Hardware

The LG Intuition is the USA version of the device we’ve known up unto this point as the LG Optimus Vu, it having been revealed earlier this year at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The device we’re looking at now is essentially the same as it was in that first showing, here coming with what LG calls its Rubberdium Pen that works with any capacitive display-toting device, two LG Tag+ stickers that you can use to activate different phone modes using the Intuition’s NFC capabilities, and of course a charging cord for good measure.

This device works with a lovely 5-inch HD display at 1024 x 768 pixel resolution at a rather bright 650 NIT. The display is an odd 4:3 aspect ratio, that being the same as the first three iPads, with the same amount of pixels too. Now that those pixels are smashed down into a much smaller display, you’ve got a rather sharp and bright – and colorful – vision in your hand – or hands, as it were.

The back of the device is made of a soft plastic that’s almost rubbery, this making a great case for the idea that this could be a one-handed device – but you’re certainly not going to get away with doing much other than scrolling with one hand unless you’re a giant. Two-handed operation here feels much more natural. If LG’s aim here is to replace your tablet – and it is – then they’re doing it right.

If LG’s aim instead is to replace your smartphone, a smartphone that you’ve gotten used to working with using a display that’s closer to 4-inches for many moons, they may have a bit larger of a challenge on their hands. This device, like the Galaxy Note, looks a bit absurd to be holding up to your head to make a call. LG suggested to us that this device will make a great case for people to be using Bluetooth headsets to avoid such odd looks – but then again that adds another component where this device’s aim was supposedly to replace two.

The Rubberdium pen, too, is interesting to use, but because it really doesn’t do anything that a normal capacitive-friendly stylus wouldn’t be able to – it’s definitely not contending for any top spot in the pen-included smart device market. It’s a sturdy accessory, but it also doesn’t fit in a dock inside the device as Samsung’s S-Pen for the Note does. It feels much more natural to just use your finger for circling items and making notes with the Intuition.

This device has 1GB of RAM inside alongside a dual-core Snapdragon S3 processor clocked at 1.5GHz. That’s basically the same as what we saw in the tiny LG Lucid back in March of this year. LG informs us that the S3 should be perfectly capable of bringing on awesome “multitasking muscle” even if it’s not the newest architecture on the block – and for the most part we’ve seen that to be true in everyday use. Have a peek at a few benchmark tests here to see how it adds up:

Software

Inside of this device you’ll find LG’s newest user interface working with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. You’ve got the regular awesome abilities of ICS such as a Recent Apps button – included in an odd set for this device in the physical row – notice how there’s a menu button in there too, this being a unique set for any Android device thus far released to the market. The lockscreen here allows you to do a simple unlock by swiping across any part of the screen, or you can swipe through any one of five app shortcuts to go there too – pull down your notifications work on the lockscreen as well.

You’ve got facial unlock fully intact, Home Screen folders for your apps, and even icon customization abilities – you can literally draw your own icons or take photos to use as icons for your apps. That’s a move we did not see coming from anybody as it has the potential to make your apps look rather terrible – but if you’re an awesome artist or designer, you could be making something totally lovely.

The standard web browser here allows you to switch between mobile and desktop versions with the tap of a button and you’ll be able to save websites in their entirety for offline reading, too. Then comes the best part – a hardware button at the top of your device that takes screenshots that you can write on.

When you take a shot like this, you bring up a toolbox of icons that have multiple abilities. You’re meant to use your Rubberdium pen at this point, but you certainly do not have to if you don’t want to. The first button you see allows you to take a note with the screenshot you’ve just taken or without – this bringing you to a notepad for your note-taking pleasure. There are forward and backward buttons incase you need to undo or redo, and you can pick your pen type and color as well.

You’re able to share a memo to any of your various social networks and share-friendly apps, or simply save your memo for later viewing – you can save here to your gallery in a brand new folder specifically for notes such as these, or you can save them to your NoteBook. This whole interface is part of your QuickMemo environment, the idea that you’re the type of person that takes notes and memos being a large selling point for this device in the end.

