ConsumerIT - For Europe's High Volume PC Retailers, Distributors & Builders

LG goes for something slightly different with the G2 smartphone flagship-- the first "G" series device featuring a 5.2 inch display and admittedly unusual physical button placement.

Unlike most other smartphones the G2 has all physical buttons (namely the power button and the volume rocker) placed beneath the rear-facing camera instead of the sides. According to LG such a design decision makes one-handed use of a larger smartphone easier while allowing for a thinner-than-usual (2.65mm) bezel.

Spec-wise the G2 aims to impress-- the 5.2-inch IPS display handles 1080p resolutions through a 2.26GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 SoC, 2GB RAM, 16 or 32GB internal storage and a 3000mAh battery.

The massive display carries Graphic RAM (GRAM) to reduce energy consumption by up to 26% (on a still frame) and increase overall usage time by around 10%, at least according to LG.

In a twist surprising to absolutely no one the PC market continues to decline in W. Europe-- according to Gartner Q2 2013 PC shipments total 10.9 million units with -19.8% Y-o-Y decline.

"The market exit of the netbook PC, and vendors reducing their inventory to get the new Intel chips and Windows 8.1 have fueled the decline in W. Europe," the analyst remarks.

One has to keep in mind Gartner does not count tablets (arguably the IT industry's one growth market) in its PC numbers.

Thus all PC segments see Y-o-Y declines in W. Europe-- mobile PCs by -23.9% and desktops by -12.2%. Consumer segment shipments are down by -25.8%, while the professional market sees a -13.5% decline.

Twelve South believes iOS devices deserve an "ultimate pedestal"-- specifically the HiRise for iPhone 5/iPad mini, a brushed metal stand for iDevices equipped with Lightning connectors.

Compatible with the iPhonne 5, iPad mini, iPod Touch and iPod nano, the stand raises the smaller iOS offerings to face level, making it ideal for video chats and media consumption.

It also holds devices clad in protective cases through adjustable rear support and multiple-height clips.

The HiRise stand is available now.

Go Twelve South HiRise

Dell starts shipping its take on micro-PCs to beta testers with Project Ophelia, an HDMI dongle the size of a large USB stick promising to turn any HDTV into a cloud-powered PC.

First seen at CES 2013, at first glance Ophelia is not too different to the recent crop of micro-PCs, even if unlike the popular Raspberry Pi it ships inside a proper case. However it features an interesting trick up its dongle-style sleeve-- as well as running as a stand-alone Android 4.1 device, it can connect to the cloud to act as a multipurpose Citrix or VMware thin client.

It packs a Rockchip RK3066 SoC ( X2 ARM Cortex-A9 cores clocked at 1.6GHz, Mali 400 graphics engine, memory controller), 1GB RAM, NAND storage, microSD card slot, Bluetooth and wifi connectivity. Since it lacks batteries, the Ophelia sips power through either MHL port or separately via USB interface.