With the prospect of price hikes and RAM shortages on the horizon, we might remember the current era as a good one for smartphones – even if phone design has actually hit a pretty boring plateau.

Still, I’m enjoying the fact that, for now, it’s a great time for tech specs and value for money in the world of mobile phones – flagship prices have held fairly steady over the past five or so years, and the best phones offer incredible performance, photography, and battery life.

And while I find myself feeling nostalgic every now and then (check out our recent 2016 retrospective), I’m pretty happy to be living in a world with phones that last a couple days on a single charge and can take serviceable photos at 30x zoom.

With that said, there is one phone I wish I’d had the chance to try before it was discontinued – and unlike my favorite phone of all time, the iPhone 5s, this one isn’t even that old.

The LG Wing, released in 2020, was the last hurrah from LG’s mobile business before it shut down in 2021. The finale to a series of weird and quirky phones, the LG Wing featured a rotating display that allowed the phone to swivel out into a T-shaped orientation – effectively giving you a landscape view without having to rotate the phone itself.

At 6.8 inches, that rotating display offered a pretty wide view in its, uh, deployed state, and swiveling out the main screen revealed a second 3.9-inch panel, to use as a keyboard or for other quick actions.

It’s possible that the Wing was a response to the advent of folding phone technology – perhaps LG had hoped that consumers would prefer the sleekness and convenience of their rotating design, which measured just 10.9mm thick compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 2’s 16.8mm folded thickness. More than anything, the Wing was inventive – no other phone maker had offered an alternative to Samsung’s booklet-style form factor that was quite as unique, and none have since.

In typical LG style, it was a bit bizarre, but the LG Wing was also well-equipped. For $999 in the US, you got the two displays, a triple camera system with a special gimbal-style ultra-wide lens, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 4,000mAh battery. And if it didn’t already have enough moving parts, the selfie camera had a motorized pop-up system.

Sadly, the LG Wing came and went before I made my start in tech journalism, and with my trusty Huawei Mate 20 Pro keeping me company through 2020 and 2021 I had neither the means nor the reason to pick up a new phone.

Alas, LG’s phone division has been shut for half a decade and every large phone is a foldable in the footsteps of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold. As cool as the phones of today are, none of them can quite scratch the itch the LG Wing has left me.

Of course the LG Wing didn’t save the company’s phone division. Phones with moving parts are have increased likelihood of failure, a higher price tag compared to slab phones, and possible servicing difficulties.

Still, it was bold for LG to hitch its hopes on a niche device when it needed a win to stay afloat. LG was too far ahead of the game for its own good. The LG Wing wasn't a flop, it was ahead of its time.

Holding a phone horizontally sucks. It’s not how phones are designed and normally leads to hand cramps. That's why pop sockets and mobile gaming controllers exist, and it’s why vertical video is so dominant.

The LG Wing offered the best of both worlds – landscape and portrait, while offering a vertical grip. The market wasn’t ready for it. TikTok was just gaining momentum; YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels launched the same year as the Wing, in 2020. The world hadn’t yet realized how convenient holding a phone vertically all the time could be.

I just can’t get over the LG Wing. It’s like over-the-top tech that pops up in the background of a Star Wars movie - possibly useful and designed to look cool. It’s a phone you’d see in a YouTube video from 2006 titled “this will be smartphones in 2012,” a relic of optimistic and experimental design.

The LG Wing is the coolest phone I can’t buy – it’s discontinued, and buying a second-hand phone with that many moving parts doesn’t seem smart. Let me know which phone you wish you’d been able to get ahold of in the comments below.

It's been four years since LG pulled the plug on its once robust phone business, and there have been no new LG handsets since then; but some people still own and use them, and many of us have a drawer filled with classic models.

Now, though, all LG phones will begin the slow, steady march to brickatude, as software updates end on June 30. It's a sad moment, and it got me thinking about how LG did things differently (really differently) and what the rest of the phone industry (looking at you, Samsung, Apple, Google) can learn from it.

In some ways, LG (formerly Lucky Goldstar, which should tell you something) was just like any other phone company, albeit one that always appeared to be on a little bit of acid.

LG, for instance, has an obsession with multiples. Even before foldables, it slapped two screens on a phone, most memorably in the LG Wing, which, when you flipped the top screen from portrait to landscape, turned the handset into a digital cross, complete with a half-sized display squeezed in below the main one. Flipping a screen was also kind of an LG thing.

Then there was the LG V60 ThinQ, which put a second full-sized display in the case. This was years before folding phones that could transform from a standard handset into a tablet; instead, the V60 faked it. Content could span across the two screens, but it was more typical for you to use one screen as a virtual keyboard, with the other screen as the content display.

LG would invent or adopt oddball words like "Groufies," which was another way of saying "group selfies," – that particular term was coined for the LGV10, which featured two front cameras to create an ultra-wide front-facing camera.

The LG Velvet included ASMR recording capabilities; the LG K7i could repel mosquitoes (it emitted a special sound). We marveled at these technological achievements, and we also asked, "But why?"

LG made a lot of phones, and sometimes operated at the very bleeding edge. It was among the first phone companies to support Windows Phone 7 (and not to its benefit), and offered the first phone to run Android Nougat.

Even before that, though, I knew LG as the maker of fun and affordable feature phones. There were the Voyage and enV, which I gave my kids. The latter featured an excellent QWERTY keyboard, and I bought some of these phones for my kids because they were reliable and affordable, while still offering a fair amount of design sex appeal.

I've never really understood why LG abruptly exited the phone business, but sometimes I wonder if it just couldn't stand the heat from frequent competitor Samsung. Visit South Korea, the home country of both brands, and you'll see how the two companies loom large across almost every area of commerce and culture.

Like LG, Samsung has been willing to take some risks (though at a much higher price), introducing a folding phone well before the technology was fully ready for prime time. We've watched Samsung iterate on the fly, and it now produces two excellent, if pricey, flexible phones in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6.

LG had a habit of introducing weird designs and then abandoning them. It could not iterate (or didn't want to), and with the LG Wing being its last big swing-for-the-fences design, it left the field.

I still miss LG, though, because even given the folding revolution I believe that Apple, Google, Samsung, and others could be taking more design risks. The majority of smartphones we see today look, at a glance, far too similar; perhaps the market has squeezed out design and innovation anomalies, but I think it has more to do with the industry steering consumers towards a bland sameness that is more manageable.

These days, affordable innovation comes from companies like TCL, Huawei, OnePlus, and Nothing, brands that operate at the edges of the US phone market, and which arguably have little impact on industry design and tech direction.

With the last vestiges of LG fading away over the summer, it's unlikely we'll ever see its like again. Risk-taking is not rewarded in this industry or this market. Same sells. Thanks for the weirdo memories, LG.

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Despite its departure from the smartphone business last year, LG is dishing out security patches and Android 12 updates to some of its devices. 

The company posted a roadmap outlining software updates that it has planned for the second quarter of this year. The Q52, Velvet, and Wing will get the latest security patches while the Q92 5G, V50 ThinQ, and V50S ThinQ will get an Android 12 update. The updates are slated for a Q2 release. 

LG notes in the post that this is a tentative roadmap “made before detailed technical review”, and if an update won’t meet the company’s usability standards it may not be released. The post also warns that some updates may not show up outside of Korea.

The roadmap tracks with the company’s three-year promise that it announced shortly after announcing the demise of its smartphone business. It stated that “premium phones released in 2019 and later (G series, V series, Velvet, Wing)” will get three iterations of Android updates (which we assume means major updates). It is unclear whether or not the company plans to update any phones to Android 13. 

We’ve reached out to LG about the expected longevity of these updates given that the company no longer produces smartphones, and we’ll update this post if we hear anything back. 

LG smartphone venture lasted quite a while before floundering in more recent years. The company pushed the envelope numerous times with releases like the LG G2 and V10 which received rave reviews in their respective heydays. 

Sadly, it flew too close to the sun with phones like the G5 (which we liked), and its later attempts at changing the game were met with continually middling reception. While many reviewers praised the new things that the company was trying, they simply weren’t good enough to really take off. The Wing for example was great in theory but had its fair share of issues like finding a target market.

Analysis: Kudos to LG

It’s encouraging to see that even though LG is done making new phones, it hasn’t yet ditched software support for some existing phone customers.

Though LG did include the Wing in its three-year promise, it isn’t on the current roadmap to be released in Q2, implying that there’s likely some extra optimization to be done for the phone’s unique form factor.

The Stylo series and K lineup of smartphones seem like they’re done, however, as the three-year promise stated that those phones would only get two major updates from their release year of 2020.

We think LG is doing fairly well at holding true to its promise, but it remains to be seen how the roadmap will actually play out.

LG has reportedly stopped making smartphones. We knew this day was coming, after the company announced a couple of months ago that it was quitting the smartphone industry, but apparently it manufactured its final phone on Monday, May 31.

That’s according to Asia Business Daily (a South Korean financial newspaper), with LG apparently waiting until now to shut down its smartphone manufacturing because it had to fulfill contracts with telecoms companies.

None of this has been officially confirmed by LG at the time of writing, but we knew that it was only a matter of time until the company stopped making phones, so this news is likely accurate.

• You can still get an LG handset, and these are the best LG phones
• Check out the best smartphones
• Read our full LG Wing 5G review

The newspaper adds that a Vietnamese factory where many of LG’s phones were built will apparently be converted into a manufacturing plant for household appliances, so at least the workers there hopefully won’t be out of a job.

The end of an era

Still, it’s sad news, with exciting phones like the LG Velvet 2 Pro and the LG Rollable – the latter once set to be the first ever rollable smartphone - not getting a release despite seemingly being more or less finished. Indeed, LG reportedly sold off stock of these two phones to its employees.

LG has long been one of the most innovative players in the smartphone space too, so its quitting of the industry is a significant loss.

Those who own an LG handset won’t be abandoned though, as the company has promised that its G series, V series, Velvet and Wing smartphones released in 2019 or later will get three years of operating system updates – which is actually more than the industry standard, so that’s quite generous under the circumstances.

• 5 truly wild LG phone innovations – and why they failed

Via Engadget

Forget the iPhone 12 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and OnePlus 9 Pro, and come take a trip down memory lane with the TechRadar team, as we look back and remember our first mobile phones.

We'd love to hear about your first phones too, so tweet us @TechRadar and use the hashtag #MyFirstPhone to tell us all about your first handset.

So from Siemens, Ericsson, Samsung and Motorola, through to a whole host of Nokias, these are the TechRadar team's first phones.

• Looking for a new handset? These are the best phones right now
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Motorola T180

John McCann, Global Managing Editor

Launched in 2000, the Motorola T180 was my first mobile phone. I remember walking with my dad to the phone store round the corner from my house to pick it out. It was a birthday gift, but I was given a strict budget which put the Nokia 3310 - the phone I really wanted - off limits, so I had to settle for this little “volt blue” (as Moto called it) beauty. There were no games, but I did have 11 ringtones to choose from and a battery that lasted DAYS. A year later, I would go on to nab a 3310 and marvel in the delights of Snake.

Nokia 5110

Gareth Beavis, Global Editor in Chief

This phone from 1998 was a hand-me-down from my Dad, who upgraded to the simply-breathtaking Nokia 7110, with a scroll wheel and 'massive' screen. While dejected about how 'old' mine was, the 5110 was a brilliant phone for texting, playing Snake (the original and best version) and - in the late '90s - still marvelling at the notion of something that allowed you to take calls on the go. I 'improved' it with a chrome front plate, yellow power button and an antenna that crackled with light any time a text message or phone call was on its way in… in fact, I still wish that last feature was on new smartphones now. 

Nokia 3310

Cat Ellis, Fitness and Wellbeing Editor

Like many millennials, my first phone was this near-indestructible brick of a handset that could survive all the knocks and drops a clumsy teenager could inflict. Its original X-Press On cover was soon replaced with one featuring (what I believed to be) a rather cool glow-in-the-dark tribal pattern, and I spent many hours painstakingly programming in custom ringtones one note at a time to recreate tinny monophonic versions of Westlife's greatest hits. I may have also sent my parents the occasional text message, but that wasn't really the point. It was a phone and, like boy bands and tribal tattoos, phones were cool. 

• New Nokia 3310 review: the 2017 upgrade of an icon

Motorola D460

Carrie-Ann Skinner, Homes Editor

In 1998 my parents decided I was ready for my first mobile phone - the Motorola D460. As I was still in education, my dad was footing the bill, which meant it wasn't the Nokia 3110 I coveted so badly, and I was going to be in serious trouble if I exceeded the 15-minute monthly call allowance. It was a brick of a phone, and the telescopic aerial was so flimsy, I was scared of breaking it, but it was all mine. It was even better once my best friend got a mobile phone on the same network so we were able to send the occasional text message to each other, too. 

Nokia 3210

Mark Wilson, Cameras Editor

While I'd like to say my first phone was the Nokia N80 (which had a mind-blowing 480p video camera), that stunner actually came after my original 'mobile': the reliable and almost shamefully dull Nokia 3210. In my defence, this was in 1999 just before phones became way more interesting, and I was a poor university student. Back then, phones also didn't really have to do a lot more than deliver the revolutionary concept of letting you text someone in the room next door. But the 3210 did also bring big benefits to my uni life beyond Snake: it was basically apocalypse-proof and had a battery that seemed to last for an entire semester.    

• The 5 phones that made Nokia worth buying

Nokia N73

Daryl Baxter, Software & Downloads Writer

It was 2006, and during Sixth Form (Freshman year) it was decided that it would be best for me to have a phone. Even back then, I wanted something that could do more than call and text. The N73 had an FM radio, a web browser, a RealPlayer app and an MP3 player. It had it all. Even games in color. I remember it having a great 'slide-on' feature for the camera, so once the lens was exposed, it would launch straight into the camera app. It was useful, it had a great battery, and it took 2MP shots with ease.

Nokia 3315

Sharmishta Sarkar, Senior Editor (APAC) 

The circumstances under which I got my first mobile phone was, well, trying to say the least. My parents were in a serious car crash and I was in another part of the country. While they were well looked after till I got to them, we realized it was best I had a phone with me at all times. It was 2003. Growing up in India, mobiles were a luxury item in the early 2000s that cost too much to justify, but needs must. And so a silver Nokia 3315 came into my life – traveling through the jungles of South India while I chased monkeys (yes, I was a primatologist for a brief period in my life), until 2008 when I moved over to the rather sleek Nokia N76 that had a color display and EDGE support! 

Siemens A50

Matt Hanson, Senior Computing Editor

When I left for university in 2002, one of my parents (I forget which) got me a Siemens A50 so that I can keep in contact with them (didn't happen) and they could check that I survived (which, remarkably, did happen, despite my diet of microwavable lasagnas, frozen roast dinners and vodka, and is why I'm not writing this as a ghost). I don't remember much about the phone, but it did have some fancy monochrome animations and a few rubbish games. I also set my voice mail message to a five minute recording of one of my housemates giggling, which confused and upset my grandparents. It had a tiny screen with a resolution of 101 x 64 pixels, a far cry from the huge screen of the phone I use at the moment (the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, which remains an awesome phone years after its release, and has meant I have no desire to upgrade any time soon). One thing that I do miss about it is its frankly ridiculous 250 hour stand-by time. Only having to charge your phone every couple of days is sadly a thing of the past, it seems. 

Ericsson T10

Stephen Lambrechts, Senior Journalist – Phones and Entertainment (APAC)

My first phone was an Ericsson T10. It was a very funky purple flip phone and I treasured it immensely (I had typed the Ghostbusters theme song in as its ringtone, after all). Less than a week into owning it, I made the mistake of leaving it on a counter at a friend's house. Within ten minutes of being there, his very naughty (but still lovable) doggo had snatched the phone from said counter and used it as a chew toy. Though the antenna was absolutely destroyed, unscrewing and replacing it was thankfully very easy. The rest of the phone, however, sported a number of indentations, scratches and chew marks until the end of its days. Lesson learned! 

• 10 best flip phones of all time

Nokia 3310

Henry St Ledger, Home Cinema Editor

Like some other TechRadar staffers, my smartphone journey began with the original Nokia 3310: a sturdy, basic brick phone with a stamp-sized screen and hard plastic casing. At the age of 13, though, it was incredible to suddenly be able to contact any and everyone at the touch of a button – not that I really called anyone, having a 13 year old's attention span and often leaving the phone in a drawer for several days. I did, however, get very good at Snake. The best part of the 3310 may have been the transparent case that came with it, allowing me to cut up a Simpsons comic for some cartoon bling surrounding the screen on all sides. (Again, 13.) 

• New Nokia 3310 vs original Nokia 3310: which phone is king?

Samsung Tocco Lite

Hamish Hector, Staff Writer 

I'd finally moved up to 'big school' and  my parents decided I could be trusted with my own, brand new phone. The Tocco Lite was this amazing device at first, the touch screen felt like a huge upgrade over the old flip phones I'd been allowed to borrow before. Now all I can really remember is how terrible that screen was; typing on it took ages yet the moment it was in my pocket it'd text all my contacts with random strings of characters and symbols. My mate once thought I was possessed after getting a few of those messages. 

• Read our Samsung Tocco Lite review

Sony Ericsson Satio

Jess Weatherbed, Computing Writer

While I recall using a few of my parents hand-me-downs at school, the first mobile I actually owned that was my own from new was the Sony Ericsson Satio – the perfect companion for a young teenager who couldn't afford an iPhone. In fact, I thought it was considerably better than Apple's offering at the time, featuring an in-built MP3 player to play my favorite tunes (mostly a horrid mix of Scooter, Cascada and Slipknot) and a whopping 12MP camera. My selfie game was absolutely unrivaled, which was genuinely what sold little-Jess on the device. That is, of course, until it promptly went through the washing machine three weeks after my parents bought it for me. I was swiftly relegated back to using my mum's old Nokia 3310 until I could be trusted again. 

• Read our Sony Ericsson Satio review

Motorola T180

Samuel Roberts, Senior Entertainment Editor

Like John, this was my first phone, and I can still remember exactly how its squishy buttons felt under my thumb 20 years later. I didn't know much about phones at the time, and assumed that all of them came with Snake – which was the hot game on all playgrounds at the time. When I learned that it didn't, I was gently devastated, and would have to insist on playing Snake on my friends' phones to ensure I didn't feel like I missed out. I had the black version of the T180, and was so bored at the time that I'm pretty sure I wasted an entire Sunday re-recording my voicemail message for laughs. No one ever called, of course. I was 13. 

Samsung SPH-M2500

Gerald Lynch, Executive Editor

While the iPod was just a twinkle in Steve Jobs' eye, let alone the iPhone, Samsung was already exploring the potential of letting you house music on your mobile phone. With a whopping 32MB of of memory and an integrated MP3 player, the Samsung SPH-M2500 was blazing a trail letting you take your digital tunes on the go with you. Letting you put maybe eight or nine (eight or nine!) tracks on the device at any one time, you'd be lucky to fit a highly-compressed album on the handset, let alone your entire collection. But it was still a forward-thinking inclusion, and one that would become standard in years to come. The trouble was, despite being launched in 1999, I got the SPH-M2500 as a hand-me-down a good few years later. So while the cool kids were jamming an iPod full of thousands of songs, I was left with a crippled battery and the painstaking task of juggling my favorite dozen songs for the week ahead. Good times.

