Summer blockbusters are just around the corner, and with them come a whole new crop of product tie-ins. LG, never a stranger to Hollywood alliances, will use the May release of Iron Man 2 as a springboard for its new Android smartphone: the appropriately named LG Ally.
LG officially announced the upcoming handset on Monday, although an Iron-Man-2-theme trailer featuring the phone already leaked last week. The official press release was exceptionally sparse on details: We only officially know that it will run Android, boast a touch screen and a keyboard, and include a proprietary augmented reality app from LG.
Unofficially, the release date and focus on augmented reality both point to the Ally being a US version of the LG Aloha, also known as the LU2300. That would mean a 3.5-inch display, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 5-megapixel camera, and Android 2.1. However, Android and Me claims the Ally will likely lose the 1GHz Snapdragon in favor of a 600MHz ARM chip, and the DMB tuners from Asian phones rarely make it to the US, where a different broadcast standard renders them pretty much worthless.
The Ally will officially debut May 20, and although LG hasn’t yet announced a carrier, it is widely expected to appear on Verizon.
Check out the leaked Ally commercial below.