Continuing its tradition of announcing products before an important trade show (like MWC), LG has lifted the lid on its refresh of the Optimus L series of Android phones. With Optimus L Series II, the Korean manufacturer says it has both improved the design and introduced new innovations to the range.

The Optimus L Series II launch handsets comprise the LG Optimus L7 II, LG Optimus L5 II and LG Optimus L3 II. and they come in similar form factors to the original line-up, but softened. Round corners replace the harsh, pointed ones of Series one, and the new phones now feature Smart LED technology on their home buttons.

Proprietary LG software is present on the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS, including QuickMemo, Quick Button and Safety Care. QuickMemo allows you to write on the screen with your finger more naturally than usual. Quick Button allows you to assign the opening of your favourite app or service to a hot button. And Safety Care offers Emergency Call Forwarding, Phone Non-Usage Notice and My Location Notice options to call a pre-designated loved one if you have problems.

Each comes with an IPS display and extended battery life, while dual-SIM versions will allow you to use the same handset for business and personal calls, for example.

The LG Optimus L7 II will be the first out on the market, with Russia getting the phone this week and other regions to follow.

It will come with 4.3-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen display, 1GHz Dual-Core Qualcomm MSM8225 processor, 768MB RAM, and up to 4GB of on-board storage space. A microSD card slot will allow you to expand that, but we haven't been informed of the size limit.

The rear camera is 8-megapixel with an LED flash, while the front is a normal 0.3-megapixel camera for video calling. As promised, the battery is pretty meaty - at 2,460mAh - and it measures 121.5 x 66.6 x 9.7mm, 122.2 x 66.6 x 9.7mm (Dual-SIM).

Full specifications and release dates on the other two models are still to be announced, but we do know that the LG Optimus L5 II will have 4-inch 800 x 480 display and 1,700mAh battery. The LG Optimus L3 II will have a 3.2-inch 320 x 240 display and 1,540mAh battery.

UPDATE LG has told Pocket-lint that the Optimus L Series II handsets will launch in the UK in the spring.