LG is reported to be readying a smaller sibling for its recently announced G4 smartphone, although the stripped-down specification means it is significantly different from the vendor’s latest flagship (pictured).

According to GSM Arena, the device will be called LG G4c, and feature a 5-inch 720p display that means it is only slightly smaller than the 5.5-inch screen of the G4 – but with four times fewer pixels. It would be powered by a quadcore 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 chip, compared with a Snapdragon 808.

And the same pattern continues across the board: 1GB of RAM compared with 3GB, 8GB of onboard storage (32GB for G4), and 8MP rear camera (rather than 16MP).

LG is one of a number of vendors who offer “mini” versions of their flagship smartphones, but with vast differences in specifications – with countryman Samsung also heading down the same path.

Arguably Sony is the only vendor to offer a small screen smartphone without significantly altering feature sets (with its Z1 Compact and Z3 Compact), although Apple also now falls into this category by default with its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

It was even suggested that LG’s G4c will run an earlier version of Android than G4 (Android 5.0 rather than Android 5.1), although in both cases augmented by LG’s UX 4.0 interface. It is less clear why this would be the case.

GSM Arena mooted availability in Europe, starting with Germany, from the first week of June 2015.