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Sarah Tew/CNET
LG will begin selling its G2 Mini, a smaller and less capable sibling to LG Electronics flagship G2 , starting in April in Russia and other CIS countries, the Korean company said Thursday.
The company has global plans for the phone: other geographies where it’ll appear are Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.
The LG G2 Mini — smaller, less powerful, and less expensive than the G2 — has a 4.7-inch, 960×540-pixel screen, a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 2,440mAh removable battery, and Android 4.4 KitKat. Networking abilities will vary, though: 4G LTE will be standard in Europe and Asia, but Russia and other CIS countries will get a 3G dual-SIM version. In addition, only the 4G LTE models have NFC (near-field communication) abilities.
LG hasn’t announced pricing — that will come with individual region announcements later, presumably — but CNET estimates the price won’t be above $150 on contract or $400 without one.
LG company makes respected Android phones, including the Google Nexus 5 , but it’s been struggling to come out of the shadow of its dominant Korean rival, Samsung. Samsung and Taiwanese competitor HTC also pursue the “mini” model to try to capitalize on their better-known brands.
“With the G2 mini, our objective is to allow a much larger consumer base to be able to experience the key benefits of the G2 UX in a smaller form factor,” said Jong-seok Park, chief executive of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, in a statement.
