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Just a day after announcing the upcoming Kyocera DuraForce XD, AT&T has inadvertently confirmed it will soon offer the LG G Vista 2, a new Android-powered jumbo phone. A video posted to AT&T’s YouTube account prematurely tipped the Vista 2’s impending arrival. Although the video has since been marked private, the fast-fingered guys at Phone Arena managed to scoop up some of the details of the LG handset.
LG hasn’t seen much of its success in midrange phones. A new model would help cement its position in an area that’s less competitive than the super high end of the LG V10 .
Measuring 5.7 inches and packing a digital stylus, the first-generation LG G Vista made its debut in the fall of 2014. And, while it was underpowered as compared with other top Androids of its time, it offered consumers a less expensive take on the big-screen smartphone experience. Based on the information gleaned from the YouTube clip, the 2015 edition looks to build on this foundation.
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So what might we expect out of the LG G Vista 2? In short, stepped-up components, like a 1080p HD display rather than a 720p resolution, and (perhaps) an octa-core processor this time around, up from the quad-core brains in the original. This, along with the expected 2GB of RAM, ought to make for a generally faster handset.
Other specs observed in the video suggest that the Vista 2 will pack a 13-megapixel rear camera with laser auto-focus and a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter. Toss in a newer version of Android (5.1 Lollipop), and an improved stylus and the LG smartphone sounds like it’s improving in all the right areas.
After years as the butt of tech jokes, the stylus, a digital pencil that can write and navigate on touchscreens, is starting to come into its own. Samsung helped popularize it in the Galaxy Note series , Microsoft uses it in the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book tablet-laptop hybrids of 2015, and Apple announced its first Apple Pencil. Though LG’s stylus has underperformed Samsung’s S-Pen, growing acceptance of the digital tool could resonate with some buyers.
As to when we’ll see the LG G Vista 2 remains unclear. Considering AT&T was quick to pull down the video, it’s clear the carrier isn’t ready to officially announce anything just yet.
AT&T did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