Motorola CDMA phone

Désiré Athow, Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

My first phone was a CDMA model from Motorola. I don't recollect the actual series but given that it was around 1995 and in an African country, good luck finding it! It had a tiny monochrome screen, mushy buttons and was a candybar model. It was built like a tank though and would take a few hits and bumps over its short lifetime before. Calls were expensive back then - 1000 talk time minutes would cost around a month's salary - so it was used primarily for texting. No games, no video calls, life was simpler back then. 

LG C1100

Tom Bedford, Staff Writer

It feels like only last month I last wrote about my first ever phone, the LG C1100 - and that's because it was, when I wrote a eulogy for it after LG Mobile bit the dust. I look back at it fondly, though I also remember being really desperate to upgrade to a smartphone, so maybe it wasn't as good as I remember - I wish I could find the charger to find out. Oh well, I still love flip phones. 

• LG phones are over: our memories of its top phones from the last 25 years

LG Cookie

Axel Metz, Staff Writer

The LG Cookie – what can I say? The coolest bit of kit on the high school circuit back in 2010, Cookie owners were the envy of every flip-phone-toting, physical keyboard-clicking student during my formative years. Of course, in hindsight, the Cookie wasn't all that spectacular. In fact, LG used it to target the entry-level touchscreen market by keeping the cost of the device as low as possible. That scrimping resulted in a 3-inch, 240 x 400 pixel touchscreen powered by an ARM9E CPU with a clock rate of 175 MHz. It also had a 3.15 MP camera capable of capturing videos at 12 frame/s, and no flash option. Pretty impressive, right? No, not really, but the LG Cookie still occupies a space in the fond memories of millennials the world over. It may as well be renamed the LG Culture.

• Read our LG Cookie review

Today's best deals on top phones

Pour one out for the LG Rollable - its January unveiling kicked off 2021 with excitement and curiosity, and everyone was anticipating its launch... until April when LG announced it was leaving the smartphone business.

We're sorry to say, then, that the LG Rollable almost certainly won't go on sale ever. While this hasn't been explicitly confirmed, it's all but guaranteed seeing as the rollable smartphone's creators don't exist anymore.

Sure, there are a few other rollable phones that might launch - the Oppo X 2021  might get a follow-up, and TCL has explicitly confirmed it's launching a rolling or folding smartphone in 2021. So it's not the end for this kind of form factor, just a sad occurrence for the LG Rollable.

Below you'll find all the leaks, news and rumors that we'd heard about the LG Rollable prior to its likely cancellation, so while it will probably never launch, you can get a clear idea of what might have been.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? LG's first rollable smartphone
• When is it out? Probably never
• How much will it cost? A leak suggests $2,359 (around £1,775, AU$3,130)

LG Rollable release date and price

Sadly, it looks like the LG Rollable has died with LG's smartphone business. The company has confirmed that it's no longer making phones, which presumably includes the LG Rollable.

The only slight hope we have that it might launch stems from rumors that the LG Rollable was set to be announced sometime in early 2021 - in other words, that it's very nearly finished, so wouldn't take much work for LG to send it out into the world.

It had even recently been spotted in a Bluetooth SIG certification, which typically happens close to launch.

But even before LG officially exited the smartphone market, there had been whispers of it abandoning the project.

Indeed, sources previously claimed that LG had told its suppliers that the Rollable has been put on hold, though LG responded to this saying that it hasn't finalized any decision about the project. Not being 'finalized' though leaves the possibility of cancellation open.

As for the price - if it ever launches - a source claims that the LG Rollable will cost $2,359 (roughly £1,775, AU$3,130), which would make it even more expensive than the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2. But then this is an entirely new type of phone, so whether or not this price is right, it’s sure to cost a lot.

Still, there might soon be a bunch of rollable phones, as both TCL and Oppo are also working on rollable handsets. These more seem to be in the concept stages right now so probably aren’t as far along as LG’s, but once there’s competition in the market, prices could quickly drop.

LG Rollable news, leaks and rumors

The biggest LG Rollable news comes from LG itself, which has shown how the phone looks from the front – along with how it looks when it’s changing size. You can see all of that in the GIF above.

In short, it starts out looking like an ordinary smartphone, but the top (when held in landscape) can extend upwards to create a small tablet. There doesn’t appear to be a visible front-facing camera, which could be because this isn’t the finished form of the device, or might perhaps mean it’s built into the screen.

We’ve previously seen a very similar design in an LG patent, an image of which can be seen above, but in the patent, two sides of the phone could extend and retract, whereas in LG’s teaser we only see one side do this. That might mean only one side will on the finished phone, but it’s equally possible that both will and that LG simply chose to only show one.

As for the specs, one report suggests that the LG Rollable will have a 7.4-inch screen when fully extended, and a 6.8-inch one when not.

A South Korean forum post spotted by LetsGoDigital says the same, but also includes the images you can see below (which are similar to what LG has now shown) and an additional detail – that the resolution at 7.4 inches will apparently be 1600 x 2428, while at 6.8 inches it will apparently be 1080 x 2428.

Another source similarly claims that the LG Rollable will have a 7.4-inch screen, along with a top-end Snapdragon 888 chipset, 16GB of RAM, and a 4,200mAh battery.

With all these leaks pointing to the same screen size, we’d say that aspect is likely accurate, and a Snapdragon 888 chipset is very likely too, as that’s expected to be the main flagship phone chipset of 2021.

• Read our full LG Wing 5G review

LG might have announced that it’s leaving the phones industry, but it isn’t bidding farewell to its customers just yet. In fact, the company has stated that it will be sticking around to provide three years worth of Android OS updates for its existing range of Android phones.

The news comes from LG itself, where it states upfront that its “three OS update guarantee” will apply to its lineup of G series, V series, Velvet and Wing premium smartphones released in 2019 or later. 

Phones that LG released in 2020, including the K series and LG Stylo, will receive two years worth of Android updates, with the caveat that future updates will largely depend on Google’s own distribution schedule.

• Best LG phones: which LG smartphones are the best?
• 5 truly wild LG phone innovations and why they failed
• A history of every LG flagship Android phone

LG concluded that it will continue to manufacture its phones through Q2 2021 “to meet contractual obligations to carriers and partners,” additionally stating that customers looking to purchase an LG smartphone still have the time to do so, safe in the knowledge that support and software updates will roll out for at least the next couple of years. 

Gone but not forgotten

LG leaving the mobile business came as a somewhat sporadic announcement, but the company had reportedly lost around $4.5 billion over a six year period. LG previously said that the mobile business had proven “incredibly competitive.” 

LG will instead now focus on its other sectors where it has identified growth, including electric vehicle components, smart home devices and robotics among others. So yes, you’ll still be able to purchase that shiny new LG OLED TV you’ve had your eyes on.

LG may have exited the mobile sector the hard way, but the company certainly had a unique and memorable path through it. LG is at least leaving smartphones behind on a high note, with the LG Wing 5G leaving a uniquely lasting impression.

Fancy a trip down the LG memory lane? We’ve put together a feature showcasing LG’s trip through the mobile business over the years, from genuinely innovative devices to the downright strange.

• New LG OLED TVs are 'glare free' - but does that matter?

It's the end of the road for LG smartphones, but we'll always have the memories: the company released a whole host of mobile devices down the years, so we're going to take the opportunity to take a look back at some of the highlights of past LG flagships.

There are more of them than you might think – LG consistently released new models for its G series and V series phones every year, and there were plenty of variations and a few one-offs along the way, all the way up to the swivel-screen LG Wing launched in 2020.

• Check out the best Android phones on the market
• All the best smartphones you can get right now

Whether you've owned an LG handset in the past few years or not, join us on this trip down memory lane, as we start at the LG Optimus LG from 2012. You can chart a large part of the history of smartphones in general through the handsets that we've covered below.

We can't cover every single LG phone in this article – there have been a lot of them down the years, and a lot of variants too – so we'll focus on the main G series handsets with occasional diversions. Be sure to also check out some of our favorite older LG phones.

LG Optimus G (2012)

We start with the LG Optimus G in 2012, not the first Optimus-branded handset from the company, but the very start of the G series. It was well received and sold in substantial quantities too, and its look isn't drastically different from the smartphones of today.

Its internal specs are quite different from what we're used to now however, as you would expect – the LG Optimus G was powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, 2GB of RAM, and a maximum of 32GB of internal storage. There was a single-lens 13MP camera on the back for photo and video duties.

The phone came with a 4.7-inch, 768 x 1280 pixel display, and came running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Impressed by its design and its speed, we gave the phone 4 stars out of 5 in our review at the time.

LG G2 (2013)

The LG G series began in earnest with the LG G2, which went up against the likes of the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4 in 2013. We gave it 4.5 stars out of 5 in our review, very much liking the quality of the screen and the single-lens 13MP rear camera.

Under the hood we had the very first 800 series chip from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 800. That was paired with 2GB of RAM and up to 32MB of internal storage, the same as on this handset's predecessor.

The screen size got a boost over the previous year's model, with LG upping it to a 5.2-inch, 1080 x 1920 IPS LCD screen – as we said, one of our favorite parts of the LG G2 experience. The phone came with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean on board, and you might remember there was also a mini version.

Nexus 5 (2013)

The Nexus 5 was sold by Google but manufactured by LG (as the Nexus 4 had been), so it gets a mention here. In the entire history of the Nexus/Pixel series, this could well be the highlight in terms of what you get in return for your money.

Despite being very affordable at the time, the Nexus 5 boasted a lovely 4.95-inch screen, a Snapdragon 800 processor, and great results in terms of photos and videos too. It also had a feature we very much miss – the full color notification light.

This being a Google-backed phone it had the very latest Android 4.4 KitKat software on board when it launched. It earned itself 4.5 stars out of 5 in our review back in 2013, with the handset's look, feel and speed marked out for special praise.

LG G3 (2014)

The LG G3 was a really, really good phone – this is around the peak of the LG G series, when it was still giving the likes of Apple and Samsung some serious competition. We awarded it 4.5 out of 5 stars in our review, with the display again one of the highlights.

This time around the display was a 5.5-inch, 1440 x 2560 pixel IPS LCD affair, which was large and very sharp for the time. LG has always excelled with its screens, whether we're talking phones or TVs, and the LG G3 fitted into that pattern. On the back of the phone was a single-lens 13MP rear camera, which was one of the first to use laser autofocus.

The handset came running Android 4.4.2 KitKat, the processor was upped to the Snapdragon 801, the maximum RAM option got a boost to 3GB, and again the internal storage topped out at 32GB. A cheaper LG G3 S was also available.

LG G4 (2015)

It was in 2015 that Samsung started to move away from removable batteries, but LG stuck with the idea with the LG G4. It also came running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, and sported a 5.5-inch, 1440 x 2560 pixel IPS LCD display.

On the back there was a single-lens 16MP rear camera, while powering the whole show we had a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage out of the box, which isn't a huge upgrade on the previous year.

In our review we scored the phone 4 out of 5 stars, saying that it offered a lot in terms of its display, its camera, and its internal specs. This was the LG phone where several different back casing options were available, including a leather one.

LG G Flex 2 (2015)

A quick diversion to the LG G Flex 2 from the same year as the LG G4. The first LG G Flex in 2013 was something of an experiment, but the LG G Flex 2 follow-up was a serious smartphone, with one rather unusual selling point in particular: a curved screen.

Long before Samsung and others were putting foldable screens on phones, LG was adding curved displays. In this case it was a 5.5-inch, 1080 x 1920 pixel curved OLED panel, while the other specs were along similar lines to the LG G4.

The curved screen idea never really took hold despite LG's best efforts, and we gave the smartphone 4 stars out of 5 in our review: "the LG G Flex 2 is both trendy-looking and powerful" we wrote at the time.

LG V10 (2015)

LG also kicked off the V series of phones in 2015. From the beginning, they tried to offer something a little different – in this case, a dual-lens selfie camera, wireless charging and a strange little secondary display above the first one.

That strip of a second display was intended for notifications and app shortcuts, and it was actually pretty useful. For its various innovations we gave the phone 4 stars out of 5 in our review, and the V series would go through a lot of evolutions over the years.

In terms of the bulk of the phone's features and specs, it was along similar lines to the LG G4, although it came with a slightly bigger screen – and perhaps significantly, it cost a lot more than the G series phone too.

LG G5 (2016)

With the LG G5, LG bet big on a modular approach, with extra add-ons improving the audio quality, the camera capabilities, and more. It was a bet that never really paid off, although we did give the phone 4.5 stars out of 5 in our review.

Besides the add-on modules, the phone came with a Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Around the back, photo and video duties were taken care of with a single-lens 16MP rear camera.

The LG G5 had a 5.3-inch, 1440 x 2650 pixel IPS LCD display panel which was, as usual for the G series, one of the highlights of the phone. In terms of the software, the handset arrived running Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

LG G6 (2017)

The LG G6 saw LG going back to smartphone basics, but in a premium way: the phone had a stunning 5.7-inch, 1440 x 2880 pixel IPS LCD screen with an unusual 18:9 aspect ratio, full IP68 waterproofing, and a minimal but stylish design.

The phone was powered with a Snapdragon 821 processor, 4GB of RAM, and up to 64GB of internal storage. The software on board was Android 7.0 Nougat, while the rear camera was a single-lens 13MP snapper.

In our review of the LG G6, we praised the screen (again) and the new look, awarding the handset a respectable 4 stars out of 5. There was also a slightly more powerful LG G6 Plus version that you might remember.

LG G7 ThinQ (2018)

With the LG G7, we got the rather confusing ThinQ moniker for the first time on the G series (it had previously shown up on a V series phone). To this day we're not sure what purpose it's serving, but it's apparently something to do with artificial intelligence.

The LG G7 ran on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, with up to 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage – substantial upgrades from the previous year. There was a 6.1-inch, 1440 x 3120 pixel IPS LCD screen, and Android 8.0 Oreo on board. The rear camera was a dual-lens model for the first time on the G series: 16MP+16MP.

In our review, we suggested the LG G7 was a bit too safe and conservative for its own good – although, surprise surprise, we liked the display. We also liked the boombox speaker effect the phone could generate, giving it 3.5 stars out of 5 in total.

LG G8 ThinQ (2019)

With the LG G8 ThinQ we got an OLED panel on an LG G series phone for the first time – a 6.1-inch, 1440 x 3120 pixel affair with a stretched 19.5:9 aspect ratio. We also had a Snapdragon 855 processor, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

The rear camera was a dual-lens 12MP+16MP model (in the US), and the software on board when the phone launched was Android 9.0 Pie. It also had a rather strange hand unlock feature that has never been seen since.

A great phone on paper, but somehow not enough to get LG back on track. In our review, we gave the handset 3 stars out of 5 and called it a device with "ambitious ideas that don't pan out" – which perhaps sums up the entire history of LG smartphones. It was the end of the line for the G series.

LG G8X ThinQ (2019)

A quick mention of the LG G8X ThinQ before we say goodbye to the G series: it came with a dual screen accessory case that was in some ways an alternative to the pricey foldable phones that were starting to emerge, giving users double the room in terms of display.

As was often the case with LG phones, it was a nice idea that never fully worked in practice. In our review we gave the handset 4 stars out of 5, praising the various uses for the dual screen setup – like gaming – while admitting that they were pretty niche.

It's certainly hard to fault LG in terms of ideas. As far as the specs and features go, the phone was very similar to the main LG G8, although it came running newer software and had a bigger 6.4-inch display.

LG Velvet (2020)

The G series gave way to what we assume would have been the materials series, had it continued: the LG Velvet name was intended to convey quality and style, but overall it didn't quite land, getting 3.5 stars out of 5 in our review.

The phone arrived with Android 10 on board, and packs in a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G processor, up to 8GB of RAM, and up to 128GB of internal storage. Around the back we've got a triple-lens 48MP+5MP+5MP rear camera, and there's 5G connectivity too.

This is a big phone: the OLED screen is 6.8 inches from corner to corner, running at a resolution of 1080 x 2460 pixels. The LG Velvet was a good phone, like many LG flagships before it, but it wasn't quite good enough.

LG V60 ThinQ (2020)

The last of the V series handsets was the LG V60 ThinQ (there's that ThinQ branding again), and it certainly went out on a high in terms of the design and specs – this is a fine-looking, powerful handset, and the dual screen accessory that we first saw with the LG G8X makes a return too.

The screen is a 6.8-inch, 1080 x 2460 pixel OLED affair, while under the hood there's a Snapdragon 865 processor, up to 12GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of internal storage. The rear camera is a triple-lens 64MP+13MP+0.3MP model, and the phone arrived with Android 10 on board too.

In our review we gave it 4 stars out of 5, and called it "the most refined flagship we've seen from LG" – though once again it was "clunkier in execution" than a lot of its rivals, which is a problem that LG ultimately couldn't get over with its smartphones.

LG Wing (2020)

Finally, a mention for the LG Wing – another innovative handset from LG that showed just how good the company was at coming up with ideas for phones that in the end only had limited appeal for consumers.

In our review we gave it 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "a lovely attempt to bring something new and, crucially, more affordable than its folding counterparts" – while at the same time admitting that it wasn't clear who exactly it was for.

The swivel-screen phone has two OLED displays – a 3.9-inch one and a 6.8-inch one – and comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G processor, 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage on board. It debuted with Android 10, and has a triple-lens 64MP+13MP+12MP rear camera on the back.

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LG has confirmed its plans to leave the smartphone business, so we won't be seeing any future Android phones from the company, but it has confirmed some handsets are set to get Android 12 software.

On the company's Korean website, LG has confirmed it will continue to support its recent handsets with the scheduled Android 11 upgrades, and that some devices will even get the upcoming Android 12 software.

Which exact models will get upgraded to 2021's Android 12 software is currently unclear, and the company has yet to confirm a schedule for those updates either.

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If you do own an LG phone, you can find the company's current upgrade plans on its German website but that is only for information on Android 11.

Those with the LG Velvet 5G will get Android 11 by the end of this month (April 2021), while those with an LG G8X, LG Velvet 4G, LG G8S, LG Wing, LG K52 or LG K42 will get an upgrade by the end of this year.

Your phone's carrier and where you live may also dictate when you see the upgrade to your software.

While LG hasn't confirmed the devices getting Android 12, you can expect it to be a similar list to the above, with certain models missing the cut-off point. LG is only likely to upgrade its most recent devices - like the Velvet or the Wing - to Google's upcoming software.

• LG phones are over - our memories of its handsets

Via GSMArena

Earlier this week, LG announced that it has quit making smartphones and that means it has cancelled upcoming devices like the LG Rollable. A new leak has suggested it wasn't the only device to be axed.

According to a new leak, the company had been readying an LG V70 that sported a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset.

As spotted by leaker Mukul Sharma, the LG V70 has now been listed on the AI-Benchmark website, which is a portal that tests a phone's AI capabilities across a multitude of tests before providing a score. 

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The LG V70 - or whatever the phone would have been called when it was released - is the highest-ranked Snapdragon 888 smartphone on the list, sitting below the Huawei Mate 40 Pro's Kirin 9000 platform.

The LG V70 listed here has 8GB of RAM and ran on Android 11 in its prototype stage. It may have been the company would have changed some specs, or included Android 12 software when the phone officially landed.

Previous reports from Korea stated that the development of the LG V70, codenamed “Rainbow”, was halted abruptly in February, with the original market launch planned for March. If that is to be believed, the LG V70 launch was probably not too far away.

