LG G2 Specs, Price, Release Date: U.S. Launch Reveals 'Rear Key,' LG's Apple Moment

LG Electronics unveiled its newest flagship phone, and successor to the LG Optimus G on Wednesday. The company tweaked their design with impressive hardware and original features, hoping to crack into the Samsung and Apple-dominated premium smartphone market.

The unveiling happened in New York City at the Lincoln Center Rose Hall with all of the ceremony and aplomb that you'd expect at that venue. There, LG CEO and president Dr. Jong-seok Park introduced the new device and explained how the company got to this point.

The LG G2 is really the successor of the LG Optimus G, but LG is dropping the Transformers-tinged word in favor of starting a "G" series of premium devices. Dr. Park explained that LG Electronics did extensive research to come up with the design of the G2: "We have always listened to and learned from consumers in pursuit of innovation. We took these insights to new hights in developing LG G2, the most exciting and ambitious mobile phone in our company's history."

What Dr. Park was referring to is the unique, new design of the LG G2: Unlike any slate-style smartphone so far, the LG G2 features a "Rear Key."

The LG G2 is the first smartphone to not have any side buttons for controlling the screen lock, volume, and other features. Instead the Rear Key controls the volume and other features, and tapping twice on the display takes the place of a power button. LG is hoping that this is their Apple iPod scroll-wheel moment - a breakthrough of simplicity in design that only they have:

"The unique Rear Key concept came from the realization when studying users that the larger the phone became, the more difficult it was to properly access the side keys. Moving the main buttons to the back of the phone gave users more control since this place was where individuals' index fingers are naturally located. Researchers found that moving the buttons also resulted in fewer dropped phones when adjusting the volume while talking."

Apple would have probably come up with a catchier name than "Rear Key," but nevertheless, LG is bringing a possibly big innovation in this flagship phone (especially as smartphones keep getting bigger), and that's impressive. 

Another innovation for the new LG G2 is a 5.2-inch Full HD display running a flagship-level resolution of 1920 x 1080p. The 5.2-inch screen and the handset's 138.5 x 70.9 x 8.9mm dimensions are also part of LG Electronics' research-based ergonomics optimization, with Dr. Park explaining during the launch that the company found a 5.2-inch screen to be the biggest screen that comfortably fits the average hand. However, that still seems a little large, since 5-inch (and smaller) smartphones have already been traced to thumb injuries.

Other specs for the LG G2 include a 2.26GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Processor, assisted by 2GB of RAM, a more than generous 3,000 mAh battery, a 13-megapixel rear camera with Optical Image Stabilization, and a 2.1-megapixel front shooter. The LG G2 has a 16GB and 32GB storage option, but there's no microSD expansion available.

It will run Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 out of the box and comes with LG's custom UX software, including Answer Me, Plug & Pop, Text Link, QuickRemote, and Slide Aside. But only the last feature, Slide Aside, really sounds like an advantage over other UX's like Samsungs: Slide Aside allows you to "slide" apps off to the side using a three-finger swipe, making multi-tasking easier (and, ironically, sounding somewhat like Apple's OS X multi-desktop system).

The LG G2 is rolling out to all major U.S. carriers - including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint. The price of the device is not yet known, but PhoneArena reports that the price in Europe is 599 Euro, making it somewhere around $600 off contract in the U.S., which is slightly higher than the Galaxy S4.

The LG G2 is expected to have a release date before the end of August in South Korea and the United States, with availability to the rest of the world coming in the weeks following.