LG G2 Mini Launching Next Month

LG announced the G2 mini during Mobile World Congress 2014 and now the phone is ready to hit the market. LG announced on Thursday that it will begin to sell the G2 mini in CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries next month. The company promised the the G2 mini launch in April will be "followed closely" by launches in Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Sadly, there's no word on if or when the G2 mini will ever hit the United States.

Most industry watchers were hoping that LG was going to cram the same specs found in the G2 down into a smaller body with a 4.7-inch display. Ultimately, however, the G2 mini ended up offering mid-range specs including a 1.2GHz quad-copre Snapdragon processor (a variant with a Tegra 4i will launch in Latin America), either an 8-megapixel or 13-megapixel camera (again, depending on the launch market), Android 4.4 KitKat, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable storage. There are also some unique software features, like Knock Code which lets you tap specific quadrants of the screen in a special order to unlock the phone.

LG says that was its strategy: to create a phone with mass appeal but with a familiar form factor and a set of software features that are available across its portfolio of smartphones. "With the G2 mini, our objective is to allow a much larger consumer base to be able to experience the key benefits of the G2 UX in a smaller form factor," LG Mobile CEO Dr. Jong-seok Park said. "And to that end, we're confident we've succeeded with the G2 mini."

LG didn't reveal a price on Thursday, though that may vary by carrier and region anyway. The phone will also be available in four colors including red, gold, white and black, though some colors will only launch in select regions.