Getting listed on benchmarking platforms usually means that a phone is close to being fully ready, even if its launch might be far. The LG V70 could have been the company’s first Snapdragon 888 smartphone, as the LG G9 was rumored to be a mid-range device this year. 

We had also been expecting an LG Velvet 2 and perhaps a successor to the LG Wing. This news from LG means we won't be seeing any of these smartphones in the wild in the future.

The closure of LG’s entire mobile business unit doesn’t mean that its existing customers will be left stranded, as the company has promised service support and software updates for its current portfolio. Any remaining stock will still be available in stores and online. 

• 5 truly wild LG phone innovations – and why they failed

Update: LG has officially quit the phone business. While not entirely surprising, it does bring an end to a legacy of novel and interesting phones that didn't quite capture consumer interest and change the market. Here's their most interesting flops:

Get ready to pour one out: rumor has it that LG will finally announce that it’s leaving the phones business entirely in the coming days. It’s no secret that the company’s smartphone sales haven’t been stellar in recent years, but if it does pull the plug, we’ll lose out on a phonemaker has continued to push the form and function of today’s handsets.

Granted, few of LG’s experiments have made a big impact on the phones industry: its most exciting designs just seemed to prove how intractable the ‘black rectangle’ standard for smartphones has become. The market has proven that consumers will largely buy phones in a single format that’s been honed to a high finish in the better part of the last decade; any new designs are held to that standard, and their deviation is held against them.

Then again, LG”s more exciting models simply haven’t delivered the polish that consumers have come to expect. 

Here's the 5 models and their interesting innovations that didn't land with consumers.

LG Wing 5G

The swing-out design of the 2020 LG Wing 5G is a truly novel: use it like a normal phone until you need more screen, and then flip out a half-sized bonus display for small tasks (texting, quick online searches, navigation) while keeping the main screen playing media or whatnot.

But in practice, it’s tougher to wrangle apps on the extra display than it is on leading single-screen iOS and Android phones, making it easier to just switch between apps on the latter than struggle with the unpolished UX on the former. That makes all the difference.

Dual Screen (LG V60 / G8X)

The dual screen accessory for the 2020 LG V60 and 2019 LG G8X is a lower-tech yet affordable alternative to expensive foldable phones: get a second screen that plugs into your main phone and can essentially be used to run two apps at once (or, in rare cases, one app across both screens). And unlike the Microsoft Duo, you can pull either phone out of the Dual Screen accessory and use it as a fully-functional handset.

But the accessory simply didn't catch on: perhaps, without the flash of the next-gen seamless foldable design, the Dual Screen wasn't appealing enough. More likely, multi-screen appeal just hasn't grown enough to whet consumer appetites. It doesn't help that the implementation wasn't quite polished enough to let users intuitively swap apps with finger gestures (there's some menu finagling first).

LG G5: modular ends

The LG G5 featured modules that let you swap out the phone’s endcap for a camera grip or 360 camera –like Moto Mods, but switching out parts of the actual handset. And like Motorola's add-ons, they weren't exactly revolutionary and didn't add must-have functionality to differentiate the phone from others on the market. 

Also, the LG G5 was probably one of the last phones to offer a removable battery to swap out for a spare, but at the time we disliked the removable backplate and preferred seamless phone designs.

LG V50: vein-tracking aerial gestures

The LG V50 was one of the first phones to add 5G connectivity when it launched in 2019, but that wasn't its selling point: it recognized in-air hand gestures via a suite of sensors alongside the front-facing camera. These supposedly tracked hand motions by tracking your veins, which is as fascinating as it is eerie.

Unfortunately, the gesture recognition wasn't too accurate, and it didn't enable much in the way of controls, either. 

LG G4: leather back, 'knock code' unlocking

The LG G4 had a curved display, optional svelte leather back (and not at sportscar edition prices), and a ‘knock code’ let you unlock the phone by tapping the screen in a specific pattern. Or at least that was how the ‘knock code’ concept should have worked, but its implementation never seemed to work as advertised, and the industry-standard fingerprint scanner found on competing iPhones and Android handsets were simpler and easier to use. 

LG G10

Not all of these experiments were wacky divergences from modern smartphone design, either – many attempted to solve common frustrations with quirks that didn’t quite innovate enough. The LG V10 added a secondary 2.1-inch display above the main screen dedicated to notifications and shortcuts, which kept the primary display clear when watching movies or when it was locked.

The secondary display was narrow and, while a border between the screens would have been unsightly, it was tough to find where one ended and the other began, making it harder to flip through apps up top.

Novel innovation, but unsatisfying execution

That might be the summation of most of LG’s experiments: novel concepts, but the execution isn’t fluidly intuitive enough to lure folks away from the status quo. 

But that’s a pithy observation which ignores the market’s history: while the LG G2 reigned supreme in 2012, the company faced fierce competition from Samsung and HTC handsets, so it tried adding new quirks to stand out. If there’s anything LG is guilty of, it’s retaining this experimental mindset while the Android landscape quietly shifted to coalesce around a single design – the ‘black rectangle’ of edge-to-edge screen, single selfie camera in a notch/punch-hole, and multiple rear cameras on an otherwise unblemished back cover.

While the LG G6 follows this trend, by the time it came out in early 2017, this model was being undercut by cheaper iterations of the black rectangle by Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, and OnePlus. We know how that’s played out – and latter-day LG flagships, even solid ones like the LG V60, just haven’t offered enough for their price relative to these more affordable competitors to stand out in the marketplace.

It makes sense that LG would continue to try new designs like the Dual Screen and LG Wing, hoping for a novel yet cheap alternative to flashy foldable phones that would really connect with consumers. It turns out that the flat full main display of your average smartphone has been refined enough that new designs are now a bit too alien, which is a sad reality.

And that shouldn’t discount LG phones’ more mundane innovations that did end up changing the course of phone design. The LG G3 debuted one of the first Quad HD resolution (1440 x 2560) displays and Qi wireless charging, while the aforementioned V10 also debuted dual front-facing cameras enabling ultra-wide selfies.

If LG’s phone division goes quietly into that dark night, we’ll probably be in store for more of the same for years to come. But at least there are some among us who will remember the strides that companies used to make experimenting with phones – and making them fun, too.

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LG has official quit making phones today, according to an official press release, so we won't see new LG smartphones in 2021. This announcement isn't going to surprise anyone in the mobile space, as the move has been rumored for several weeks.

This means two things. First, we won't see phones like the rumored LG V70 ThinQ, LG G10 or LG Velvet 2, as the company is closing its entire mobile business unit. We probably won't see the LG Rollable the company teased at CES 2021 and confirmed would be released in 2021, either. LG calls the move a "strategic decision to exit the incredibly competitive mobile phone sector."

Second, LG says this means it'll be free to focus resources on growth areas, citing a whole list of sectors where its brand is better positioned: "electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence and business-to-business solutions, as well as platforms and services."

In the statement, LG reveals it'll "leverage its mobile expertise and develop mobility-related technologies such as 6G" just as most people are getting 5G phones.

What will happen to current LG phones?

The good news is that if you own an LG phone or want to buy one – say the LG V60 or LG Velvet – you'll be covered. Both current LG phone inventory will remain on sale in stores and online, and service support and software updates will continue for existing LG phone customers. There just won't be any new LG smartphones going forward.

LG says the wind down of its mobile phone business is expected to be completed by July 31, although you'll probably still be able to buy an LG phone after that date.

Take a look back at 5 truly wild LG phone innovations – and why they failed. It was a company that often pushed the envelope of smartphones – better selfie cameras (LG V10), a focus on ultra-wide camera before many others (LG G6) and innovative video camera controls that others eventually copied (LG V30).

But it didn't always go in the right direction to connect with customers – attempted innovations like modular phones (LG G5), flexible displays (LG G Flex 2), leather backs (LG G4), gimmicky motion sensors (LG G8), and dual screens (LG G8X) were tepidly received.

It also never had the competitive strength to offer better prices at the carrier level in key regions like the US, when Samsung and Apple consistently beat it on deals. LG phones started the 2010s with very popular phones like the LG G2, but by the end, its handsets just couldn't stand out in the crowd – and experiments like the LG Wing 5G or Dual Screen on the LG G8X/LG V60 just didn't draw consumers in like foldable phones. 

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Things don’t look good for LG’s smartphone business. There have been rumors of its demise for months now, and “industry sources” now claim the decision to stop making phones has been made.

These sources – speaking to The Korea Times – said “LG has considered various options such as a sale, split sales or pulling out of the smartphone business, but decided recently to pull out of the business."

The official announcement that LG’s pulling out of the smartphone business will apparently come at the company’s board meeting on Monday (April 5) – which is something we’d previously heard from another source.

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Every possibility is open - but one seems likely

Not so long ago the company had denied claims that it might be quitting smartphones, but in a comment to The Korea Times it sounded a lot less certain, with an LG official saying “all we can say is that every possibility is open. Although we cannot confirm that right now, we will announce the specific direction of our mobile communications business."

While we can’t be sure of anything until we hear it direct from LG, we should know one way or another on Monday, but at the moment things certainly don’t sound promising.

LG has struggled to compete in the smartphone industry in recent years, but it used to be a significant player, and even now it’s responsible for some of the most interesting and innovative phones, such as the LG Wing 5G, and the LG Rollable – the latter of which might never now be released.

If LG does make any sort of announcement about this on Monday, TechRadar will be sure to cover it, so head back here then to find out whether you can expect any more LG phones.

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Via BGR

LG may be set to announce its exit from the smartphone market next week, according to a new leak.

We've heard a variety of reports recently that LG is looking to shut down its smartphone business, and according to this new information we'll be hearing directly from the company early next week.

Phone leaker Tron - a source who has had correct information in the past on LG products like the LG Rollable - says that the company is planning to make an announcement on Monday during South Korean time.

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If this report is true, it likely means we won't be seeing the LG Rollable later in the year and we're unlikely to hear of expected phones like the LG Velvet 2 or the LG Wing 2 at a later date.

Tron also suggests that this will impact the software updates on existing LG phones, so if you own a device from the company you may see updates to the phone essentially halted in the coming months.

It's thought LG has been seeking a company to buy the LG smartphone division, but it seems that those talks have failed.

The leak also says that the 4,000 employees working on LG's smartphone business will be moved to other parts of the company.

LG has made mobile phones since the late 1990s, and it moved into making smartphones in 2010.

Clearer next week

This is yet another leak in a long line of information about LG shuttering its smartphone business. The company has stated in the past that it wasn't set to do this, but LG has yet to comment on this recent report.

This isn't official information from the company yet and it may be worth taking it with a pinch of salt. We'll be looking for an official statement from LG in the coming days to see if there's any clarity on what the company decides to do.

• The best LG phones you can buy today

LG has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently. While the company has showcased its innovative LG Rollable phone, the main topic of discussion has been the brand potentially looking to shut down its smartphone business.

Last we heard the company was in talks with Vietnamese company Vingroup and Volkswagen to sell off its mobile business. However, according to a report from South Korean publication dongA, both of these discussions have failed and the only option left for LG is to quit the market.

The publication states that the reason behind the unsuccessful discussions could be LG’s high asking price for the 1% market share it commands. These reports, however, have been contradicting the official comments made by an LG exec, who rubbished rumors around LG winding down its mobile business.

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A rapid decline

LG had a confident start to the year, riding on the wow factor offered by the LG Wing 5G that debuted late last year. The company was bullish about launching a couple of other interesting devices like the LG Rollable and another flagship-level device codenamed Rainbow.

However, mounting losses may have caused a major dent in LG’s plans. The company - which has a minuscule share in the global smartphone market - had already outsourced the manufacturing of its mid-range and low-end devices to Chinese companies, so it could focus on premium devices.

Incidentally, the LG Rollable recently received Bluetooth certification even though it was rumored that the company had already shelved the project. While Rainbow, the LG Velvet successor, has reportedly been delayed indefinitely. The dongA report states that as things stand now, both of these devices may never see the light of the day.

We wouldn't take any of this as confirmed until we hear it direct from LG, so don't count the company out yet, but based on the available information the situation certainly doesn't sound promising. We've contacted LG for comment, and will update this article if and when we hear back.

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The LG Rollable was first teased late last year, and it seems the phone is one step closer to reality with a new certification that suggests the handset will be ready for market in the near future.

The LG Rollable has been spotted receiving its Bluetooth SIG certification, which is usually a step a smartphone goes through when it's close to being released.

This doesn't give us much more detail about the smartphone or when we'll be seeing it, but it's a shot of confidence for those who were uncertain if the LG Rollable would ever see the light of day.

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Earlier in 2021, a note sent to LG employees suggested the company was eyeing a potential exit from the phones market. That threw the release of the LG Rollable and any upcoming LG phones into a state of flux.

LG's global head of corporate communications, Ken Hong, has previously called these rumors "completely false and without merit”. This new Bluetooth certification doesn't confirm that, but it's a big hint that there are more LG phones to come.

The SIG certification includes the name LG Rollable, and the device's model number which is LM-R910N, as well as the wording of "End Product" that suggests it's almost ready to be available on shop shelves.

When will we hear more about the LG Rollable? There's no telling when LG will be releasing its first rollable smartphone, but it may be we hear about it in the next couple of months if it's already ready for this element of the certification process.

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Via XDA Developers

Update: In a statement to The Verge, LG denied it has delayed or cancelled the LG Rollable with a spokesperson saying "I can firmly deny that any such decision on future mobile products has been finalized." However, this comment leaves open the possibility that a decision to cancel the LG Rollable could be finalized in the future.

Original story: Yet another rumor suggests that the LG Rollable may have been delayed, if not cancelled outright. 

LG has allegedly told its suppliers, including those providing displays, that the rollable project has been put on hold, according to Yonhap News.

The Rollable was dramatically unveiled at the online-only CES 2021, and subsequently confirmed a 2021 release date – but weeks later, we heard that the device might be cancelled. These uneven rumors make us wonder if the LG Rollable is coming out this year after all.

Which hasn’t meant the end of LG Rollable news, as we just heard about more patents that could regard the upcoming unfurling device. The latest patent looks a lot like the model we saw on the virtual CES 2021 stage, but it could end up being an alternative design.

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LG Rollable – the nail in the coffin?

If the LG Rollable ends up cancelled, that might be the end of LG’s endeavors releasing phones, as we heard last month that the company was considering selling its smartphone business.

If that happens, LG may still be in the smartphone industry, if only to make display panels for iPhones. That'd be a sad turn of events given all the work they seemingly put in to making a rollable phone happen. Butm if so, we’ve still got the TCL Rollable supposedly coming, along with a Samsung rollable phone potentially on the way, too.

Via Android Police

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Despite claims that the LG Rollable may not end up going on sale after all, patents for the foldable phone keep getting published, showing variants on the design for the device. A new design is seemingly pretty similar to LG’s other Rollable patent we saw recently with a few subtle differences, though don’t get your hopes up for a release anytime soon.

MySmartPrice claims to have discovered the patent - which was filed by LG Electronics with CNIPA (China National Intellectual Property Administration) - at the beginning of 2020 and only released to the public on February 12, 2021. However, given how long ago the patent was filed it doesn’t contradict reports that LG is leaving the smartphone market. 

Both designs feature a rear-facing second display - though rather than taking up most of the back with a large cutout for the cameras, the new patent shows a much thinner screen. The patent also shows side buttons on the phone’s casing, which were missing from the previous design.

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What will happen to LG’s patents? 

Even if LG diverts its business priorities away from smartphones, it would still own any patents it’s been awarded. LG could then choose to sell or license its patented designs if it wanted to, getting paid by anyone who wants to use them in their own products.

Alternatively, LG could hold onto its designs, either because it someday plans to return to smartphones or wants to implement the ideas into rollable displays for non-smartphone products.

What's most likely, though, is that these were alternative versions of the LG Rollable that the company decided against. For each new product, a company will test multiple versions of it, and only decide on one - perhaps this was a version of LG's rolling device that didn't make the cut. 

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LG has been granted a new patent for a rollable smartphone, which appears to reveal new details about the LG Rollable phone that the company is currently developing.

From what we know currently, the LG Rollable will feature a rolling screen rather than a foldable screen like we’ve seen from competitors like Samsung and Huawei. The idea behind this is to prevent creasing of the screen when stored away for lengthy periods of time.

The patent gives us a glimpse of some other key details about the device that weren’t previously known, including its dual display. As well as the main rollable display, the LG Rollable could feature a more general purpose display on the back of the phone so you won’t always need to unfurl it to answer a phone call or do some other tasks.

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So how will it work?

The rollable display will be able to automatically unravel thanks to a motorized mechanism inside the phone. Looking at the patent, we can see that the smaller screen on the back of the device wraps around the camera. The camera itself looks to take up a decent chunk of real estate away from the screen, though.

Interestingly, there are no physical buttons in any of the patent’s imagery. It’s unlikely the final device will be missing those buttons, though.

The camera module shown off in the patent has three lenses. This is a clear update to patents for the LG Rollable we’ve seen in the past, where no cameras were visible at all.

There’s no guarantee that this patent will be reflective of the final product we see for the LG Rollable, but it seems likely that this is a similar phone, so we’re likely to see at least some implementation of this tech in the final product.

So far, reports have suggested that the LG Rollable will be released in March 2021, with impressive specs such as a 7.4-inch screen when fully rolled out, offering a 1600 x 2428 resolution, as well as a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset and 16GB of RAM.

All this great tech certainly won’t come cheap, though. One source claims the device will cost an eye-watering $2,359 (about £1,750, AU$3,000), so here’s hoping that early adopters get good value for that price tag.

• CES 2021 convinced me rollable phones are the next big frontier

We were very taken with the LG Rollable that was shown off very briefly at CES 2021, and LG had promised to bring the innovative handset to the smartphone market at some point in 2021 – a promise that might end up not being kept.

Sources speaking to the Korea Herald say that LG might end up abandoning the project in the coming months, amid doubts about the company's long-term commitment to the smartphone market in general.

Earlier this week reports emerged that LG might have had enough of dealing in smartphones and was planning an exit, a major move that the company had gone on the record to deny just a few days previously.

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Officially LG has told the Korea Herald that it's "open to every possibility" when it comes to its rollable smartphone, and those possibilities apparently include pulling the plug on it. LG is said to have been disappointed by sales of the Wing smartphone, another handset that takes an usual approach in terms of form factor.

Keep on rolling

It's possible that LG might call an end to its smartphone business while keeping the LG Rollable rolling as a sort of side project. Judging by the latest report, the future of both the rollable phone and LG phones in general is still up in the air at this point.

Rumors of an LG smartphone with a screen that rolled open have been swirling since at least November, so this is something that's been in the pipeline for a while. LG uses rollable display technology in some of its high-end television sets, and those pieces of hardware are already on sale.

Rollable phones would make for an interesting alternative to folding handsets, but another issue around this technology is the price – any future LG Rollable device is not going to be cheap, which makes LG's hesitancy about putting it on sale even more understandable.

Prices will come down eventually, and even if the LG Rollable never properly sees the light of day, other rollable phones are likely to come along to fill any gap that's left. TCL is one company that's confirmed that it's working on a rollable phone for 2021.

