LG Electronics is serious when it says it wants to overtake Samsung in the telecoms market. This is evidenced by the new fourth generation Black Label phone which will be released in the third quarter of this year, which is either this month or September. It is specifically marketing this phone as a competitor to the iPhone. So, naturally, the two must be compared.
The new Black Label's immediate selling feature is its ultra-wide 4-inch screen. Not only is it 4 inches, but it's 800x345 pixels. The 800 pixels wide is a very important number, because that's the same resolution as older computer monitors, and many web pages are still built with that size in mind. By turning the phone on its side, users will often be able to see web pages without having to scroll horizontally. In contrast, the iPhone has a 3.5 inch display, with a 480 x 320 pixel resolution. It looks like the Black Label has the edge in this aspect.
Of course, the Black Label phone has to be much taller than the iPhone to pull this off. It comes across as too bulky for some people due to its height, which is about the same size as a dollar bill. But for people who have a longer than average distance between their ear and their mouth, like this writer, a longer phone would actually be a good thing.
Another aspect related to this new screen layout is that the Black Label can divide its screen into two areas. Each area can be manipulated and used independently. In demo movies, a photo was shown being copied from one half of a split screen to the other. In another shot, a list of people was displayed on one side, and a message to be sent was displayed on the other. There may be other applications for a split-screen on such a small device, but we will have to wait until September to find out what they are. The iPhone doesn't have a split screen either, so it can only do what normal full-screen phones can do. It might be a second disadvantage.
Of course, the big advantage that Apple has is its App Store. The capabilities of a stock iPhone are nice, but limited. However, buying apps from the App Store to increase the capabilities of each individual iPhone is a service that cannot be compared. It is said that the Black Label still carries LG's proprietary OS, and does not have any revolutionary capabilities. One reviewer lamented the lack of Android on it. There will be little innovation to look forward to on this front. In fact, several aspects of the OS look to have been almost exactly stolen from the iPhone's interface. It seems that in this area, LG has not pulled ahead of its intended competition.
So which will be the case, that LG's Black Label takes the iPhone by storm, or that it becomes an also-ran in a long line of also-rans It will be difficult to tell until September, because the pros and cons of the Black Label 4, while enticing, do not clearly pull ahead of the iPhone.
