LG unveils new flavour of Ice Cream Sandwich for Optimus smartphones

Battle for best ICS version of Android set to intensify

LG has unveiled its new Optimus UI 3.0 customised Ice Cream Sandwich user interface (UI), aiming to to take on Samsung's Touchwiz and HTC's Sense 4.0 overlays.

The Optimus UI 3.0 tweaks Android's latest Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, and will add a number of new services, according to LG. These include its Quick Memo, Voice Shutter and Icon Customiser features.

Quick Memo will let users take notes on the screen using their finger, while Voice Shutter will add voice command support to the device's camera. Icon Customiser will allow users to replace existing shortcut icons with their own photos and images.

LG promises it has also made a number of minor changes to make Ice Cream Sandwich more user friendly.

These include support for new unlocking gestures that will let users wake up their smartphone by dragging anywhere on the screen and a Pattern Lock feature, which makes the device immediately launch a preset function as soon as it is unlocked.

The UI is set to be initially released on LG's Optimus LTE II, which will launch in Korea this week, subsequently arriving in the UK on the LG Optimus 4X HD in June.

LG faces mobile UI competition from Samsung, which unveiled the latest version of its Touchwiz Android skin alongside its Galaxy S3 in April. That UI features several of its own changes, including improved near field communication (NFC) sharing, voice command and face recognition features.

For a more in depth look at Samsung's updated Touchwiz UI check out V3's breakdown of the Galaxy S3's 10 most exciting features.