• CES 2021 convinced me rollable phones are the next big frontier

Via Pocketnow

Despite making innovative and interesting phones like the LG Wing 5G and the upcoming LG Rollable, LG has struggled to compete in the smartphone market in recent years, and has now revealed that it’s considering giving up on phones.

That’s according to the Korea Herald, which has seen a note sent to employees from the company’s CEO, Kwon Bong-seok. While the note didn’t go so far as to say that LG was definitely abandoning the smartphone business, it did apparently say that “the company is considering all possible measures, including sale, withdrawal and downsizing of the smartphone business.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard talk that LG might quit the smartphone business, but just a few days earlier LG's global head of corporate communications, Ken Hong, called the rumors "completely false and without merit” so this seems like quite a sudden turnaround.

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A tiny share of the market

It would make sense for LG to mull its options though, as according to StatCounter, LG’s smartphone market share in December stood at just 1.7%.

While the smartphone industry might be booming, it really only seems to be a few companies that are significantly benefiting, with Samsung and Apple being among the major premium players, while Chinese brands like Oppo and OnePlus sell phones at prices that LG can’t compete with.

Still, it seems no decision has been made yet, so there’s some hope for LG’s smartphone business. Though it’s unlikely the LG Rollable will be its savior, as that’s sure to be a very expensive and probably very niche device.

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Via Engadget

Update: Sources familiar with LG's plans told CNET that the LG Rollable will be coming in 2021, and an LG spokesperson just confirmed to Nikkei that it will be "launched this year."

Original story: We’ve been hearing rumors of the LG Rollable for a while now, but at CES 2021, LG officially confirmed the name of the phone, while also providing a brief glimpse of it in a teaser.

From the teaser you can see something that starts out looking much like a conventional smartphone, but with edges that extend to create a small tablet, as shown in the image above.

This makes it very different in design to a foldable phone then, but the end result is somewhat similar, giving you the option of either a large screen or a smaller one at any given time.

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Lots left to learn

We don’t know anything else about the LG Rollable yet, including when you’ll be able to buy it, but with LG providing a clear view of the front of the phone in a teaser it’s very likely that it will go on sale this year, and possibly sooner rather than later.

Hopefully you’ve been saving though, because a recent leak suggested that the LG Rollable might cost as much as $2,359 (roughly £1,775, AU$3,130).

Still, LG isn’t the only company working on a rollable phone – the Oppo X 2021 concept phone also rolls, as does a concept device from TCL. There’s no guarantee either of those will ever actually go on sale, but sooner or later there are likely to be multiple rollable phones on the market, so hopefully some of them are affordable.

• Check out all of TechRadar's CES 2021 coverage. We're remotely covering the online-only show to bring you all the breaking tech news and launches, plus a smattering of hands-on reviews.

Rumors abound that the LG Rollable is coming, an anticipated 'foldable phone' (in the loosest sense of the word) that can have the screen rolled out to increase its size. We now have an idea of how much that technology could cost, though we wish we didn't.

Rookie leaker @cozyplanes has stated the price of the LG Rollable, as well as its potential release date and a small specs list. It's worth pointing out that while @cozyplanes has leaked a few things now, it's all about upcoming devices, so right now we don't know how valid their information is. Take it with a big pinch of salt.

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According to the leak, the LG Rollable will cost a huge $2,359 (roughly £1,775, AU$3,130). An expensive price tag that, in most countries, sails far past the asking price of other foldables, like the top-cost Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$2,999. Ouch.

The leak also states the phone will be unveiled in March but with the possibility of a delay until June, so it's not too clear when we'll see the device.

LG Rollable specs

The leak provides some specs for the LG Rollable, and while this information is as tentative as the price, it's still something. Apparently, the phone will have a 7.4-inch display - that's likely the size when the screen is unrolled, and we'd imagine it'd be closer to something like 6 inches when rolled up, though that spec isn't mentioned.

According to the leak, the phone will be powered with the new Snapdragon 888 chipset and a whopping 16GB RAM, so it sounds pretty powerful. There's also said to be a 4,200mAh battery, which is a little on the small side.

Some of these specs match an earlier report on the phone, so there could be some truth to them. That report also stated an 'early 2021' release date so maybe we'll see the LG Rollable foldable phone soon, and get validation on this information.

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Via Phonearena

Evidence that LG has a rollable smartphone in the works is growing, as hot on the heels of a patent for just such a device, it’s now been discovered that the company has recently trademarked the name LG Rollable.

Now, with LG already building rollable TVs the name could apply to one of those instead, but the trademark application – filed with the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) and spotted by LetsGoDigital – specifically mentions it in relation to smartphones.

It doesn’t say much else, but there is mention of “electronic touch screen pens for smartphones”, which could mean that LG’s first rollable phone will come with a stylus.

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On a roll with names

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first name along these lines that LG has trademarked. As GSMArena notes, the company has previously applied to trademark LG The Roll, LG Double Roll, LG Dual Roll, LG Bi-Roll, and LG Roll Canvas, so one of those names might get used instead.

Or maybe none will. As with patents we’re reluctant to read too much into trademarks, but with previous rumors that an LG rollable phone could land as soon as March, the timing of this trademark and the recent patent certainly suggests that the LG Rollable could be on the way.

That said, with LG’s rollable TV costing $87,000 (around £67,000 / AU$123,000), its first rollable phone could make even the foldable Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 look cheap.

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LG is no stranger to innovation, having recently launched the dual-screen LG Wing 5G for example, and its next major experiment could be a rollable phone, one that a recently published patent details.

Spotted by LetsGoDigital, the patent shows a device that starts out looking much like any other smartphone, but one where you can pull out the left and right edges to extend the OLED screen. You can pull one or both edges, and fully extending both will double the size of the display.

These extendable screen sections are rollable, which is how they can hide within the casing of the phone, unlike a foldable screen.

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Based on the patent, the mechanisms required for this shouldn’t take up too much space within the body of the handset, meaning that LG’s rollable phone could be slimmer than a foldable, and these rollable sections are also apparently more durable than the crease of a foldable phone, so it’s less likely to break.

This LG rollable phone seems on paper then like it could have most of the advantages of a foldable phone, with fewer of the problems faced by those devices. Of course, this handset might only exist on paper for now, and there’s no guarantee it will ever become a commercial product.

But there’s certainly a chance it could. LG has already launched a rollable TV (albeit for an astronomical price), and The Elec (a South Korean tech news site) has recently cited “people familiar with the matter” as saying that LG’s first rollable phone (supposedly known internally as B Project) will land in March 2021.

We’re not convinced that something this ambitious would land that soon, but you never know, and it seems quite likely that LG is working towards launching a rollable phone at some point.

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Via PocketNow

Two-minute review

Outside of expensive foldables, phone design has stagnated in the last few years, and most coming out these days rarely varying from an edge-to-edge glass rectangle. The LG Wing 5G is a bold exception: a phone with a front screen that swivels horizontally and upward to reveal a smaller display underneath, providing more screen real estate in a device that you can use one-handed

It’s the sort of mechanism we saw on some of the many experimental phone designs that came out in the 2000s. In particular, the LG Wing 5G feels a lot like the Danger Hiptop (known better as the T-Mobile Sidekick – remember carrier-specific phone names?) but modernized for 2020.

Similar to the Microsoft Surface Duo, the mini-screen can give you more space for a single app – though in the LG Wing 5G’s case, with the content on one screen and controls on the other –  or you can use it to display a second, separate app, letting you type notes or text friends while watching media on the main display, say. 

When closed, the phone looks and operates just like any handset, and although it’s a little thicker and heavier than most others, it’s still closer in size to a regular phone than a chunky foldable like Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2. You could use it as a perfectly functional one-screen phone, if you really wanted to.

Of course, if you’ve got the LG Wing 5G you’ll be wanting to swivel the display out. Actually rotating it open isn’t difficult, even one-handed, but there’s also enough resistance that the main screen won’t slide up accidentally in your pocket. The phone is constructed in two ‘layers’, with the main screen sitting on the top layer, which takes up about a third of the thickness of the phone. It swivels out and up to the top of the device, exposing the mini-screen and forming a ‘T’-shape. 

This essentially increases the display real estate by half again, and you could be forgiven for thinking at this point that the smaller screen isn’t too helpful. However, while not all apps will fit and work on it, having this dedicated area for secondary apps and tasks is useful in theory; imagine being able to to fire off a text, or Google the odd fact, without having to switch away from the show or stream you’re watching or the game you’re playing.

There’s other unique applications of the extra screen, like using it as a touchpad while browsing online for precise control. Even better, swivel out while in camera mode and the mini-screen will show simulated gimbal controls for precisely following subjects thanks to image stabilization software. Combine that with the pop-up selfie camera, which allows you to simultaneously record rear and front-facing footage – great for streamers, say.

In other words, the format has a lot of potential; in practice, the one-and-a-half screens take some time to use effectively, because the software isn't quite intuitive yet. LG got the basics down of transitioning between swivel modes, but loading up apps on either screen is convoluted. A successor might make it as easy as swiping an app from one screen to the next, but not the LG Wing 5G.

Thus, you'll have to learn some workflows (manually setting up app pairs) to actually use the extra screen to its current potential. When you do, it's neat, though you'll still yearn for a more fluid interface, more apps supporting the smaller screen, and more novel applications.

LG has made some compromises to keep costs low enough for it to reach a price tier comparable to most top-tier smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S20 and the iPhone 12 Pro. Compared to those phones, the LG Wing 5G gives up photo capabilities (like any optical zoom) for its extra screen real estate. You can count those deficiencies on one hand, though: the LG Wing 5G has respectable specs and an admirable main display, making it competitive even without its swivel functionality.

LG Wing 5G price and release date

The LG Wing was announced on September 14 and its release date was on October 15 in the US, though it's unclear when it will come to other regions.

The LG Wing price is $999 (around £777 / AU$1,400), and it's only coming in a single configuration, at least for now. You can pick it up in the US from carrier Verizon.

That's a very competitive price for the phone, putting it at the same cost tier as the Samsung Galaxy S20 and iPhone 12 Pro, among other flagship phones. While it's a little less powerful than its rivals, the LG Wing obviously has a lot to offer in terms of extra screen real estate, and also has 5G connectivity. 

Design and display

The LG Wing 5G looks pretty much like any other phone out there at first glance: edge-to-edge display, rectangular design, side buttons, in-screen fingerprint display, USB-C port out the bottom, and so on. It’s a dense phone, thicker than the LG Velvet in a side-by-side comparison, but otherwise unremarkable.

Switch to swivel mode, though, and the 6.8-inch OLED main screen swivels out sideways, and up to a horizontal orientation at the top of the phone, exposing the smaller 3.9-inch OLED mini display underneath. 

That mini-display works just like a full-size one: you can use apps on it (though in a slightly more cramped interface), use it for secondary controls as in the camera app, or dedicate the whole space to a keyboard. 

And while 3.9 inches for the mini-screen seems tiny by today’s standards, it’s only a little smaller in area than the 4-inch display in the iPhone 5 / original iPhone SE. It’s perfectly suitable for texting and light browsing, but more on that below.

Elsewhere, the phone has a pair of volume buttons on the right side and a lock button below it. These aren’t too hard to differentiate when the phone is closed, but when the screen is swiveled open, all three are located behind the display, and awkward to press. Worse, it’s easy to forget which button is which, and we’ve accidentally locked the phone when we meant to adjust the audio levels. 

The SIM and microSD slots are on the left side. There’s a USB-C port on the bottom, with the phone’s single speaker to the right of it; on top are a microphone and the pop-up front-facing camera. Much like other pop-up cameras (on the OnePlus 7 Pro, for instance), the LG Wing 5G’s selfie shooter quickly retracts if the accelerometer detects that the phone has been dropped.

Lastly, with all these moving parts, it's not surprising that the LG Wing 5G doesn't have an IP dust- and water-resistance rating. And sadly, there is no 3.5mm headphone jack, which only bears mentioning since LG has admirably managed to keep them around in recent flagships like the LG V60.

Using the displays

Using the LG Wing 5G effectively boils down to knowing when to swivel. You won't need to open it all the time, as the 6.8-inch main display works just fine for regular tasks, especially while on the go. Yes, you can use it one-handed while swiveled open, but it's cumbersome.

As you might have guessed, rotating the screen to the top of the phone does shift the weight to the top half of the device – not enough to make it ungainly, but you'll be more comfortable keeping it in two hands. 

This is especially the case if you do any typing, which is likely what you’ll be using the small screen for much of the time. Your hands may get a little cramped if you're really leaning in to the bottom-screen typing experience, as your reviewer found after typing this whole section on the small display. But it works – and we dig the flexibility it potentially offers.

But it's the execution that matters. As with the Dual Screen on the LG V60 and LG G8X, the software for multi-screen use works fine, but it's not terribly intuitive, and you won't find all the functionality you’d expect. It's a first-generation try, and so long as you figure out the right workflows, you can use both screens well. Just don't expect to swipe apps from one screen to another – or load up more than a few apps on the main screen.

Swiveling the screen up switches the top display to a carousel of apps, which are sadly limited to a handful of apps, although some have extra functionality with the small screen. We haven’t yet found out how to add to this list, and the only way we found to use a different app on the main screen is to set up dual-app combo shortcuts, which you can do in Settings > Display > Swivel Home > Multi-Screen Shortcut (phew). 

On the LG V60 with Dual Screen, you could use a multi-finger gesture to semi-reliably swap apps between screens, but there’s no such function on the LG Wing 5G (yet); that kind of fluid exchange is what’s really missing from the Wing. And not just for power users, either: it’s going to require a whole lot of trial-and-error for users to figure out which app combinations work best – and which apps won’t even work on the small screen at all.

You can technically open any app on the small screen, though you'll have to deliberately toggle the apps that aren't specced for it in a special menu screen (when swiveled open, swipe up on the app tray and tap the three vertical dots, then tap 'Second Screen apps').  

Hopefully LG improves the software to allow for more intuitive control of apps, especially in the main screen's carousel. There's so much potential and flexibility offered by the extra screen real estate, but currently, it takes a bit of setup and finagling to use.

Cameras

The camera setup includes  other interesting uses for the swivel system, and features three rear cameras: one standard shooter and two ultra-wide cameras.

The main 64MP f/1.8 camera captures a 78-degree field of view (FoV) and the 13MP f/1.9 ultra-wide nabs a 117-degree FoV; both are used for standard still photography and video.

The second 12MP 120-degree FoV f/2.2 ultra-wide camera is specifically used for a video mode that uses the swivel functionality. Once you've flipped up the main screen, you can use Gimbal Mode to simulate shooting with a gimbal device, using controls on the mini display to move the camera. While there feels like a lot of image stabilization at play, this feels like the footage is cropped from a larger picture captured by the ultra-wide lens. 

A new 'hexa motion sensor' stabilizes shots and allows digital approximation of following a subject and panning the screen. We haven’t gotten to try this out too much, but we’re excited to simply have some variety with phone photography – even if it’s just moving the controls down to the mini screen to free up an uninterrupted viewfinder on the main display.

The aforementioned front-facing camera is 32MP and pops up from the top of the phone, and in a first for LG, you can use a Dual Recording mode to flip back and forth between selfie and rear cameras while recording – or have both going at once and pick where the picture-in-picture inset video is. With this new feature and 4K video, as well as 'voice bokeh' and 'ASMR recording' (both carried over from the LG V60), LG seems to be aiming this phone at journeymen streamers.

Performance and battery

The LG Wing 5G packs a Snapdragon 765G chipset, which enables 5G connectivity. It packs a respectable but not top-tier 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage (expandable via microSD up to 2TB). 

In our time with the phone, it’s been able to handle the complex multi-screen features with only very occasional minor delays, most evident when switching apps. 

Much of the multi-screen experience is smooth, and the transitions when swiveling the main screen open and closed are pretty seamless. But as mentioned before, there’s some logical interface controls that would make loading up apps on the two screens – and switching between them – much easier.

Otherwise, the phone's specs work just fine, switching from online browsing to watching media to intense gaming without a hitch. The phone isn't let down by its less-than-top-tier chipset and RAM pairing. 

The LG Wing 5G is indeed 5G capable, both in sub-6 and mmWave for US versions sold through Verizon.

The LG Wing 5G comes with a 4,000mAh battery, which is about average for flagship phones. The phone does seem to drain more battery with the main screen swiveled open and the mini screen active, but we’ll have to put the phone through more testing to understand how much.

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

First reviewed: November 2020

In the 72 hours we’ve spent with the LG Wing 5G, we’ve found its simple, swivel-out design is fun and functional – a good alternative to pricey foldable phones when it comes to expanding screen real estate. 

There are a few crucial bits of information that keep us from fully understanding who this phone is for, like price and availability – if it costs as much as foldable phones, for instance, it will feel like more of a gimmick and less of the kind of affordable compromise that we saw with the LG V60 ThinQ’s Dual Screen, for example, which bundled a second display in the box without additional charge. 

The LG Wing 5G also doesn’t have its final software yet, so we’re withholding judgment about how suitable it is for consumers who aren’t immediately sold on the swivel-screen idea. The concept is decidedly neat and useful, but until we have all the pieces, we’re going to avoid recommendations and just share how we feel about this phone. 

And we feel great about the LG Wing 5G – for the most part. There are still some situations where the extra display area is unnecessary and the phone is actually a bit weirder to use in swiveled-out mode than swiveled closed, like when gaming.

But the scenarios where it comes in handy to have an extra screen, even one so small by today’s standards, are plentiful. More importantly, the software cleanly pulls off switching from swiveled-open and swiveled-closed orientations. It doesn’t feel janky or unpolished, though we’re waiting for some obvious controls, like swapping apps between screen. Ultimately, it feels like a sound interface with far fewer shortcomings than we feared.

So let’s dive into what using this strange phone feels like.

What it feels like to swivel a phone open

The LG Wing 5G’s swivel action is the closest we’ll get to rotating open a phone with the kind of satisfying tactile ‘click’ of the Danger Hiptop (better known as the T-Mobile Sidekick). The new handset’s screen rests on a thin top layer, which rotates sideways and to the top of the handset to expose the mini-screen within the thicker bottom layer, forming a ‘T’ shape.

The Wing 5G’s swivel mechanism isn’t quite as spring-loaded as the Sidekick, which is a good thing, as it won’t pop open unexpectedly: you’ll need to put some pressure to slide it open, though you can still do it one-handed. Swiveling the phone closed takes a bit more effort to do without bringing your other hand to bear.

Opening and closing has a tactile and auditory feel to it, with a satisfying ‘click’ as it slides into place, which is half the fun of using the phone. Just like the original Razr (or its modern clamshell foldable version), the Wing 5G changes shape with gusto, and there’s something so joyous about flicking it open with a practiced flourish. While you can’t snap the handset closed to end a call like the flip phones of old, swiveling it open feels like unfurling a futuristic device – part Star Trek communicator, part Ghostbusters poltergeist detector.

LG claims it’s put the hinge through enough testing to estimate it will last through 200,000 swivels, and we theorize every last one will feel cool to do.

Okay, but what’s cool about a small extra screen?

Swiveling the phone open is one thing; using it is another. Granted, you can’t use every app on the mini-screen, and it’s a bit onerous to get apps loaded on the big screen at all. But when you can make use of both at once, it makes other phones feel decidedly old-fashioned.

