The G2 Mini is smaller, cheaper, & LG’s bid to take over the world

Cell phone manufacturer LG is preparing to take on the mid-range cell phone market this April by bringing the G2 Mini to emerging markets in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

First unveiled in February Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona,  the G2 Mini cherry-picked some features from LG’s G2 series while scaling most of the premium phone’s capabilities in a more compact body.

The G2 Mini’s most impressive feature is its rear-facing camera, featuring a respectable 13-megapixels — the same as LG’s G2 — while the front-facing camera features only 1 megapixel. The phone also features a 4.7-inch screen with basic 960 x 540 resolution, which makes it 3 inches bigger than other leading “Mini” phones like Samsung’s Galaxy Mini S4.

Powered by a removable 2,440mAh battery, the Mini comes with a 1 GB of memory and 8 GB storage as well as a MicroSD slot for expansion. The phone will run Android Kit Kat 4.4, on a spare SnapDragon 400 processor, and will support both 3G and 4G.

The G2 Mini will sport a variety of colors depending on region: black, white, red, and gold.

The price for LG’s latest offering has not been announced. Meanwhile, the Korean company is hardly the only manufacturer trying to grab market share in the mobile-hungry emerging markets.

The G2 Mini is just the latest in a slew of phones gearing up to enter the global mid-tier market next month, many of which were unveiled alongside it at MWC this year. Sony’s Xperia M2 is slated for release in April, as is Blackberry’s Z3, priced at around $200. Meanwhile Nokia’s first line of Android-powered phones are also rolling out to emerging markets this month. The Nokia X series starts at around $120.

Beyond traditional manufacturers, others have also joined the foray: Mozilla Firefox has released a phone running a customized Firefox OS priced at around $80.

VentureBeat has reached out to LG and analysts for further comment. We’ll update when we hear back.