Hot on the heels of its Optimus G Lightning, LG has unveiled its new Optimus L9 smartphone, which sports the same L-Style design as found on the LG’s Optimus L3, L5 and L7 devices. This smartphone features a thin 9.1 mm thin frame (131.9 x 68.2 x 9.1 mm; 125g) and is finished off in silver plastic with a metallic streak completing its stylish appearance.

Powering the L9 is a 1 GHz dual-core CPU (make unspecified), which should result in snappy performance whilst navigating its Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) mobile operating system (OS) on LG’s new Optimus UI 3.0 skin. This processor, however, is not in the same league as the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 1.5 GHz quad-core CPU, which  powers the Optimus G, or the 1.5 GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 which does duty on LG’s Optimus 4X HD.

LG’s Optimus L9 boasts a large 4.7" IPS display, a high-density 2 150 mAh SiO+ battery, 1 GB DDR2 RAM, only 4 GB worth of internal storage (expandable via MicroSD slot), as well as a VGA front-facing camera for video calls and 5 MP rear-facing snapper.

The Korean tech firm’s new QTranslator functionality is also included, with LG asserting that it will instantly translate words, phrases and sentences from nearly 44 foreign languages. Users have to scan these using the device’s camera. The smartphone employs optical character recognition (OCR) technology to recognise the letters and an onboard electronic dictionary or online translation engine to translate them. This feature should come in handy when you are on an overseas trip.

Another useful feature is LG’s My Style Keypad function, which adjusts the key formation of the onscreen keypad according to whether you are inputting text with one hand (either right or left) or both hands.

No release info is available yet, but regarding a possible local release, Kenneth Hales, technical manager for LG Electronics South Africa stated: “We consider all new LG mobile devices for the South African market, but we have not yet had the opportunity to discuss the local viability of this smartphone with our local operators.”

“The Optimus L9 is a great smartphone that appeals to every consumer,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of LG Mobile Communications company. “LG will continue to offer differentiated value through the Optimus L9 and strengthen our position in the smartphone market.”

In related news, LG Electronics also recently announced that it has managed to reach a new global sales milestone of five million units for its LTE (4G) enabled smartphones.