Why? Based on our usage, we expect most users would likely use the main screen most for watching media while doing minor tasks on the mini-screen. If you were on a typical phone, you’d have to switch away from what you’re watching to take care of any immediate yet trivial issue – like looking up a fact online or sending a quick text – but you can do that on the Wing 5G while watching your Twitch livestream or Netflix show.

And yes, you can pretty easily take care of simple tasks on the mini-screen: at 3.9 inches, it’s nowhere near today’s smartphones, but at just a hair smaller in area than the iPhone 5’s 4-inch display, it has enough space for a compact Google search window or to text with a full keyboard. Writing more than a couple paragraphs on the mini-screen gets a bit annoying, but mostly due to the form factor, given the phone is slightly top-heavy when swiveled open.

While proper foldables and dual-screen phones like the Microsoft Surface Duo have more evenly-distributed displays that more easily run multiple apps (one on each screen, say), you’ll need to use both hands to get the most out of these book-shaped devices. The appeal of the LG Wing 5G is using more screen one-handed. 

There’s other ways to use the Wing 5G when it’s swiveled open, including its cameras, which have a unique ‘Gimbal Mode’ with simulated-gimbal controls on the small screen: a directional pad to pan around and a few different settings to selectively lock the camera in place. We haven’t used this much in our short time, but it’s a neat tool in the phone’s kit for folks who get around more action photography.

There is one last option for swiveled-open photography: Dual Recording, which uses the pop-up selfie camera to record video from the front and back simultaneously – both the action and the reaction, so to speak, and it’s clear this mode is meant for live-streaming.

All other photography, either with the phone’s 64MP main shooter or the first ultrawide camera, are shot with the main screen swiveled shut. (The second ultrawide camera is only used for Gimbal Mode and paired with a ‘hexa motion sensor’ to stabilize the shot.) 

Finally, there’s gaming. When swiveled open, you can use the second screen for social media or whatever else, though we didn’t quite find something we desperately needed to track while gaming aside from responding to texts without disturbing a play session. But imagine the orientation: while swiveled open, you’re holding on to the wide section (flipping the phone to an inverted ‘T’) to play on the main screen...and then texting on the top section, which is possible but awkward. 

Worse, the LG Wing 5G’s main screen is on a thin layer when swiveled open – which you’re grasping to play. It’s less comforting to mash a thinner display section than it would be to play on a dense and comparatively solid phone. This doesn’t make the experience worse, it’s just something to consider, especially since the central section – the shaft of the inverted ‘T’ – tends to weigh the phone down.

Wait, do I even need to use the second mini-screen?

The LG Wing 5G works just fine without the display swiveled out. Truth be told, we were popping the phone open as much as we could, but the handset works just fine in its natural (unopened) state. The 6.8-inch OLED main display is still plenty of real estate to do any kind of task you’d perform on a traditional smartphone.

This is helpful for doing things that don’t need multiple screens, or when swiveling out is inconvenient, like in cramped quarters or while on the go. The Wing 5G is perfectly suitable for watching media and casual browsing with its Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G chipset and 8GB of RAM – specs that manage transitioning in and out of the multi-screen experience just fine. 

Even if users get tired of the swivel mechanic, they’ll still have a respectable phone that covers most of the bases. Sure, it doesn’t have a telephoto lens like most other phones on the market (let alone the Samsung Galaxy S20’s 30x ‘Space Zoom’), nor the sheer volume of screen real estate that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 has (effectively three phone displays’ worth). 

But the LG Wing 5G has a far more dynamic design than today’s smartphones, one that will likely draw eyes whenever it’s swiveled open. Even if it’s eventually priced out of reach for the typical consumer, whoever makes the leap will have something no competitor can touch: true novelty.

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In a bid to revive its slumbering mobile business, LG is unveiling its new smartphone with a unique form factor on September 14. That's expected to be the upcoming LG Wing, that has been rumored and leaked over the last few months.

LG has put out a video invite, which runs for 30 seconds, and there is enough hints in the video that the new device will have dual screen form with a main display that rotates clockwise to make a 'T' shape.

Last week, LG’s upcoming dual screen phone with two screens in a T shape was leaked online, and it suggested an increased convenience of being able to use two screens at the same time.

• Check out our review of the LG Velvet
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The Explorer Project

LG has called it the 'Explorer Project', and the new smartphone that will be unveiled will be the first one under this new lineup. 

LG said in a statement, "Explorer Project is both an initiative and a category. It will include devices that deliver distinctive and yet unexplored usability experiences, a strategy that tackles uncharted territory in the industry."

“LG and platform partners feel it is vitally important to demonstrate to consumers new and differentiated user experiences in the smartphone space,” said Morris Lee, president of LG’s Mobile Communications Company. “LG has always been a pioneer in pushing the envelope of smartphone form factors, the only way to bring about much needed innovation in the mobile market.”

Starting with the Velvet project this year, LG has restructured its smartphone lineup drastically. The Explore project marks the second part of LG’s new alignment strategy for smartphones.

Possible specs of the new device

LG is yet to confirm any specifications for the upcoming handset, or whether it'll be called the LG Wing when it's officially unveiled. A previous LG Wing leak had it that the new device will feature a 6.8-inch display and a smaller 4-inch flip-out screen with power coming from a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G.

The new smartphone is expected to come with a triple camera setup, with a 64MP main sensor.

• Would you like an LG phone? This is our ranking of the best

We're intrigued by what we've seen of the LG Wing so far – an innovative-looking smartphone with a flip-out second display – and we've now got some more pricing details, courtesy of sources close to LG.

As per XDA Developers, people with connections at LG say the phone will sell for around $1,000 (about £750 / AU$1,355) in the US – that puts it alongside several current flagship phones in terms of price point, but it's more affordable than we were expecting.

It's still a lot of money to spend on a smartphone, but perhaps not so exorbitant when you consider you get two screens instead of one. The folding Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2, for example, is expected to cost almost twice that $1,000 figure.

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Previous rumors had put the price of the LG Wing at around 1,900,000 Korean won, or roughly $1,610, so it's reassuring to hear the upcoming phone might not cost so much outside of its home market after all.

Of course, straight currency conversions aren't often used by manufacturers, what with local variations in markets and taxes. It's maybe easier to say that the LG Wing is rumored to cost the same as a 5.8-inch, 64GB iPhone 11 Pro.

We haven't heard too much about the phone up to this point, but the handset apparently comprises a 6.8-inch display and a 4-inch display. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G is said to be the mid-range processor chip running everything.

Why would you need two screens, we can hear you ask? Well, one use case we've seen in a leaked video (embedded above) is having music player controls available while you're also using step-by-step navigation on the main screen.

LG has been experimenting with multiple screens for years now, with the 2020 LG Velvet coming with a dual-screen case that gives you twice as much screen space. The Microsoft Surface Duo is another dual-screen phone that's launching this year.

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Smartphone manufacturers are clearly banking on dual screen and foldable phones being the next big thing, but the LG Wing might be one of the strangest designs we've seen yet. 

The team at Android Authority got their hands on a short video that showcases the new device from LG, codenamed "Wing", which features a 6.8-inch display and a smaller, 4-inch flip-out screen, both powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G.

In the video below, we see the phone's main display being used for navigation, while the secondary screen functions as a music player. The user then receives an incoming call, which appears on the smaller display without interrupting the main screen's navigation app.

• Check out our LG Velvet review
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Winging it

Although the video gives a clear look at how the phone will work in the real world, it isn't clear whether the flip-out display can be orientated on either side of the phone, or if it resides within the main display. It may simply fold around the back of the phone, which would admittedly be awkward. Either way, at least the display won't be afflicted by a noticeable crease like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2.

Interestingly, neither display appears to include a camera. This could be down to the fact the LG Wing is still a work in progress, but we'd expect to see a punch hole camera included if the device does come to retail. 

The dual screen idea isn't new

The company has been toying with dual screen phones ever since the LG V10 launched in 2015. Dual displays have returned to prominence over the past twelve months, first with the LG V50 ThinQ and then the LG G8X. This year's LG V60 and the LG Velvet came with the ability to connect a second display, about the same size as the phone.

While the video of the LG Wing presents a best case usage scenario, there could be several other options where the twin screens can handle different apps or functions. Having a YouTube video playing on one screen while you browse social media could be fun, but it probably wouldn't work too well for productivity tasks due to the smaller display.

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Two-minute review

The LG Velvet is a fairly expensive mid-range phone. However, it arrives before truly affordable 5G phones have become common, so it may not seem a bad deal to some at launch.

That said, the cost is high enough to stop it earning a higher score. Its camera array does not match the price and there's no quad-DAC - a great audio feature that we've come to expect in expensive LG handsets.

Three parts seem similar to a true high-end phone. We’ve already mentioned the first. The LG Velvet has 5G. The LG Velvet has some expensive design touches too, like curved front glass that makes the screen surround appear smaller. Its tall OLED screen does not look dissimilar to that of ‘true’ high-end phones either, even if some of its specs are less impressive.

So the Velvet is ultimately a mixed bag - equal parts expensive and cheap, but with a price that places it more towards the former.

LG Velvet price and release date

• Announced in May 2020
• Now available to buy in the US
• Costs $599 (around £500 / AU$850)

The LG Velvet first appeared in May 2020 and was seen as an attempt by LG to compete with a slightly different approach. It wanted us to see the Velvet as an alternative to something like the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, even if core parts of the phone are less accomplished.

We don’t have prices for all regions at the time of review, but it's now ready to buy in there US where it costs $599 (roughly £500 / AU$850). In the US, it's coming with AT&T first with T-Mobile and Verizon set to offer the phone later in 2020.

We've yet to hear pricing or a release date for the UK or Australia, but we've asked LG for more details.

It is significantly cheaper than large screen 5G flagships like the Oppo Find X2 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus. However, the OnePlus 8 and various phones from Xiaomi, Realme and Oppo are tasty alternatives.

Design

• IP68 water resistance
• Curved glass and metal shell
• 167.2 x 74.1 x 7.9mm, 180g

Look at the LG Velvet front-on and you could mistake it for a $1000-plus phone. Its front glass curves at the sides, the screen is big, and there are no little plastic slivers between the glass and metal parts. That can cheapen the look of a phone a little.

There’s even more character than some, as the metal sides form more prominent lips at the corners. The LG Velvet looks and feels expensive from the front, although does not have the surround-free appearance of a Samsung Galaxy S20 family phone.

But the back? It is relatively plain, with a semi mirrored glossy finish. There’s no instantly recognizable camera surround, no eye-catching light reactive layer below the glass.

However, this is likely a choice based on the ‘look’ LG wants for the Velvet. And if you want color, you can get it. The Velvet comes in low-key white and black (ish), as well as green and ‘illusion sunset’, a red-yellow gradient with the polarizing punch you might expect from Huawei or Honor.

A headphone jack is one of the unusual benefits of the LG Velvet. Few high-end phones have them. This one does.

It’s not one of LG’s famously audiophile-friendly headphone jacks, though. The LG V40 ThinQ, LG V50 ThinQ and LG G8 all have a quad-DAC, to increase the quality of the signal sent to wired headphones. Those phones have arguably best-in-class sound enhancement modes too, which are almost always best avoided in other phones.

The LG Velvet uses the DAC built into the Qualcomm processor, and the only advanced sound mode is ‘LG 3D Sound Engine’. It can make low bit-rate audiobooks and internet radio stations sound better, adding more spatial information to ‘flat’ sounding content, but alters the sound character too much for music.

And the rest? The LG Velvet has a solid in-screen fingerprint scanner. It has not failed to recognize a thumb once during testing that we can recall, but is not the fastest around. The OnePlus 8’s scanner is a touch quicker.

That said, after noting the slightly slower response on our first day with the LG Velvet, the fractional delay was quickly forgotten.

The phone also has solid, but not class-leading, stereo speakers. One driver sits on the bottom, another above the display. They have a similar tone, rather than leaving the front one with an almost treble-only tone, as was standard a couple of years ago.

There’s also a Google Assistant button, seen on some LG V and G series phones. You can’t disable this, or customize what it does, with launch software, so prepare to accidentally bring up the Assistant occasionally.

The LG Velvet comes across as a perfectly pleasant, if perhaps unremarkable, phone unless you buy it with LG’s Dual Screen case.

LG made one of these for the LG G8X ThinQ and V50. The design hasn’t changed much with this Velvet version, but it is still highly unusual.

Slot the phone in and you get an extra mini display on the front and a second screen that matches the LG Velvet’s own inside. This can only ‘extend your desktop’ like a dual-display PC setup, with a few apps. And the only one we’ve found remotely useful is Chrome, as the big plastic gap between the displays makes it useless for video. But you can run two apps at the same time.

Gaming is the one use we come back to after using LG Dual Screen for more than a year on-and-off. You can turn one of the screens into a virtual gamepad, handy for games like Asphalt 9 and Call of Duty: Mobile.

Your fingers no longer block any of the action, making the experience closer to that of a legit handheld games console. And we feel a whole lot less self-conscious using it out in public than one of the third-party gamepads that also grips your phone.

Some games simply work with the Dual Screen gamepad. Others you’ll have to create a custom layout for. And at the time of review, this part of the phone is buggy.

We experienced a bunch of annoying hangs using the Dual Screen while playing, and it regularly refuses to switch displays so you can use the gamepad on the chunky phone side, rather than the thin and light display-only side. So an update or two is needed.

Still, outside the odd play around we still end up removing the LG Velvet from its case. It adds a lot of bulk to the phone and does not add anything to video streaming, as a full flexible phone can.

The Dual Screen case is included with some pre-order bundles. It’s a great add-on if it feels like you get it for free, but we would not recommend spending a couple of hundred dollars on it afterwards.

Display

• 6.8-inch P-OLED 60Hz HDR screen
• 1080 x 2460 resolution
• Teardrop notch

The LG Velvet's screen is very tall, with an almost Sony Xperia 1 II-like 20.5:1 aspect ratio, and it has a teardrop notch.

This notch snips out more of the screen than some punch holes, but the display’s sheer height makes this a non-issue. Watch Selling Sunset or Below Deck on Netflix and you can either see the standard 16:9 image with black bars to the left and right, or fill the display up to the start of the notch.

This crops out the top and bottom a little, but that crop would be even worse if the LG Velvet were to use the entire screen.

This is a 6.8-inch 1080 x 2460 P-OLED panel made by LG. LG’s OLED panels are often not quite as good as Samsung’s, or those of the lesser-known Chinese BoE, but this one is perfectly good.

We have not missed the extra resolution of one of the higher-end alternatives, color is good, and there are modes to let you tweak the saturation and tone. The LG Velvet also clicks into an ultra-bright mode when used outdoors in the sun, for great visibility in almost all conditions.

It supports HDR and Full HD Netflix at launch too.

A high refresh rate is the obvious missing feature. This is a standard 60Hz screen, and lacks the smooth scrolling appearance of a OnePlus 8 or Samsung Galaxy S20.

There’s nothing wrong with a 60Hz screen, but it is one area that makes you question the phone’s value.

LG’s interface is not the most visually coherent either. There are plenty of tweaks to make, but a lack of visual consistency between parts like the settings menu and the feature toggles drop-down cheapens it a little.

Camera

• 48MP Samsung GM2 f/1.8 primary camera
• 8MP Hynix sl846 f/1.6 ultra-wide camera
• 5MP Hynix sl556 depth camera

The LG Velvet has three rear cameras. And camera hardware is perhaps the weakest part of this phone when you consider the fairly high price.

We get a 48-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide and a 5-megapixel depth sensor.

Not only is there a big drop in quality between the primary and secondary cameras, the main one isn’t a jaw-dropper either. The LG Velvet uses the Samsung GM2, a 48MP sensor, with an f/1.8 lens.

Down at pixel level fine detail is occasionally soft or dithered-looking compared to the best phones at the price, although is a rough match for the OnePlus 8’s main camera in daylight. There are some other clear oversights.

The LG Velvet does not have a zoom camera, but uses the main sensor’s high pixel count to capture 2x zoomed images with the same 12MP resolution it uses for standard shots. However, zoom images do not have nearly the same dynamic range enhancement as 1x shots, resulting in frequent overexposed areas.

Its ultra-wide camera is disappointing too, as the low-resolution sensor leaves most fine textures and details missing, or over-smoothed.

Why so down on the LG Velvet camera? It can take nice pictures, and an ultra-wide view is always welcome. However, we expect more at this price. And we don’t have to look to aggressive Chinese companies to show this up. Samsung’s Galaxy A51 uses the same primary camera and is significantly cheaper.

In low light the LG Velvet is a fair performer. There’s a dedicated Night View mode that takes slightly longer to capture an image, but improves color fidelity.

However, its night images are not as good as the OnePlus 8’s or the Google Pixel 3a XL’s. The Velvet’s photos are much softer, giving ultra-low-light shots an almost out of focus appearance.

The phone’s video is good, up to a point. You can shoot at up to 4K, 30 frames per second. And as there’s solid stabilization right up to that resolution, you can shoot in all modes handheld with confidence.

LG also added Steady Cam modes, which use the ultra-wide camera and much more substantial electronic stabilization. However, as the wide camera is of much lower quality, footage just doesn’t look as good, even if it is steady.

The front camera has a 16MP sensor, the SK Hynix hi-1634. You may not have heard of the hardware manufacturer, but this is the second-best camera in the LG Velvet.

It can render and retain details like individual eyelashes indoors in moodily lit rooms. Selfies do look softer in very poor lighting, but you can also use the screen as a flash to keep your face looking sharp.

Camera samples

Specs and performance

• 8GB of RAM
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G chipset
• Adreno 620 GPU

The LG Velvet has the Snapdragon 765G chipset, one of the most important processors in the effort to bring down the cost of 5G phones. Even if the LG Velvet itself is not really one of those affordable phones.

It is easy to sneer at a fairly pricey phone that uses a mid-range CPU like the Snapdragon 765G, but the difference in real-world performance between this and the Snapdragon 865 is often very minor. App loads are near-instant and the 8GB of RAM offers plenty of scope for keeping apps in a parked state rather than closing them fully.

We find the OnePlus 8 feels slightly nippier than the LG Velvet day-to-day, but this is likely as much because it has a quicker fingerprint scanner and a 90Hz screen as the difference in processor power.

There is still a huge gulf in power when you put the LG Velvet to the test, though.

CPU power is less affected than the graphics and gaming side. In Geekbench 5 the Velvet scores 1,804 to the OnePlus 8’s 2,581 (a Snapdragon 865 phone). There’s an even greater difference in their GPU-centered 3DMark scores.

The LG Velvet scores 2,980 in the Slingshot Extreme test, to the OnePlus 8’s 7,206 points. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G is a gaming-optimized chipset, but it still has less than half the graphics power of a Snapdragon 865.

How much does this affect gaming? Less than you might think. Asphalt 9 still runs very well, with perhaps just very minor moments of slowdown when the scene becomes very busy. Asphalt 9’s environments are positively stacked with stuff. PUBG and Call of Duty: Mobile both run extremely well at ‘high’ graphics. 

ARK: Survival Evolved is a game you can use to separate mid-range phones from top-end phones. However, it refuses to install on our LG Velvet. This is not likely to be a fundamental hardware problem, as the Snapdragon 765G supports the Vulkan API on which ARK relies.

A few games like ARK would show up the difference between the LG Velvet and a phone with a true top-end processor. Not many will, though.

Battery life

• 4,300mAh battery
• 25W charger
• 9W wireless charging

The LG Velvet has a 4,300mAh battery. For a phone with a 6.8-inch screen, this capacity is towards the lower end of what is reasonable.

