AT&T’s new LG Optimus G Pro phablet has a lot going for it. Only a carrier exclusive can stop it now.

LG showed off the U.S. version of its big-screen phone at an event in New York City last night, and I like it more for mainstream users than the competing Samsung Galaxy Note II. The key is that the G Pro is much narrower: 3 inches wide as compared to 3.2 inches, which makes it a lot easier to hold and even to use as a phone.

I’m not a big fan of phablets, but there’s something about the G Pro that speaks to me. Yes, it’s slick and plasticky. But since it’s narrow and tall, it still feels like a phone – it still feels like a one-handed device. That’s really important to me.

The G Pro out-specs the Galaxy Note II with a slightly faster Qualcomm processor, a slightly larger battery, a better 1080p screen and a 13-megapixel rear camera. You get the idea that LG went over the Note II’s spec sheet point by point and made sure everything’s a little better, and that’s not a bad thing. That’s how competition improves all of our lives.

LG Gets Creative in Software
LG showed me some of the more unusual software features of the G Pro, which really make it stand out from the crowd of Android phones.

The G Pro is running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, but LG has made the user interface extra-customizable. For instance, you can change any of the app icons to a range of other icons, or even to a photo you took yourself. You can also expand frequently used apps’ icons to a larger size, if you’d like.

Going back to the one-handed idea, I was impressed by the keyboard setting that crowds the keyboard to one side of the screen. That way, you can type with one hand even though your thumb can’t reach all the way across the screen. Neat.

I was also a little amazed and a little appalled by the ability to change the system font to more than a half-dozen different fonts, including one with heavy serifs and a Comic Sans-like font. That font change affects not only icon titles, but even the primary font on Web pages. Reading PCMag.com in Comic Sans is a trip.

The G Pro’s QuickRemote function joins Samsung and HTC in the IR remote control club. The G Pro doesn’t have an electronic TV program guide like the Galaxy S 4 and HTC One do, but the G Pro controls a wider range of electronics, including air conditioners.

We have even more unusual software features in our slideshow, so check out our hands-on slideshow above.

There’s one big minus compared to the international version of the G Pro: fewer QSlide apps. QSlide is LG’s multitasking system, letting you run two other apps in small windows over your main screen. As you can see here, the international G Pro lets you QSlide a little browser window. But the AT&T version only has four QSlide apps: calendar, calculator, videos and note pad. Nobody at the event could explain why.

AT&T’s bloatware is another, smaller minus; the G Pro is laden down with the usual array of apparently undeletable, AT&T-branded apps. That’s par for the course with AT&T-branded phones, but it makes me wish, as usual, that this wasn’t a carrier exclusive.

How Does It Compare?
The G Pro enters a busy phablet space dominated by Samsung’s Galaxy Note line, with HTC’s Droid DNA on Verizon playing harmony.

The Optimus G Pro is faster than the Galaxy Note, with a better screen, and it’s more comfortable in the hand. The key element it lacks is Samsung’s S Pen: if you’re buying a Note II for that pressure-sensitive pen function, you won’t get that here. The Galaxy Note II is also available on all the major U.S. carriers, while the G Pro is an AT&T exclusive.

Carrier-exclusive phones have been having trouble achieving strong, consistent sales and mindshare recently. The Nokia Lumia 920 and HTC Droid DNA, for instance, were very well reviewed, but don’t seem to have changed either of those companies’ fortunes. Being entirely dependent on AT&T and Verizon, respectively, even though those are the two largest U.S. carriers, can’t have helped.

The Optimus G Pro goes on pre-sale on May 3, and on sale on May 10 for $199.99 with a two-year contract. We’ll have a full review then.