LG Stylus 2 brings fancy pen features for those on a budget

LG's pre-launch leak-a-thon has continued in earnest as the brand has announced the LG Stylus 2, a phone that takes the core of Samsung's popular Note range and brings it to a much lower price point - and will be shown off at MWC this year.

LG's been dabbling with its Stylus range of smartphones for a couple of years now, but thinks that a new phone with a few enhanced pen features will hit that sultry combo of the productivity fiend who doesn't like to splash too much cash.

The key features the brand is touting center, unsurprisingly, around the detachable accessory that lives in a slot at the bottom of the phone. Remove that and you'll get instant access to Pen Pop, a menu that lets you take memos and Pop Scanner - which mysteriously has no details on it bar this patent filing from LG last month.

There's a nano-coating on the tip of the stylus too, which LG says makes your scribblings more accurate than the boring old rubber we've been subjected to. It will also allow you to write on the screen in a calligraphic style - screw a three day battery life, THAT'S the feature we've all been waiting for.

The LG Stylus 2 will also feature Pen Keeper, where the phone will alert you when the stylus slot is empty and the phone is in motion. Presumably that means it can sense when you're holding the pen as well, otherwise it's just going to be screaming every time you try to use its primary feature.

Styl-us intrigued

The reason LG is talking up the stylus so much is the fact that, well, the specs aren't that inspiring. This is a phablet, given it has a 5.7-inch screen, but the 720p resolution isn't going to look anywhere near as sharp as even some budget phones on the market.

It's got a no-name quad core chipset, 1.5GB of RAM and a 13MP camera on the rear (with an 8MP option on the front for the 'look at me, being all productive' selfies we like to send to our bosses three to five times per day).

Battery-worriers will enjoy the 3000mAh power back stuffed in the back, as it's also removable for those moments where you've doodled too hard and have run out of juice before lunch. However, the low-res screen means that you should easily last a day with that much power, and a microSD slot is provided to complete the 'removable battery / expandable memory' combination so many love.

We sadly don't know the price just yet, so it's hard to say whether LG has positioned the phone at the right level.

Neither have we been told the LG Stylus 2 release date, but in previous years the cost has been lower than the flagship device, and it launched in the US and South Korea last year - so it could get a larger worldwide release this time around.

• You know what else will be at MWC 2016 this year? Loads and loads of new phones.