It tends to last a full day of moderate use, with little left in the tank by the end. However, you may find it an issue if you regularly play games or spend a lot of time outdoors, pushing the screen brightness to its max setting.

On days like these we have need to give the LG Velvet a top up in the afternoon to makes sure the battery doesn’t run out before bedtime.

It’s not a disaster, not even uncommon among thin large-screen phones. But it is not ideal either.

The LG Velvet comes with a moderately fast 25W charger and supports 9W wireless charging.

Should I buy the LG Velvet?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

First reviewed: June 2020

• Get the best deal on LG products with our LG coupon codes.

The upcoming LG Velvet will be the company’s next mid-range smartphone and is set to replace the flagship G series. The launch is just a week away, but LG has gone ahead early and revealed all the specs and a few pictures of the device.

The LG Velvet will be officially unveiled on May 7 in an online-only launch, and the device will be available in South Korea starting May 15. That said, we don't know what else is left to learn as the company has unveiled a lot through a blog post on its Korean website.

It's currently unclear when - and if - the LG Velvet will be coming to other markets outside South Korea. We may learn those details on May 7, but it's not certain what the company will say.

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The LG Velvet will come with a 6.8-inch Full HD+ OLED panel with 20.5:9 aspect ratio.  The phone itself is 6.8mm thick, and it comes with a '3D Arc' design that essentially means the edges of the phone featured a curved display.

The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G chipset, which offers 5G connectivity. It will have 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which can be further expanded with a microSD card.

The LG Velvet will sport a triple camera setup with a 48MP primary shooter, an 8MP ultra-wide and a 5MP depth sensor.  It will also feature a 16MP front-facing selfie shooter.

That's in what the company is calling a 'waterdrop' design, which you can see in the image below. It's meant to look like water droplets falling.

The LG Velvet will use pixel binning technology to combine 4 pixels into one when shooting a low-light environment. If it works well, it should improve photography in darker locations.

There's also a 'Voice Out Focus' feature that lets you individually adjusted separate background noise and voice when shooting a video. An ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) recording feature for video recording will also increase the sensitivity of the phone's two microphones to deliver crisp audio output. 

There's a 4,300mAh battery with wired fast-charging through the USB-C port on the bottom of the phone, plus the phone features 10W wireless charging. The device also supports multiple accessories such as the company's own Dual Screen and Stylus Pen, which are sold separately.

The LG Velvet will also pack in stereo speakers and AI sound to enhance the video experience.

The AI sound automatically analyzes the media content being played and sets the optimal audio quality. The LG Velvet will be available in four color options - Aurora White, Aurora Gray, Aurora Green, and Illusion Sunset. 

We'll be sure to bring you more on the LG Velvet on May 7 when we hear more, and if we hear any details about its worldwide release.

• These are the best LG phones you can buy right now

LG has spent a while teasing the LG Velvet – an upcoming phone that’s reportedly landing in place of the LG G9 (which has been scrapped according to rumors). The company’s latest tease though is perhaps the most important yet, as it tells us when the LG Velvet will be fully unveiled.

May 7 is the date, as revealed in a video posted on LG’s official YouTube channel, which you can see below.

Given the ongoing pandemic this will of course be an online launch, so TechRadar won’t be there in person, but we’ll be sure to bring you all the news from the announcement.

• Read our full LG G8X ThinQ review
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Other than the date, this latest video teaser mostly highlights the rear camera lenses. These are a key part of the LG Velvet’s design and have been revealed previously. They’re arranged vertically in descending order of size, and are designed to evoke images of falling raindrops.

Each lens is shown in a different color, but don’t expect that on the finished phone. Rather, going by a translated press release on LG’s South Korean site, it seems that each color (Aurora White, Aurora Gray, Aurora Green, and Illusion Sunset), is a shade you’ll be able to get the LG Velvet itself in.

We know from previous leaks that the LG Velvet will have a triple-lens rear camera, a teardrop notch, and an upper mid-range Snapdragon 765 chipset, so if this is a replacement for the LG G9 it might be slightly lower end than we’d have expected that phone to be.

But then it will probably also be cheaper, and if you want an LG flagship there’s always the LG V60 ThinQ.

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Via GSMArena

The LG V60 is an impressive flagship smartphone that’s different from the pack for one reason: it’s got two screens. Technically the second one comes within the Dual Screen case, but considering the accessory comes free with every V60, it’s part of the experience – and transforms the handset into one of the best media-watching phones on the market.

Full disclosure: I am the kind of person to burn through entire seasons of shows watching on my phone while washing dishes, cooking dinner, or relaxing on my building’s roof. Recommending the LG V60 is for folks who similarly binge media while they wander, but I totally understand folks who can only watch on larger displays. Those folks might want to check our best tablet or best TV guides.

For the rest of us small-screen reprobates, watching media on phones is a scrappy experience: either you deal with leaning over while your handset is lying flat on a surface, or awkwardly prop it up to stand at an angle. Thanks to ever-thinner bodies and sleek glass backs, phones easily slip off their perched positions and could be in danger of falling, or worse. 

Sure, you could buy a phone case with a kickstand or a tripod, but not everyone will go to such lengths. If you don’t want to spend a dime, large power blocks for high-wattage phones or laptop chargers are usually dense enough to prop your phone against. 

But for the rest of us who just want a no-frills smartphone media-watching experience, the LG V60 is the right phone for the job. And yes, it’s more than just for the Dual Screen.

Screen real estate, battery, and multitasking

The LG V60 is a flagship smartphone, so specs-wise, it’s a capable phone that can pretty much handle what you ask of it. Basic tasks, from gaming to prolonged media binges, are no problem, and you can get plenty of episodes in with the phone’s 5,000mAh battery.

The LG V60’s FHD+ (2460 x 1080) display isn’t quite as sharp as the WQHD+ screens on the Samsung Galaxy S20 line, but that doesn’t really matter – the vast majority of content you’ll be streaming on Netflix or elsewhere don’t exceed this resolution. At 6.8 inches, the V60’s screen is more or less as big as you’ll get outside of an unfurled foldable phone or a tablet. 

In any case, you’ll probably be watching on the Dual Screen anyway, which has a display identical to the V60 – but, of course, you can pivot it up and down to your desired angle. Heck, you can even ‘tent’ the phone by rotating the Dual Screen around in a similar way to a 2-in-1 laptop. It’s not difficult to plant the phone and tilt the screen to your desired angle.

It’s not perfect – the Dual Screen has no gyroscope, so it’ll take some work to rotate the picture to its proper orientation – but the gesture controls are responsive enough to swap screens as needed. Same with the multi-screen controls, which let you dim the main screen to save battery while watching on the second display.

But another great perk of watching media on the V60: two displays means you can binge on one and browse on the other. Whether you’re swapping text messages, browsing Twitter, or playing a game, multitasking works well. 

Audio and speakers

The LG V60’s audio kit is a step above most phones. The 3.5mm jack returns – and so does the 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC, giving audiophiles more options than other flagships. There’s a pass-through port in the Dual Screen case, which should be shallow enough to accommodate most thinner cords, but you might need a 3.5mm extender for plugs that get chunky above the sleeve.

If you’re forgoing headphones, the LG V60 packs a set of stereo speakers for respectable sound. In a very unscientific test using the Apple Watch 5’s noise meter, the speakers belted 75 decibels right near the phone (which a Yale EHS chart compares to the volume of chamber music in a small auditorium) down to 55 decibels at a five-foot range. 

While the LG V60’s speaker sound doesn’t have quite the rich range as that coming from my current phone-speaker favorite, the Google Pixel 4, it’s satisfying so long as you don’t need nuanced bass notes.

Final word

We don’t imagine there’s a huge demand for the dual displays on the LG V60, but we think it’s a shame to overlook their best application – especially in our current stay-at-home environment. Binge watchers, I’m here to tell you this phone might be the best one to pick if you don’t have other priorities.

Admittedly, those might involve photography (the V60’s camera doesn’t have much zoom capability) or on-device storage (it caps at 256GB). But for everything else, including 5G connectivity, the V60 is a decent deal at $899 (around £761 / AU$1,417) to start.

• LG V60 ThinQ: everything else we thought about LG's newest flagship phone

In part 3 of LG's teased-out reveal of its next flagship phone (see part 1 and part 2), a new video from the manufacturer shows the design of the LG Velvet in full. It also confirms it'll be running the Snapdragon 765 processor from Qualcomm.

The video – which is in Korean – shows off the look of the upcoming LG Velvet from all angles. You can see the thin bezels and small teardrop notch on the front, and the triple-lens camera (plus flash) on the back.

White, black, red and green are the color options, if the clip is anything to go by, and the materials used for the finish will be one of the LG Velvet's main selling points: catching the light and 'shimmering' in an eye-catching way.

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The design doesn't tell us too much more about the phone, though it does seem that the 3.5mm headphone jack is going to be retained, with LG once again catering for those users who want superior audio from their smartphones.

At the end of the video we see the Snapdragon 765 logo, confirming that the phone is going to be running a processor not quite as powerful as the top-tier Snapdragon 865 (the Pixel 5 is rumored to be following suit).

The LG Velvet is effectively the LG G9, but LG has decided to scrap the G naming scheme to give its phones more meaningful names. Velvet has been picked to highlight the phone's "tactical elegance" apparently.

We haven't heard too much in the way of rumors and leaks about the LG Velvet, but LG seems to be doing a decent job of revealing the phone bit by bit on its own. We now know the design and the CPU, so that's the main points covered.

A launch has been tipped for May 15, so we shouldn't have too long to wait to see the phone in full – and based on what we've seen so far, this should be one of the more noteworthy releases of 2020.

• These are the best smartphones of 2020 you can buy right now

Via XDA Developers

LG's next flagship phone will be called the LG Velvet, the company has announced – and it's going to come with the reimagined design that we saw a preview of earlier this week.

It seems LG is going to reveal this phone bit by bit: after those early design sketches, we now have a few more details via an official press release. There's talk of "distinctive designs" and "tactile elegance", and a move away from a focus on tech specs.

The Velvet is LG "moving away from alphanumerical designations in favor of familiar and expressive names that will help the consumer capture the essence of the device" according to the manufacturer.

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And why Velvet? "The name... is intended to evoke images of lustrous smoothness and premium softness, two key characteristics of the new phone," says LG.

More details to follow

Unfortunately, all these fine words and careful branding aren't yet accompanied by any solid information about the phone. We don't know when it's going to appear, though a reveal date of May 15 has been rumored.

What we do know is that LG is moving away from the G branding for its flagship phone line, so the LG G8 will be the last of its kind (as far as the naming goes, anyway).

We've heard speculation that a quad-lens camera and a Snapdragon 700 series chipset could be on the cards for the new device, and the screen size could stretch to something as big as 6.9 inches, if the rumor mill is to be believed.

We won't know anything for sure until LG announces it though – and so for now all that's certain is that the phone is called the LG Velvet, and it's arriving soon.

• Here's our verdict on the LG V60 ThinQ

It’s been reported that LG has a new, likely high-end phone landing on May 15, but until now all we really knew was what it wasn’t, namely the LG G9, as the company is rumored to be scrapping the G range. Now though, LG itself has shed some light on the design of the handset.

The company has revealed a new design language for an upcoming smartphone, with a focus on the natural world.

What does that mean in a phone? Well, as you can see in the images below, the most striking element seems to be a triple-lens camera, with the lenses arranged in descending order of size, supposedly to evoke images of falling raindrops. At the bottom of that is a flash module.

• Read our full LG G8X ThinQ review
• These are the best LG phones
• Check out our LG V60 ThinQ review

The main lens sits slightly above the surface of the back, while the others (and the flash) are flush with the rear. This revelation also all but confirms that LG’s upcoming phone has three rear cameras, which is notably one less than the LG G9 was rumored to have.

Other elements of the design include a ‘3D Arc Design’, meaning that the edges of the screen and the rear glass are symmetrically curved, supposedly leading to a more natural feel in the hand.

It’s worth noting that we don’t know for sure which LG phones this new design is intended for, so we may not see it on the rumored LG G9 alternative, but with that being the LG handset there’s the most buzz about at the amount it’s a likely candidate – assuming it even exists.

We’ll presumably find out more on May 15, but ahead of that it’s likely leaks and rumors will roll in, and TechRadar will be sure to cover all the credible ones.

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Two-minute review

LG’s flagship V series of phones has traditionally been content to mimic the features, but not the extensive flash, of other leading flagship devices. That’s changed with the LG V60, which has more style, and some unique features to help it stand apart from the crowd.

Whether those perks are enough to give it the edge over the best phones on the market is more a matter of personal taste than a specs comparison. The LG V60 is a decent flagship in its own right, but the detachable Dual Screen paired with it is a novel accessory that may seriously appeal to the multitaskers, gamers, and screen fiends of the world. 

For these users, the LG V60 meets a need for more screen space at a relatively affordable price, although there are compromises compared to the seamless screens on foldable phones. Go in with measured expectations, though, and the V60 is a capable phone that’s great for enjoying media.

Despite not having quite the highest specs, the V60's Snapdragon 865 and 8GB of RAM with a 5,000mAh battery ensured we were watching media and playing games for quite awhile without any noticeable slowdown, even while we were engaging the second display. Just don't plan on taking a lot of long-distance photos, as this phone lacks a telephoto lens; instead, keep the still shots close, and the video even closer to see where its camera performs best. The LG V60 can record in 8K at 24fps with four microphones to catch surround-sound audio.

The V60 is also one of the more affordable 5G phones thus far. This year’s crop of flagship Android handsets packing Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 chipset bring with connectivity to the budding next-gen networks – and a comparative price bump. While the V60 misses out on a few of the nicer perks of the comparably-sized Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus (like 12GB of RAM and triple-rear cameras), it’s also notably cheaper. 

Overall, the V60 packs enough perks to differentiate itself from the competition, but not quite stand out: not everyone is going to want a Dual Screen, although they might like the idea of 8K video, or 5G at a lower price. 

LG V60 price and release date

The LG V60 was due to be unveiled during MWC 2020, but following the show’s cancellation at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, LG opted for a low-key online launch – something many other brands have imitated. 

The LG V60 officially released in the US on March 16, retailing for $899 (UK and AU pricing TBC). As has been the case with previous LG flagships, this price includes the Dual Screen peripheral.

Most versions of the LG V60 will be 5G-capable, with support for the sub-6 range of frequencies. In the US, this includes the models going to carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, and US Cellular. Another version that supports both sub-6 and the higher mmWave frequencies will be available from select carriers like Verizon. 

LG V60 design

The LG V60 is a confident step beyond the conservative black rectangle designs of its predecessors and into more stylish territory. By itself, the phone has looks we’d expect on a Samsung flagship, including a pearl-hued glass back, gold-ish trim around the camera bump, and burnished aluminum sides. 

It’s not quite surpassing other top-tier phones in looks, with thicker bezels than you’ll see in the Samsung Galaxy S20 line, and a teardrop notch where those phones have a small punch-hole for the front-facing camera, but the phone certainly looks more impressive than previous LG flagships. 

In a departure from its predecessors, the LG V60 is closer to the size of other ‘Plus’-

monickered phones, with a 20.5:9 ratio display that makes it easier to handle than, say, an iPhone 11 Pro Max.

It’s still a bit thicker than other phones – its 8.8mm thickness is a bit more than the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus’ 7.8mm – but the glass back curves gradually into the sides, giving more grip than phones with more abrupt rear-to-side curvature.

The phone loads most of its buttons on the left side, including volume up and down buttons and a Google Assistant button, with the lock button on the right side. The SIM and microSD slot is at the top, while a USB-C slot sits in the center of the bottom, flanked by a speaker and – yes – a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The rest of the design’s quirks lie in the Dual Screen itself.

LG V60 Dual Screen

The LG V60’s standout feature is the Dual Screen, which functions much like the identically-named peripherals that come with the LG V50 ThinQ and LG G8X ThinQ. The Dual Screen works like a firm folio case, opening up to reveal a second display with the exact same dimensions as the V60’s screen – plug the phone into the Dual Screen’s USB-C plug and snap it into place, and voila, you have twice the screen real estate.

To turn on the Dual Screen’s display, you tap the small white dual-arrow icon (by default this is on the right side of the display) to expand a small menu with options to swap screens or to put the main screen to sleep – if, say, you wanted to watch media on the second display and dim the first to save battery.

Doing the above might be useful since, as it’s an unpowered peripheral, the Dual Screen runs off the LG V60’s battery, and predictably, using it drains the battery, even more so if you’re running a demanding task like watching media; this can be mitigated in the usual ways, by dimming the brightness of either display. The Dual Screen will automatically turn off when the battery drops to 10% so that you don’t fully deplete your phone, although that will also close whatever app you’re in (RIP my PUBG match). 

(A quick note: since the V60’s USB-C port is blocked when plugged into the Dual Screen, you can recharge it via a pass-through dongle that magnetically snaps to the bottom of the case. This clings on with much stronger magnetism on this phone, making it less of an awkward compromise than the weak magnets for the same component on the LG G8X.)

So what’s the Dual Screen useful for? Most often, just for having two apps open at once, so you don’t have to switch as often. Whether it’s a chat conversation, your Twitter feed, or a YouTube/Netflix video you don’t want to pause, the Dual Screen is handy for multitasking, even if it’s just to streamline media consumption.

The folio aspect comes in especially handy for watching media, as you an unfold it like a clamshell or fold the secondary screen behind the main display, tent-style – either way, the phone is propped open for viewing shows or YouTube videos, or for video chatting. 

The Dual Screen’s display has the same teardrop notch as the V60’s main screen, even though it doesn’t have a front-facing camera – this might seem an odd design choice, but it turns out that this makes it easier to swap apps from one display to the other. Like most notches, you won’t notice it’s there after a while, especially as most media players will hide it behind vertical bars.

The good news is that the Dual Screen comes free of cost, meaning you get two screens for the price of one flagship. The bad news? If you’re expecting a next-gen expanded display experience akin to that of a foldable phone… don’t. There’s a sizeable gap between the V60’s screen and the Dual Screen, and they’re separate screens, each of which can display one app at a time. 

There are a few exceptions: apps that display across both screens, including LG’s proprietary Whale web browser, as well as several games and most of Google’s app suite. However, while some of these are neat to play with, the gap between the screens is cumbersome, meaning only some apps, like Google Maps, are useful to view this way. 

Conversely, the two screens can be used for gaming, with the top display running the visuals while the bottom is used as a gamepad. The big advantage, of course, is that your thumbs won’t get in the way of the action. Racing simulators work best in this way thanks to a preset button layout geared toward games of that type, but other titles like PUBG or Call of Duty: Mobile require you to configure a custom gamepad – and even those are finicky.

LG V60 Display

The LG V60 packs a 6.8-inch OLED display with a narrow 20.5:9 ratio. While its FHD+ resolution (2460 x 1080) is technically less dense than the WQHD+ (3200 x 1440) panels on the Samsung Galaxy S20 line, we didn’t notice much of a difference, certainly with lower-resolution media, like that shown on Netflix or Hulu, anyway; in side-by-side comparisons with an iPhone 11 Pro Max and Galaxy S20 Plus, though, the V60’s display held up in terms of sharpness but exhibited some occasional issues, such as bright skies that were blown out instead of being rendered as subtle color gradients. 

