LG To Ship Optimus Smartphones With NVIDIA's Tegra 2 Processor

NVIDIA's Ion has helped to revolutionize the nettop and netbook market place. Just a couple of years ago, netbooks were incapable of playing back 720p content smoothly; now, Ion-equipped netbooks have no trouble playing back 1080p content. The next generation of Ion is already out, but now NVIDIA is hoping to do for smartphones what they already did for netbooks and nettops. The Tegra chip has been infrequently used in a few mobile devices, with Microsoft's Zune HD being the most prominent. But NVIDIA has big plans to expand the use of it, and LG's onboard.


A new press release from the mobile phone maker has confirmed that LG will soon be producing smartphones with NVIDIA's Tegra 2 processor. In fact, they'll be producing a series of phones with Tegra 2. Starting in Q4 2010, Tegra 2 will be found within a number of LG's Optimus phones, giving 1GHz of power as well as 1080p video playback to phones that slide within your pocket. NVIDIA hopes to provide "console-quality gaming" on phones, and it's likely that some of the first LG Tegra phones will run Windows Phone 7.

Q4 should be interesting; the iPhone's about to get some serious competition in the gaming space, that's for sure.

LG DEVELOPS POWERFUL SMARTPHONES WITH NVIDIA TEGRA 2 PROCESSOR

SEOUL, Sept. 7, 2010 ¬ – LG Electronics (LG) announced today that it will introduce a series of fast, powerful smartphones starting in the fourth quarter of 2010 utilizing the second generation NVIDIA? Tegra™ mobile processor, Tegra 2. Tegra 2 includes the world’s first dual-core CPU, which powers through complex tasks to achieve significant leaps in performance.

LG will integrate Tegra 2 into its smartphones, providing them with unprecedented power, speed and graphics capability. These smartphones will be part of LG’s Optimus Series, a new line of innovative mobile products.

LG selected NVIDIA Tegra because it enables a new mobile experience and content capabilities. Tegra 2 features a number of mobile “firsts”: the first mobile dual-core CPU, the only ultra low-power NVIDIA GeForce? GPU and the first 1080p HD mobile video processor. Taking full advantage of the two speedy 1 GHz processors sharing the workload in Tegra 2, consumers can experience up to 2x faster web browsing and up to 5x faster gaming performance over single core processors running at 1 GHz. NVIDIA’s leadership in graphics also delivers flawless 1080p HD video playback, console-quality gaming and amazing 3D capabilities.

“LG is committed to making its Optimus Series smart devices the de facto standard in speed and graphics performance,” said Chang Ma, Vice President of Marketing Strategy Team, LG Mobile Communications Company. “We selected NVIDIA because it is the visual computing leader and has a long history of creating amazing consumer experiences.”

“The ultimate smartphones will be powered by Tegra, the world’s most advanced mobile processor,” said Phil Carmack, senior vice president of NVIDIA’s mobile business. “LG is one of the most popular consumer brands, and their Optimus Series of devices with Tegra is further validation of the processor’s ability to deliver an unrivaled, turbocharged media experience.”

LG’s Optimus Series smartphones featuring the NVIDIA Tegra 2 mobile processor will debut starting in the fourth quarter of the year.