LG Optimus G Pro preview: First look

Display

The eye-catching 5.5" IPS display of Full HD resolution is definitely one of the LG Optimus G Pro's key selling points. LG is keen on making lots of noise about how the colors are rendered, pitting it against Samsung's AMOLED displays. Long story short, LG claims the Optimus G Pro's display shows 100% accurate colors, unlike AMOLED screens.

Of course, we took it for a test drive ourselves and we can safely confirm that the images indeed look great and colors pop, especially the reds. The display is impressively sharp too, thanks to the amazing pixel density of 400 ppi.

So, the screen junkies that we are, we decided to take out the Galaxy S III and put its Super AMOLED 720p screen next to the True HD-IPS+ 1080p LCD of the G Pro.

On paper these two screens are quite different. The LG smartphone has an LCD with a full RGB matrix, while the Galaxy S III uses Pentile AMOLED.

Pentile is old tech (we saw it on devices like the first Galaxy S) and doesn't feature the full set of subpixels - there's a full set of green pixels, but there are less red and blue pixels than a RGB matrix would have. Still, at 1280 x 720 resolution, the 4.8″ Super AMOLED has a pixel density of around 306, which just makes it to "Retina" territory.

A head on image of the two screens

Looking at both screens head on you'll immediately notice the Super AMOLED's advantage. The class-leading contrast shows in the images. Colors are over-saturated compared to the LCD of the LG smartphone, which depending on your preferences might be an advantage or a disadvantage.

Check out the reflective surfaces and viewing angles

Then we come to viewing angles and reflectivity. Samsung's device has the upper hand here with the typically superb Super AMOLED viewing angles.

The LG Optimus G Pro screen is more reflective and there is a contrast loss when you're looking at the screen at an angle. It's a minor thing though, and you really need to have a great example like we have here alongside it to notice the difference.

Overall, the LG Optimus G Pro display quality is about the same as on the Optimus G, but the sheer size difference makes it far more impressive. The extra sharpness and total resolution also contribute to what is certainly the best LG screen to date.