LG has for some time now been working to provide the user with a unique ability – coming from a manufacturer, that is – to switch between user modes. You can use the LG Tag+ NFC stickers to activate your different modes, or you can simply do it yourself with a couple of taps. The LG Intuition comes pre-set with Car, Office, Sleep, and User modes, each of them bringing you a standard setup for their respective environments.

These modes bring you different home screens full of apps as well as settings – for the office, for instance, you could have your Office Mode set to silent, while your Sleep Mode could have your wi-fi and data connections shut off entirely while you snooze. On the Office subject, this device also comes pre-loaded with Polaris Office, this including Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint compatibility.

This device also securely syncs with Microsoft Exchange for secure email action and is able to access your corporate network “without worries” with LG’s built-in VPN. You’ve got DARE – Data At Rest Encryption – at work here, and you can work with items such as secure booting, rooting detection, and remote wipe for relatively hardcore security measures all around.

As shown above, this device once again continues Verizon’s new set of apps as well as Amazon’s apps, yet works with a Google-certified set of apps like Google Play, Gmail, and Play Music. This device also comes with Shark Dash – an insanely odd game to say the least – and Real Racing 2 so you know you can have some fun while you’re making all kinds of doodles all week long.

Camera

This device works with an 8-megapixel back-facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front – the back-facing camera taking some relatively lovely photos and videos – the placement of the shooter in the corner of the device makes taking video and photos feel natural with this device, much more so than it does with the Galaxy Note – in that way, this device wins.

Battery and Data Speed

This device works with notoriously battery-hungry 4G LTE connectivity, which though it is a power-gobbler, has nothing on the ability of the Intuition’s display to cut you down to size. Though the Snapdragon S3 processor under the hood doesn’t quite have the same awesome standby power-saving abilities that the S4 does, we’re still seeing some rather standard battery life action going on here.

If you’re a person who uses their device every 10 minutes, you may have to charge the device once halfway through the day. If you’re a regular person who works with their smartphone every half-hour or so, you’ll probably be good to go for your whole workday. This device uses a 2080 mAh non-removable battery, by the way, just a bit bigger than the Motorola DROID RAZR M (which has a 2000 mAh, massive for a device of its size.) This device, once again, runs on Verizon’s 4G LTE network which you can see rocking quite well in the speed tests included here:

Wrap-Up

This device certainly isn’t the magic all-in-one device for everybody – evidenced by the lack of a microSD card slot and 32GB of onboard storage as well as by the S3 processor inside – not quite perfect for future-proof-seeking gamers. On the other hand, the average office-goer will likely find this device to be more than a match for any tablet they’d been using up unto this point – this device is meant to replace the tablet, after all. You’ll have a much more awesome time with a 5-inch display than you have had with a 7-inch display if you’re finding yourself needing a whole extra bag to carry that device around all day.

Here you’ve got a device that’s massive – yet small enough to still fit in your pocket. That’s assuming you’ve got standard-sized pockets, of course. The display is perfectly bright and viewing angles are more than sufficient for everyday browsing and note-taking action, and the phone is, on your average day, swift enough to handle your office-bound needs. This is certainly one of LG’s most impressive devices yet, and though we’re not entirely convinced that we’d not rather have its main competitor in the end, LG does currently have the Verizon piece of the market cornered.

In other news, it turns out that AntiSec may not have stolen all of those Apple UDIDs from the FBI like the group originally claimed, and the LG Escape was leaked shortly before being confirmed by the company. Toys R Us has a new tablet on offer, and it’s aimed directly at your children, while TTP is looking to give Google Glass a run for its money with some new specs of its own. Speaking of Google Glass, the headsets made an appearance at Fashion Week, with designer Diane von Furstenberg sending her models onto the runway while wearing them.

