congress trade show in January.

News of an LG-made smartphone with a 5.5-inch panel bearing a full HD resolution display is not surprising. LG Display, which is part of LG, is rumored to be showcasing the same panel, but not in a finished smartphone for consumer release, next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Presumably, the panel will make its way into smartphones from LG and other smartphone manufacturers. One of those manufacturers is Pantech.

The 5.5-inch format would be larger than today’s 5-inch models that are either already announced, released, or are rumored to come. HTC has the Droid DNA with a 5-inch 1080p HD panel and Sony is rumored to debut two smartphones with the same panel at CES. Samsung is rumored with its own Galaxy S4 smartphone and we should also be expecting models from ZTE and Huawei as well.

If the 5.5-inch form factor retains the 16:9 aspect ratio, the display size would be equivalent to today’s Samsung Galaxy Note II, though the Note II uses a 720p HD display. Hopefully, LG will use the more narrow 16:9 aspect ratio rather than the wider aspect ratio that it uses for its 720p HD displays on its current flagships as the 16:9 aspect ratio would keep the phone narrow and easier to hold in portrait mode. Current LG flagships, such as the Nexus 4 and the LG Optimus G, use a resolution of 1280 X 768 rather than the 1280 X 720 16:9 display of competing models, like the Galaxy S3.

One thing is for certain, smartphone users who prefer smaller phones will probably lose out as smartphone-makers are pushing for larger smartphones that could potentially double as a tablet, creating a new hybrid mobile computing category affectionately called the phablet.