In other words, it lacks a bit in terms of dynamic range, but you’d only notice in side-by-side comparisons. The V60’s display supports HDR10+ for a bit more clarity in movies and other media, which keeps it more on par with displays on other flagships.

The V60 has an in-display fingerprint sensor, and, like those on previous LG phones, it’s not quite as good as those on competing handsets – and not nearly as accurate or receptive as fingerprint scanners located on the back or chin of the phone. 

When the Dual Screen closes, of course, the display is covered – so there's a small external screen on the front of the folio case. It's about as big as an outstretched finger and only displays in digital monochrome, so don't expect to use it for more than checking  the time, caller ID, or app notifications. Just don't expect to be able to preview texts or messages.

LG V60 Camera

The LG V60 packs a respectable camera array, although it’s less impressive than the industry-leading setups like those on the Samsung Galaxy S20, for instance. There are just two rear cameras here, with no telephoto lens nor any sort of depth sensor.

The LG V60’s 64MP f/1.98 main shooter is a capable lens with a 0.8-micron sensor that can maximize light in photos by ‘pixel binning,’ a process that combines four pixels into one. Doing this reduces the resolution of the main lens’s sensor to 16MP but effectively expands the lens’ sensor to 1.6 microns, resulting in less sharpness but greater light absorption.

Without an optical telephoto lens, the LG V60 relies on ‘crop zoom’ that maxes out at 10x by essentially cropping in on a portion of a photo taken by the main camera: this works much like the digital zoom capabilities of other flagships with high-megapixel sensors.

The V60’s other rear camera is a 13MP f/1.9 ultra-wide shooter that captures a 117-degree field of view. That’s a bit less than the widest-angle camera we’ve seen on a phone, the 123-degree ultra-wide camera on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 series.

Round the front, the V60 has a 10MP f/1.9 selfie shooter. 

The phone’s outstanding feature, cameras-wise, is its ability to capture video at 8K at 24fps (a 7680 x 4320 resolution), matching the Galaxy S20 line, with LG’s ‘Steady Record’ technology on hand to stabilize footage.

Another plus for video: the V60 has four mics (one pair at the top and another at the bottom) for a bit of a surround-sound effect when recording, which LG cutely calls ‘Voice Bokeh.’ LG believes content creators will get the best use of this, but it will certainly be a nice addition for anyone shooting video.

LG V60 performance

The LG V60 packs an octo-core Snapdragon 865 chipset, which can be found in most of the leading flagships of 2020, as well as 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256Gb of storage (expandable up to 2TB via microSD). In general use, the phone is fast, and doesn’t trip up when running intensive processing tasks like gaming or streaming media.

This is especially impressive when you’re using the Dual Screen: the V60 is quite capable of running two apps at once, and doesn’t drag even when simultaneously playing two shows on separate media apps. 

Its Geekbench score of 2,762 isn’t quite as impressive coming up short compared to the 3,034 score achieved by the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, although it’s not exactly a performance disparity you’ll notice.

Oh, and that V60 score? We got it while running Netflix on the second display… and we then ran the test again with the Dual Screen turned off and got roughly similar results. At least as far as computation is concerned, this suggests that the second screen isn’t a drag on performance.

The LG V60 runs Android 10, with the latest version of Google’s OS bringing with it dark mode, over-the-air security patches and a host of other improvements.

LG V60 battery

The V60 packs a 5,000mAh battery, which gets you through a day of ordinary usage, with change. In terms of sheer capacity, this is on par with the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. 

As mentioned, running both displays (at or over 50% brightness) drains the battery faster. In practical terms, this means watching a standard hour-long episode of a Netflix show saps around 12% battery – but when we used the Dual Screen menu to put the main screen to sleep (which dims it as much as possible), a one-hour show only drained 6%.

For recharging, the V60 comes with a FastCharge 4.0 charger in the box, which LG claims gets you 18 hours of use (or 50% capacity) from 30 minutes of charge. As an Android phone, the V60 tells you how long until a full charge when you plug it in. When we plugged the standard charger into the V60 when it was down to 16%, the phone noted it would take just over an hour and a half to charge back to full.

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

• Get the best deal on LG products with our LG coupon codes.

LG has unveiled its next flagship, the LG V60 ThinQ 5G, that brings Dual Screen functionality in a bigger phone with more battery - and, of course, 5G capability.

The LG V60 is notably bigger than its predecessors, with a 6.8-inch FHD+ OLED display, though its narrow 20.5:9 ratio makes it a bit easier to handle than expected. 

• Read our hands on: LG V60 review

The Dual Screen works just like it did on the LG V50 and LG G8X, allowing most apps to be used on either display simultaneously, though a few can spread across both, though at launch this just seems to be Google Maps and others in the Google apps suite.

As a flagship, the phone packs a Snapdragon 865 chipset and 8GB of RAM with either 128GB or 256GB of storage (expandable to 2GB via microSD card). The rear camera suite has dropped the telephoto lens to rely on a 64MP main shooter and 13MP ultrawide lens. 

The big addition this time around: shooting in 8K at 24fps, even if there aren’t even many displays capable of showing the footage in full resolution. The LG V60 also packs four mics to capture what it calls 'Voice Bokeh', an intriguing feature we haven’t tested yet.

• The LG V60 isn't quite a foldable phone, but it provides extra screen real estate at lower cost
• The LG V60 could make our best Android phones list, but where will it rank?  
• Compare with the LG V50 and LG G8X to see how the Dual Screen has evolved

Unfortunately, we don't have an exact release date - it's arriving in the US in the coming weeks, with a global rollout unclear. We also don't know how much the phone will cost, though LG noted it will be priced below the Samsung Galaxy S20 phones.

The company is leaving pricing details to carriers, with both Verizon and AT&T  saying that information will be released, again, in the coming weeks.

The LG V60 debuts online instead of at MWC 2020

The LG V60 is the first of several phones meant to make their triumphant debut at MWC 2020, but after that show was canceled due to fears of coronavirus. Some phone makers, like LG, are choosing to announce their devices now anyway, while others are waiting for a more fortuitous window. 

We likely won’t know the full effect of the coronavirus on 2020 handset releases until later in the year, but it’s not just trade shows that are being affected - production is already being disrupted, with Samsung, Apple, and Motorola already reporting temporary factory shutdowns or even delayed launches due to supply obstructions.

• Does the LG V60 provide enough power and value to make our best phones list?

The LG V60 ThinQ could land any day now, as prior to MWC 2020 being cancelled we were expecting it to launch around now, and it certainly seems ready as it has been leaked a lot lately, most recently in both a photo and a video.

In a tweet, Evan Blass (a leaker with a great track record) shared a photo of the LG V60 ThinQ, while also linking to a video (below) posted by PBKreviews. While that site has less of a track record, presumably Blass wouldn’t link to it if he didn’t think the video was genuine.

In any case, both the video and photo show a phone with a small notch at the top of the screen, housing a single-lens camera, while below the screen there’s a slim bezel.

• Check out the best LG phones
• The LG V60 ThinQ could have a massive battery
• Read our full LG G8X ThinQ review

On the back (which is only visible in the video) you can see the words ‘V60 ThinQ’, along with a large horizontal camera block housing four lenses. The back is black and looks to be made of glass, while the frame looks metal and is a contrasting silver shade.

The video also shows the phone being turned on, with the name ‘LG V60 ThinQ’ displayed on the screen.

While we’d always take leaks with a pinch of salt we’re not seeing any red flags here, so this may well be the real LG V60 ThinQ, especially as the design lines up with an earlier leaked render.

It’s worth noting though that in the render the frame was gold, so you might have a choice of frame color, along with a likely contrasting back, as shown in the video.

As noted, we’re likely to see the LG V60 ThinQ launch very soon, so we’ll know for sure before long. Stay tuned, because TechRadar will bring you all the details as soon as the phone is announced.

• Read our full LG V50 ThinQ 5G review

We have a good idea of many of the LG V60 ThinQ’s likely specs thanks to leaks, however we hadn’t seen a clear image of what the handset would actually look like. That’s changed today though.

AndroidHeadlines has shared a high-quality render showing the front of the phone, which reveals details including a small notch and an otherwise almost all-screen design.

The LG V60 ThinQ as shown also has volume buttons and what’s apparently a dedicated Google Assistant button on the left edge, with the site saying the power button is on the right, which isn’t visible in the image.

• These are the best LG phones
• Read our full LG G8X ThinQ review
• The Sony Xperia 2 is also coming soon

The frame is gold, but the site notes that LG will probably offer the phone in other shades, and that a gold frame doesn’t necessarily mean a gold back. It’s a design which overall seems similar to the LG V50 ThinQ, just with a smaller notch and likely smaller bezels (though the dark wallpaper in the render makes it hard to be sure).

The site also claims there’s a camera bump on the rear, though it’s not clear whether this is from their source or just a reiteration of old information. It’s also not clear where the site even got this image from, so we’d take it with a pinch of salt. That said, we’d expect to be seeing images of the LG V60 ThinQ by now, as it’s likely to launch soon.

We’d expected to see it at annual tech event MWC 2020 before that event was cancelled, and the February 24 date on the phone’s screen lines up with what, as that would have been during MWC. Whether the LG V60 ThinQ will still be announced on that date (perhaps via on online stream) remains to be seen, but we expect it will land before long in any case.

And it should be worth the wait, as previous leaks point to a quad-lens camera, a 5,000mAh battery, and a top-end Snapdragon 865 chipset, which make it an intriguing device we'll be sure to fully test out.

• Make the most of your phone with the best Android apps

The LG V60 ThinQ is likely to be announced soon, but ahead of that we now have a clearer picture of the likely specs, thanks to an early benchmark.

A Geekbench listing for a phone with the model number LM-V600N has appeared, and this is almost certainly the LG V60 ThinQ, given that the LG V50 ThinQ has the model number LM-V500N.

According to the benchmark, the LG V60 ThinQ has a Snapdragon 865 chipset (which we can tell from the mention of ‘kona’, as this is that chipset’s codename). That’s the latest and greatest Snapdragon chipset, and the same as you’ll find in the Samsung Galaxy S20 range, so it’s certainly powerful.

• Read our full LG G8X ThinQ review
• Check out the best LG phones
• The LG V60 will reportedly launch only in the US and Europe

Only 8GB of RAM

Less impressively, the V60 ThinQ is listed as having 8GB of RAM. That’s a respectable amount and just about worthy of a flagship, but it’s worth noting that the Galaxy S20 Ultra goes up to 16GB, and lots of other phones hit 12GB. Still, this would be an upgrade on the 6GB in the LG V50 ThinQ, and it’s always possible that there will be other models with more RAM.

This shouldn’t be lacking for power in any case, as the 898 single-core and 3,266 multi-core benchmark scores listed here exceed those of 2019’s flagships, as we’d expect given the newer chipset.

Finally, the listing states that the V60 ThinQ runs Android 10, which is no surprise but nice to see. We also know from a previous leak that it’s likely to have a quad-lens camera and a 5,000mAh battery, so it’s shaping up to be a strong flagship.

None of this is confirmed of course but we should have all the official details soon, as the LG V50 ThinQ was announced in February 2019, so the LG V60 ThinQ is theoretically due any time now. 

• These new LG phones for 2020 give you four rear cameras on a budget

Via GSMArena and SlashLeaks

If you're looking for decently affordable LG phones it's always worth considering a K-series device, the company's mid-range offerings, and the company has just unveiled three new handsets that'll blow your socks off if you're looking for plenty of cameras.

These phones are the LG K41S, K51S and K61, which are generally successors to a few of LG's 2019 K phones. 

• These are the best LG phones
• What are we expecting from the LG G9?
• Check out our LG V50 ThinQ review

As of writing these phones don't have a release date anywhere, but the press release states 'LG’s 2020 K series will be available starting in the second quarter in the Americas followed by key select markets in Europe and Asia.', and TechRadar received press releases from the Dutch branch of LG as well as US, so this is almost definitely a country that will receive the phones.

There's no word on pricing either but the LG K series tend to be affordable and we wouldn't expect that to change here, despite the phones all having four rear cameras.

Now, we'll briefly run you through the three new LG phones to see if any are for you.

The LG K41S, K51S and K61

All three of the new LG K phones has a 6.5-inch display, but they're not all identical. The K61 has a FHD+ display, while the others are just HD+, and the latter two phones are both 20:9 aspect ratio unlike the 19.5:9 of the K61 so will be slightly longer and thinner.

The battery on all three phones is 4,000mAh, and thanks to the relatively low screen resolutions as well as this size, the handsets will likely last two days before you need to power them up.

A specific chipset isn't mentioned for the phones, and the LG K series have used both Mediatek and Qualcomm processors in the past so it's hard to guess.

The real draw to these budget smartphones is the fact you're getting a four-camera rear array with both. On the LG K61 this is lead by a 48MP main snapper, the highest resolution LG has used before. That's joined by 8MP ultra-wide, 2MP macro and 5MP depth sensing cameras.

The LG K51S has a 32MP main, 5MP ultra-wide, 2MP macro and 2MP depth sensing snapper, and the LG K41S is the same but with a 13MP main shooter. On the front of the phones are 16MP, 13MP and 8MP front-facing snappers respectively.

While we're dubious at the usefulness of all of these cameras, as we've yet to find a depth sensing camera that's really that useful, four cameras is still an impressive collection for phones that will likely have low price tags.

These cameras are arranged in a horizontal bar along the rear of the phone, and the devices look somewhat like the Samsung Galaxy S10 range as a result, even down to the presence of a punch-hole cut-out front-facing cameras. Just below the rear camera bump is a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, though, ruining the illusion a little.

Despite having four rear cameras, these new LG phones probably won't have all the photography smarts of new heavyweights out now, and won't feel as premium to use, but as previously mentioned it likely won't cost anything near the iPhone 11 or Samsung Galaxy S20 price. If you're looking for a new phone, then, maybe they're worth checking out.

• LG phones aren't going away, according to CEO - here's what could come next

LG may have pulled out of MWC 2020 due to concerns around the coronavirus, but it appears the South Korean electronics giant is still working hard on its next flagship smartphone, with the latest scoop from noted leaker Evan Blass giving us some hints at what we can expect from the LG V60 ThinQ.

According to the a new series of images shared by Blass, which were reportedly obtained from a promotional video for the device, the LG V60 ThinQ will sport four microphone channels.

• The LG V60 will reportedly launch only in the US and Europe
• Check out the best LG phones
• Read our full LG V50 ThinQ review

While the image doesn't offer any information on what each of the mics is for, we suspect at least a couple of them will be used for the cancelation of ambient noise during video and audio recording.

Additionally, the image shows a device with a quad camera setup on its rear, as previously rumored. LG's last flagship, the LG V50 ThinQ 5G, offered at least one lens with optical image stabilization (OIS), along with standard and ultra-wide lenses – we predict the company will offer each of those again, along with an additional ToF or macro sensor.

Another tidbit that will surely please fans is the inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack, which suggests the return of LG's celebrated 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC audio feature – a mainstay of the company's premium devices since the LG G5.

Look closely at the leaked image above and you'll also spot the LG V60 ThinQ's massive 5,000mAh battery, which is 1,000mAh larger than the handset's predecessor, the V50 ThinQ 5G.

Of course, none of the information in this leak has been confirmed by LG, and we'll likely have to wait until later in the year to hear anything concrete about its upcoming flagship. That said, if the LG V60 ThinQ is anything like the phone detailed here, we could be in for something special.

• LG V60 ThinQ could land in September with two screens and a punch-hole

Update: ZTE has now confirmed that it will still be exhibiting at MWC 2020, but it won't be hosting a press conference. The company also says it will be unveiling new devices at the show, including a new 5G phone that will be part of the ZTE Axon range.

Original story below…

LG Electronics has officially pulled out of MWC 2020, citing safety concerns around the coronavirus outbreak as it spreads beyond Chinese borders.

"With the safety of its employees and general public foremost in mind, LG has decided to withdraw from exhibiting and participating in MWC 2020 later this month in Barcelona, Spain," the company said in a  statement. "This decision will prevent needlessly exposing hundreds of LG employees to international travel, which most health experts have advised."

Instead of revealing its latest handsets at Mobile World Congress, LG will hold separate events "in the near future" to announce its lineup of 2020 phones and mobile products.

Hours before, ZTE had announced it would be pulling out of MWC and canceling its press conference, partially due to travel and visa issues but also over concerns of the coronavirus, including the mild xenophobia that comes with the China-originated disease, a spokesperson told The Verge. 

MWC: LG and ZTE out, Huawei and Qualcomm reportedly still in

Before LG and ZTE's actions, GSMA, the organization behind MWC, released a statement maintaining that the coronavirus has had "minimal impact on the event thus far." Huawei and Qualcomm still plan on attending, according to CNET's Shara Tibken.

GSMA's statement mentions the additional hygiene measures the organization has taken to mitigate the spread of the virus, including increased disinfection, onsite medical support, and providing more sanitizing and disinfecting products on site.

We'll be bringing you all the news and rumors about new phone launches in the run-up to MWC, including the latest on the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the show, so stay tuned.

LG’s next flagship phone, the 5G-capable LG V60, is only headed for two markets - the US and Europe - according to an LG executive. Meanwhile, other regions will get 5G phones in lower price tiers.

LG is shifting its strategy to only release its new top-end phone in areas with consumers that will pay higher prices for handsets and where carriers have more aggressive marketing, LG Mobile Communications Business lead Shin Jae-suk said in an earnings call, reported by TheElec.

LG will release a more affordable 5G phone in its home region of Korea, Shin said in the call. This could be referring to the upcoming LG G9 in the more budget flagship G-series tier - or perhaps something even more mid-range. 

• The LG V60 will certainly come to carriers, like other 5G phones
• Hopefully more features will make the LG V60 reach our best phones list
• The LG V40 was the first triple-camera phone, perhaps its successor will make our best camera phones list

Splitting 5G phones between different 5G markets

Aiming different phones at territories they’re more suited for isn’t a new strategy, but it’s further complicated by the nascent 5G markets. The next-gen networks are still being built, and will work on different frequency bands once they go online. 

Consumers are unclear about 5G, but excited for higher speeds, and this is where LG has decided to plant its flag by releasing the 5G-capable LG V50 ThinQ 5G in mid-2019 as a minimal iteration on the V40 that felt rushed out to be one of the first phones out there that could work on the advanced networks - or at least Verizon’s in the US.

While the phone didn’t quite achieve the performance or download speeds as the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, the LG V50 was notably cheaper, with the launch price of a new iPhone XS or Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus. But the LG V50 wasn't as widely available, only coming to Verizon 5G and Sprint 5G in the US. 

Conceivably, the LG V60 will follow in these footsteps, offering the marginal advancements and perhaps a new trick or two - LG’s signature - at a price below other 5G flagships. But as those prices are still beyond what other markets will pay (especially those flooded with more affordable Chinese phone brands), it makes sense to send a cheaper 5G-capable phone there.

Via PhoneArena

• Depending on its price, a cheaper flagship 5G like the V60 could make our best Android phones list

It's no secret LG has been having trouble with its smartphone wing as of late, with fewer people buying its phones, and competitors in the 'affordable' realm like Xiaomi, OnePlus and Oppo all gaining ground rapidly. However the company promises that's changing, and it has plans for a turnaround.

