Yesterday LG streamed their Press Conference at CES 2011 where they talked through the theme of the conference before introducing some exciting new products.

One of these products that got tongues wagging worldwide was the LG Optimus Black – a new Android running Smartphone lined up for a release in the first half of this year.

The LG Optimus Black is notable for several reasons, but the first thing to catch the eye is its thickness, or more specifically its lack of thickness. Measuring in at a super slim 9.22mm deep, the Optimus Black is the world’s slimmest smartphone.

The Optimus Black also packs a mighty punch, as it brings a 4-inch NOVA display to the mobile market for the first time, specifically designed to be the brightest, clearest and most readable among mobile device screens with 700 nits of brightness for optimal visibility.

Other advantages of the NOVA display aside from greater luminosity include a 50% reduction on power consumption when used indoors in comparison to a standard LCD display. The NOVA display even has AMOLED beaten, as AMOLED uses twice as much power to display a full white screen, the most frequently used colour scheme for web browsing. When you factor in a 1500 mAh battery, the LG Optimus Black will have enough power to get you through the day.

The Optimus Black is certainly a visually arresting handset, with enough sleek lines and smooth edges to get tongues hanging out. Taking a nod from LG’s Home Entertainment department’s invisible speakers on TVs, the Optimus Black has an Invisible Receiver hidden behind the edges of the phone ensuring a flush and attractive finish. Combine this with a weight of 109g and you have a truly enviable handset.

But looks alone do not make a good handset. The Optimus Black is packed full of features to help make users lives easier via the Optimus UI 2.0. This LG exclusive UI lets users access messages, emails and missed calls from the locked screen with a single tap of the finger. The Gesture UI offers more intuitive commands, including lifting, shaking and tapping for taking calls, entering camera mode or enjoying music. The LG Optimus Black also introduces the world’s first Wi-Fi Direct™ for quick and high quality data transfer between mobile devices and adopts the world’s first 2MP front-facing camera.

All LG Optimus Black features are available on the Android 2.2 Froyo platform, with Android 2.3 Gingerbread upgrade capability. The Android 2.3 upgrade combined with the 2MP front-facing camera means that high quality video calls are possible.

The  LG Optimus Black will be released globally in the first half of 2011.

Update: 7 July, 2011

Paul Trueman, Marketing Director, LG UK talks about the Optimus Black at CES 2011

More information can be found at the LG Press Room, where all CES 2011 related content is available – Press Room