LG, Google introduce 2nd jointly developed smartphone ‘Nexus 5’

The Nexus 5, the second smartphone has been developed jointly by LG Electronics and Google, hit the market in Korea on Friday. The product is priced half the price of Apple’s iPhone 5S, and Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 3, drawing keen attention from smartphone users. In the U.S., black color products of the Nexus 5 were sold out just 30 minutes after being put on sale on Thursday (local time), and the first batch supply of other products including white color ones were also sold out in the afternoon.

The Nexus 5 adopts Google’s latest smartphone operating system "Android 4.4 Kitkat” for the first time. Also, the device comes with “hangout” application, an integrated multiplatform communication service as a basic program, allowing users to check text messages, multimedia messages and group chats on a single screen. After engaging in chats through the hangout function on a PC at home, users can continue chatting with their smartphones when leaving home.

As is the case for LG Electronics’ strategic smartphone “G2,” the new model also features five-inch full high-definition display, plus Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 application process. The 8 million-megapixel camera installed on the back adopts image stability function, and thus minimizes destabilizing of images when taking pictures.

The product also comes with “High Dynamic Range (HDR) +” photographing mode. With this function, the camera takes a series of pictures in an environment under counterlight or where light is reflect from the upfront, and combines multiple pictures taken under different intensity of counterlight to create a single photo. This function allows the user to take optimal photos at a place with counterlight or in the dark, according to LG Electronics.

“The Nexus 5 presents a blueprint of innovation that LG Electronics and Google envision through slimmer design and most advanced performance,” said Park Jong-seok, vice president and head of the mobile communication division at LG Electronics. “As a strategic partner of Google, LG Electronics is proud to participate in the development of the Nexus smartphone that is faster and stronger.”