LG’s 5-inch Optimus LTE to come with NFC tags

LG’s Optimus LTE phone has already turned heads with its 5-inch display and its 4:3 aspect ratio, but now it’s gaining attention for another feature.

The phone was previously referred to as the Optimus Vu, which appeared to be its Japanese name. However, it will be called the Optimus LTE in the US.

The phone will have Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, but LG is pioneering the idea of customizable tags or stickers. Users can stick the tags anywhere, like on a computer desk or vehicle dashboard.

Those tags act as macros for the phone – in other words, swiping your phone over the tag in your car could automatically enable GPS and Bluetooth connectivity, or swiping it over the tag near your computer could open the file-sharing app.

When smartphones began to cross over the 4-inch barrier, many assumed they could never get much bigger than that. But perhaps that is the next trend, and it may take some getting used to.

The fact is that people are doing more and more with their phones. The primary function of a cell phone is no longer to call people, so perhaps the need for a compact, comfortable handset that you put up to your face is being outweighed by the need to have access to data and information at your fingertips.

What’s more curious, though, is that the LG device has a 4:3 aspect ratio instead of the more popular widescreen 16:10 used in the Galaxy Note. A 4:3 aspect ratio is an interesting idea, as it might make reading e-books and looking at portrait-oriented photos more enjoyable.

Other technical aspects include a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 16 GB of memory, a 5-megapixel camera, and Android 2.3 Gingerbread.