LG Electronics Inc., the world's No. 3 handset maker, unveiled on Saturday a new Optimus smartphone running on the fourth-generation long-term evolution (LTE) network.

LG Electronics said that the Optimus LTE 2 has 5 gigabytes of random access memory (RAM), the largest among smartphones sold in South Korea.

The company said the RAM on the smartphone is twice as powerful as those found in many tablet PCs and on par with those running notebook computers.

A higher amount of RAM permits multitasking or simultaneous use of many applications on the mobile device without the risk of the system freezing.
LG said that it used a so-called application processor chip that helped reduce the thickness of the set.

The company added that the new smartphone uses a high capacity battery which it claims permits 40 percent more running time on a single charge compared to the previous Optimus model.

The smartphone is expected to go on sale in mid May in South Korea. (Yonhap)