The FBI has rolled out a $1 billion facial tracking initiative, and it seems that GoDaddy’s network of hosted websites has been taken down by a lone hacker associated with Anonymous. Google says that 180 “fiberhoods” qualify for Google Fiber service after a lengthy preliminary sign-up period, and a new Samsung Galaxy Note II leak suggests that the new phablet will be launching at Verizon. The founder of The Pirate Bay has been deported to Cambodia, while Samsung’s hopes for a 13-megapixel camera in the Galaxy Note II were dashed when LG bought up most of the stock from suppliers.

Sony is launching the first installment in its new Wonderbook series in November, and today is the day that the Steam Big Picture Beta comes to televisions everywhere. Bethesda’s Pete Hines doesn’t see the need for a new generation of consoles just yet, some scientists are now thinking that Mars was too hot to support life in the past, and Nielsen has discovered that the number of teenagers who own a smartphone is on the rise, climbing faster than any other age group.

Finally tonight, we have a few original articles for you to check out. Chris Davies examines the LTE situation with the incoming iPhone 5, while Chris Burns makes the distinction between tablets and laptops when it comes to work and play. Finally tonight, we have a hands-on with the upcoming LG Intuition, so if you want a phablet-like device that isn’t the Galaxy Note II, you might want to take a look at that. Enjoy the rest of your evening, everyone!

What you’ve got here is a rather boxy look at the smart device that, though it’s not the most elegant smart gadget on the planet, it certainly does appear and feel unique here in 2012. LG’s recent efforts have been in devices that have rounded corners and odd shapes – like the LG Lucid with its smooth back and tiny size. There’s also the LG Nitro HD with one of the most high-definition display-having devices on the planet at this very moment and a rubbery grip back. What we’ve got here with the Intuition, on the other hand, is a beast with a pen – a “Rubberdium” pen – and another rubbery grip back so you can hold tight!

The LG Intuition is currently the largest display-having smart device on Verizon that’s not considered a tablet, with the 7-inch Galaxy Tab line from Samsung being next up with a vibe that’s decidedly tablet-like. With the LG Intuition you’ve got a working machine rather than a play machine – tablets being mostly for play, no matter what anyone tells you. On Verizon this device has no parallel – on the greater smart device market, you’ve got the Galaxy Note and soon the Galaxy Note II, also both from Samsung. Until the Galaxy Note II (or Galaxy Note 2, however you want to type it) reaches Verizon – and it very well may, given the unconfirmed news from earlier today – this LG device has no competitor on Verizon’s 4G LTE network.

You’ve got ultra-fast data speed, a massive display, and a beast of a motor under the hood. LG has chosen the Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 dual-core processor to run this device, and it’s looking and feeling really nice here in our first few hours in general work and play mode. This isn’t the newest Snapdragon processor line – that’s the S4 – but it’s still lively – we’ll see if it continues to keep up in our full review.

Have a peek here at benchmark scores from the device right out of the box. Note also that there’s really no device that this can be compared to fairly with its display being the unique size that it is. It’s also always a good time to note that benchmark tests such as those used here on Android only really truly compare devices with one software build against the same devices with different software builds – or in some cases, the same devices with different processors.

Next have a peek at a few Speed Test scores from right here in New York City, and note that we’ve found almost exactly the same scores from downtown Brooklyn to JFK Airport back to LaGuardia over the past few weeks with several different Verizon 4G LTE devices. Have a peek at our review of the Motorola DROID RAZR M to see additional speed tests with Verizon in the Twin Cities in Minnesota as well as NYC and stay tuned to see if this LG device has the same results – our guess is that they’ll be essentially the same.

We’ll be doing a more extensive review of this device later this week – this week is also being run over by an Apple press event in which they’ll likely release the iPhone 5, this meaning there will be a LOT of news coming down from Apple. To make sure you’re able to see the LG Intuition in full before it’s inevitably pummeled down off the front page no matter when it’s posted, stick to our LG tag portal.

Meanwhile have a peek at the timeline below to see additional hands-on and feature posts on this device (and its international edition) and get pumped up about its final release!