There was a rumor flying around the internets a little over a week ago that said LG was considering ditching the “Optimus” brand for their high end smartphones due to it never really becoming mainstream and people’s disappointment with LG’s previous history of devices.

Last night, while I was asleep, the anonymous Twitter user @evleaks published series of photos of a device called the “LG G2” (scroll down). Note the complete and utter lack of the “O” word.

The device appears to be your typical slab of plastic and glass, with no front facing buttons. That’s a first for LG, and something I hope Samsung eventually comes to adopt since moving parts almost always break during the life of a smartphone. Curiously, the back of the phone has three elements under the camera lens that appear to be volume controls and what I think is a fingerprint scanner.

Why would LG put the volume controls on the back of the phone instead of on the side?

Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe their research shows that’s where people want to press to change the volume? As for the rest of the handset, it’s rumored to have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and a 5 inch 1080p display.

When will LG announce this thing? I’m glad you asked. LG is holding an event on the 7th of August. Considering that Samsung just made their Korean only Snapdragon 800 equipped Galaxy S4 official yesterday, I wouldn’t be at all surprised for LG to announce the G2 towards the end of the summer.

Makes sense since we all know Samsung will announce the Note III on September 6th at IFA.