That's according to LG chief executive Kwon Bong-seok, speaking at a conference at tech trade show CES 2020 (as reported by The Korea Times), who pledged "LG Electronics mobile business is going to be profitable by 2021".

How will LG do this, I hear you ask – "LG Electronics will expand our mobile lineup and steadily release new ones attached with some wow factors to woo consumers". There's a lot to unpack there, so we'll examine that quote in detail below, to work out what it means for LG phones and for you.

• What we want to see in the LG G9
• Could LG launch more phones at MWC 2020?
• These are the best LG phones

What could come next?

The first thing to note from Kwon Bong-seok's quote is that it seems LG is set to expand its mobile lineup. We're therefore likely to see way more LG phones at various different price points, instead of the rather limited offerings that it currently puts out.

In 2019 its biggest releases were the LG V50 ThinQ, a rather pricey 5G phone, the LG G8 ThinQ, a gimmicky flagship, and the LG G8X ThinQ, a dual-screen device that you really need to buy a second-screen peripheral for to make the most of. There were a few budget options released in various regions, but in terms of high-profile releases, the V50 and G8 range were the big ones.

Since these phones were basically 'standard' Android devices with extra gimmicks tacked on that increased the price, they weren't great choices for most people. If you wanted an affordable device the phones would be a little too pricey, but if you had a little more to spend, you'd opt for a true 'premium' device.

Now it seems LG has understood its range was a little limited, and it might branch out into true mid-rangers, with perhaps some top-end flagships too, instead of straddling the line. We therefore might see 2020 bring a mid-range priced LG G9 ThinQ, and a few other phones with varying, and competitive, price tags.

The second part of Kwon Bong-seok's statement regards 'wow' factor, and to be fair LG has certainly been trying some novel features with the LG V50 ThinQ's dual-screen design and the G9 ThinQ's vein-sensing unlock, but in practice we found these less 'wow' and more 'ow', with the tech often working poorly and rarely feeling very useful.

It's likely LG has realized that some of its experiments have failed, as sales figures are a sobering splash of reality, and so the company may start to come up with some features that actually make us say 'wow'.

Perhaps it will take note from its much more successful TV and audio ranges and create phones with some impressive displays and speakers, for a great media experience, for example.

LG may be a prestige brand in the phone world, but that doesn't guarantee it success, with similar 'old guard' phone brands HTC and Sony also struggling to keep their heads above the water.

It would be a shame to see them go, since many people got their first handset from these companies, but with relatively new brands taking the phone world by storm, perhaps it's better just to let the dead die, though we still have some hope that LG might be able to turn things around.

• LG V60 ThinQ leaked images point to a quad-lens camera

When it comes to smartphone cameras, LG – like many brands – seems to be under the impression that more is better. At least, that’s what newly leaked images of the LG V60 ThinQ’s rear panel suggest.

Shared on SlashLeaks, these images show a cut-out on the back that appears large enough for at least four camera lenses, which would be one more than the LG V50 ThinQ or the LG G8 had.

The name ‘V60 ThinQ’ is printed on the back, so there’s little question that this is what we’re looking at here (though we’d still take the pictures with a pinch of salt), and the images show the phone in both black and white shades.

• Check out the best LG phones
• Read our full LG V50 ThinQ review
• LG has patented a buttonless phone

Other than the camera and the color, the only other major detail to note is that there’s no visible fingerprint scanner. Both the LG V50 ThinQ and the LG G8 had a scanner on the back, but this suggests the LG V60 will move it in-screen, like the LG G8X and many other phones.

Interestingly, these images also look a lot like recently leaked renders of the LG G9 ThinQ, which also show a quad-lens rear camera laid out in a similar way.

That suggests the two phones could be quite similar, and they might also launch at the same time, with an announcement at MWC 2020 in February being likely.

We don’t know much about either handset yet, but it’s likely that they’ll both use the new Snapdragon 865 chipset, and at least one of them will probably support LG’s Dual Screen accessory. Based on past form though it’s likely that the LG V60 ThinQ will be marginally more impressive – and expensive – than the LG G9 ThinQ.

• Stock up on the best Android apps

Via GSMArena

The upcoming LG G9 ThinQ flagship phone is coming and it could have four rear cameras lined up in a horizontal row, according to new leaked renders. 

The renders, courtesy of CashKaro and noted leaker @OnLeaks, show a sleeker handset with less bezel than its predecessor, the LG G8. If the leaks are true, then LG’s next flagship could also switch to a teardrop notch.

The render implies a large display between 6.7 and 6.9 inches and an in-screen fingerprint sensor. Diverting from previous LG G-series flagships, the G9’s rear cameras aren’t quite flush with the back, so expect a slight camera bump.

Goodbye G8, hello G9

A teardrop notch hints that LG is ditching the depth sensors that made the G8’s notch so wide – and ergo, the gesture control/vein recognition system that, while gimmicky, was an attempt at next-gen phone innovation.

Which leaves us speculating about what kind of new trick LG will give the G9 to try to compete with the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S11 series. 

One thing seems clear: this leak claims the new phone will be both notably longer and wider than its predecessor – 169.4 x 77.6 x 8.8mm, to be precise - which means it won’t fit in the Dual Screen that came with the LG G8X, countering LG’s claims that it would attempt to make future phones work with the second display.

Given the LG G8 debuted at MWC 2019, we should expect the LG G9 ThinQ to show up in February at MWC 2020.

Via PhoneArena

• We're gearing up for CES 2020 and all the breaking tech news

Two minute review

The LG G8X, strictly speaking, is a mid-year iteration on the LG G8 that has respectable specs for its price but is a bit lacking in camera quality versus budget flagships like the OnePlus 7T Pro, iPhone 11, or Samsung Galaxy S10e. 

But this review also considers the LG Dual Screen, which comes packaged with the LG G8X - and combined, they offer an affordable and less radical alternative to pricey foldables that manage to be more than just a stopgap solution.

It's not a perfect solution - the software is a bit buggy, the in-screen fingerprint sensor is unreliable, and the front cover's two-inch microscreen leaves much to be desired. But the combination of these two devices is affordable and delivers on its promise. 

If you want more than two screens to work, play, or simply enjoy, the LG G8X is a great pick for the price.

That said, don’t expect a revolutionary device - or even some of the novel functionality coming with foldable phones. The display on the front of the Dual Screen, for instance, is small and monochrome - essentially a modern-day beeper - so you can’t do things like quickly view texts or find your location on Google Maps, which you could do on a closed Samsung Galaxy Fold. 

Instead, you’ll have to pry open the G8X-and-Dual Screen every time you need to check more than the time. Given the poor fingerprint scanner, this is more annoying that it should be.

It’s ultimately a two-handed device when it’s docked, essentially operating like a smartphone in a folio case - but there are neat positives to that, like being able to unfold the second screen around its surprisingly robust hinge to prop it up (“tenting”) like a 2-in-1 laptop to watch videos. 

Neat little joys like the capability to screenshot what’s on one screen directly into a text message you’re composing on the other show that LG thought about what users would really want to do with dual displays.

Thankfully, this includes the obvious gaming possibility: turning one of the screens into a controller. LG went the extra mile here, providing some sample layouts (racing, arcade stick, gamepad) along with the option to build your own, mapping screen real estate to virtual buttons or thumbsticks you can shrink or expand to your preference. 

This is the LG G8X in a nutshell: a robust semi-innovative smartphone with thoughtful features that is still hampered by middling software. That’s mitigated somewhat by its very affordable price, providing a semi-foldable experience at the price of a more affordable flagship. 

The appeal is a bit niche, but for those who aren’t ready to plunk down serious coin for the still-finicky first generation of foldables, the LG G8X is worth investigating. 

LG G8X release date and price

The LG G8X paired with the LG Dual Screen was first revealed at IFA 2019, and will go on sale in the US starting November 1. While the phone will sell for $699 (around £543, AU$1,017), some retailers will throw in the $199 Dual Screen for free. 

It’s unclear when the phone will come to the UK or Australia, plus we don't know how much it'll cost there either.

You can get it even cheaper through Sprint in the US, which is offering both devices for $15 per month (after a $16.21/month credit) for 18 months - essentially getting the phone for $270. The phone and Dual Screen combo will also be available through AT&T.

Design

The LG G8X by itself looks, unsurprisingly, exactly like the LG G8 from which it iterated: a sleek black rectangle (glass sandwiching a glossy metal rim) with teardrop notch, Google Assistant button on the left side and 3.5mm jack poking out the bottom next to a USB-C port. On its own, the handset isn't too exciting, but it’s not disappointing, either.

The LG Dual Screen works a lot like a folio case with a screen on the inside: slot the LG G8X in (literally plugging it in to a USB-C male end and snugly snapping within it at the top corners), turn on the phone, and a button appears on the right side allowing you to turn on and fiddle with the second display.

Don't expect a seamless display - the screens are separated by a hinge, and should be considered paired areas rather than a single extensive sheet. There is a Wide Mode where it feels more like one screen, but that's only available while browsing Chrome.

As we previously noted, the hinge is robust - you’ll be able to unfold to any degree and fold back without worrying it’ll sag. The case-like parts of the Dual Screen are matte plastic covering metal, protecting the G8X on the sides and back.

The outer front of the Dual Screen houses a 2.1-inch mini-screen, which is tastefully hidden amid an all-black cover underneath a front glass display until you summon it by hitting the lock button. It’s a classy way to smooth over that we don’t get a full-color, full-area front display - but it’s likely that one would be both pricey and sap battery. 

As is, the Dual Screen runs off the G8X’s capacity without draining it much, which is an effective design compromise. 

In any case, the Dual Screen’s glossy front glass  is reflective enough to serve as a mirror in a pinch. It is a fingerprint magnet though.

The bottom of the Dual Screen has openings for the 3.5mm headphone jack (which ergo blocks plugs that aren’t straight) and a speaker. In the middle is a curious choice: a pin-and-magnet dock, which pairs with a matching unit that snaps into place and has a USB-C port. 

It works a lot like Apple’s old MagSafe power solution, and with the same effect, breaking off to avoid snapping power cables or damaging the phone. Annoyingly, it’s also a lot weaker of a magnet, requiring you to brace the power cable on a nearby surface lest its weight yank it out.

Display

The LG G8X has a 6.4-inch Full HD+ OLED display (2,340 x 1,080) with a tall 19.5:9 ratio, which is interestingly lower-resolution than the QHD+ screen of the LG G8. We expect that's another compromise for cost. Regardless, the display is sharper than many other FHD screens we’ve come across, which is no surprise with LG. The screen is great for media, showing the kind of deep shadows and brilliant colors favored by prestige television. 

Or rather, screens: the display on the LG Dual Screen is identical to that of the G8X - even up to and including the teardrop notch, though it doesn’t have a front-facing camera. That’s the price of fidelity, it seems, as the engineering was too troublesome to account for a cutout on one screen but not the other.

Otherwise, you can either pair up both screens to have the same brightness or adjust them independently (say, if you’re watching a darker TV show on one screen and absently scrolling Twitter on the other). Since the screens are almost identical in spec, they can both run any app, and swapping an open app from one screen over to the other just takes a three-finger swipe - a gesture that’s surprisingly reliable. 

To turn on the Dual Screen’s display, touch the dual-arrow gray button lying submerged on the G8X screen’s right side - press it and the second screen turns on, while pressing it again brings up a small menu with helpful features like swapping apps between them.

The G8X includes an in-display fingerprint sensor, and at the moment, it is... bad. It frequently takes three to four pressings at different angles to unlock, which is frustrating. When it does recognize fingerprints, it unlocks quickly, but it’s unclear which angle the sensor actually prefers.

Using a dual-display phone

Welcome to the most important section in this whole review. In the end, is it fun to use a dual-screen phone? Yes, unequivocally. The pros outweigh the cons. 

Much like proper foldables, it’s convenient to simply have more screen real estate. If you like using your phone to watch video, it’s great to have an entire separate screen to scroll through Twitter or text. It’s nice to have, and the whole kit isn’t too large or cumbersome to handle.

Amusingly enough, the G8X and Dual Screen benefit from not having as advanced of screen tech as proper foldables. Unlike the Galaxy Fold’s complex multi-apps-at-once configuration, LG’s setup is simple: two screens, and you can swap between them as expected, without any confusing bleedover or slippery interface. 

It’s not a perfect interface, mind you - it’s a bit buggy, and exchanges between screens don’t always go off without a hitch. The game pad tech is prone to getting wonky - you’ll have to grapple with the UI when making a custom controller, which don’t always play nice with particular games. For instance, Call of Duty Mobile freaks out a bit when you’re trying to move, aim, and shoot at the same time - likely because the source game itself has been tweaked to combine certain features (firing and aiming) in a single press as a workaround for, well, clunky gaming on a smartphone. 

But all that aside, it’s also great to actually play a game and have the full real estate unencumbered by your fingers. There’s also a handful of gaming-specific tools in a menu next to the three-button nav that do things like disable alerts, mute media, take screenshots, and even look up the game on YouTube. It’s helpful and considerate in a way that more overbearing gaming features aren’t. 

Watching media is unsurprisingly good on an phone with LG screens, especially when tenting up the phone to watch video. The sound coming from the speakers (both down from the bottom, which seems the louder one, and the earpiece) is fine but not exceptional - the Google Pixel 4 still holds the crown here.

It’s a shame there aren’t more interactions with the interface - specifically, it would be fantastic to have Kindle, Libby and other smartphone book apps spill over both screens. You can do this in only one app at the moment, Chrome, in a mode called Wide Mode (found in the gray Dual Screen button menu). Text spills over from side to side and rotates with the phone. Compared to seamless foldables displays, it is, frankly, ugly - but as usable as it sounds, and not the worst experience. 

There’s another feature, Extended View, which lets you use the second screen as a second tab of sorts for viewing photos or opening links, but this only works with LG’s Gallery and Naver Whale at the moment. And that’s it for novel uses of the screen. 

But consider this final point: by using inflexible glass, the LG G8X and Dual Screen are using glass - a far more durable material than the flexible plastic used in the Galaxy Fold, which is easily scarred and scored by a simple fingernail, as JerryRigEverything pointed out in a video. And thanks to the Dual Screen case-folio design, that glass won’t get damaged with a fall.

Camera

The LG G8X inherits the LG G8’s pair of rear standard (12MP f/1.8) and ultrawide (13MP f/2.4) lenses, though it dropped the megapixel value a bit in the latter in order to ramp up its field of view from 107 to a whopping 136 degrees in this phone - which outclasses the 120-ish degrees in most other flagships.

As for the picture quality, the rear shooters don’t put them high up in our best camera phone ranking, which is fine. Their photography stands out in the daylight, with a respectable night mode that makes up for a lack of sharpness with plenty of color - and while the latter technically works for the ultrawide lens, the resulting photos have so much grain and noise that it’s best left for well-lit situations. 

The 32MP front-facing camera likewise performs better with lots of light, and comes with a beauty mode and fine but software-simulated portrait mode.

Interior shots show off the camera’s strengths, even in low light, and the depth mode is particularly good, even without portrait mode. Portrait video returns, as do a handful of modes (slo-mo, time-lapse, panorama), but it’s the manual modes that offer a bit more than other flagships, letting you tinker with a range of photography settings from shutter speed and ISO to white balance and even manual focus - in photos and video. Heck, while the Google Pixel 4 touted its Dual Exposure settings, the LG G8X lets you fiddle with brightness from the standard mode.

There are a couple extra perks that are new to the LG G8X. The first seems obvious: mirror mode replicates the viewfinder on the second screen, which you can then rotate around - handy if you wanted to take pictures around the corner. 

If you switch over to video in the camera app, you might see a prompt for, we’re not kidding, ASMR video mode. Turns out that LG heard fans requesting the capability to record video at concerts, which requires high sensitivity to take in a performer from your spot in the crowd. Which also, it turns out, is good for capturing the rasps, whispers, and inflections in an ASMR-style video. Who knew.

Performance

The LG G8X packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor and 6GB of RAM, which runs the dual screens smoothly. Clearly, more screen real estate doesn’t exhaust this leading chip, which is extra-impressive given what the phone’s capable of doing simultaneously - like, say, play Netflix on one screen and HBO on the other. What? We’ve got so much to watch.

The phone comes in one storage size, 128GB, which is acceptable as the baseline for 2019 phones. You can expand it up to 2TB with microSD, amazingly.

Even more impressive: the phone comes with Android 9 Pie out of the box. Yes, you’ll have to wait for all the goodies in Android 10 (like Dark Mode), but that also means the LG G8X got its semi-foldable experience running without all the foldable-specific compatibility packed into the latest version of Android.

LG includes its usual suite of essential apps, which aren’t too extraneous - and heck, some are more feature-rich than expected, like the HD audio recorder that can guide you to pick up sound from mics at both ends of the phone for stereo sound. Across the phone, there are these nice touches - the keyboard, for instance, splits in half when the handset is rotated, with each set placed near where your thumbs would be. It makes the dual-screen format invisibly easier to use.

Battery

The LG G8X packs a 4,000mAh battery; the LG Dual Screen has...nothing. It runs off the G8X, which means, unsurprisingly, using that second screen will bleed the capacity even faster.

Thankfully, that battery goes a long way, lasting over a full day on normal use. Of course, your use probably won’t be that normal if you’re playing with that second screen, and we wouldn’t blame you. A little display discipline - remembering to switch off the extra lens when you’re not using it - can go a long way. 

As mentioned above, the LG Dual Screen has a magnetic port at the bottom that snaps on to a connector (included in the box) with a USB-C port. It’s an elegant little solution that’s nevertheless could stand adhering more strongly to each other, a la Apple MagSafe. The G8X includes a fast charger in the box. 

Buy it if…

You want a cheap entry to multi-screen and/or foldable phones
The LG G8X plus the LG Dual Screen, packaged together, is a great deal for its price. If you balked at pricey foldables but were intrigued by the possibility of having more screen real estate to play with, this is an affordable way to get a taste of that life.

You play games on your phone a lot
The LG G8X has plenty of different preset digital controllers and the capability of making your own custom one, as well as gaming-centric tools. Heck, you can even just have something else running on the second screen while you’re playing. It’s not the same as having a mobile gaming controller, but it’s the next best thing - and more compact to boot.

You like watching media on your phone
Even if you never end up using the LG Dual Screen much, it’s an effective kickstand and protective case all in one that props up one (or both) displays to watch at ideal angles.

Don’t buy it if…

You want the real foldables experience
Expensive foldable this isn’t - the LG G8X is a mid-evolution that presents some but certainly not all the advantages of true foldables. Its screen is not seamless. It will not turn as many heads.

You want the absolute classiest, highest-performing flagship
While the LG G8X has a Snapdragon 855, the leading Android chipset, it isn’t quite on par with the leading Samsung or Huawei phones in terms of RAM or in-the-box storage - nor does it have the same level of polish and features. If you want the flashiest flagship, this isn’t it.

You want a small phone
The LG G8X is not the biggest smartphone around, but at 196g and combined with the 130g LG Dual Screen, it’s a hefty package that takes up a ton of pocket space - and might be too big for some pockets. 

• Our LG discount codes can help you save on your next purchase.

Comparisons

Samsung Galaxy Fold

The Samsung Galaxy Fold is the first true foldable from a big name manufacturer released to the world, and spotty as its durability was (and fragile in some ways as it still is), the device is being sold to consumers. It’s out there, it’s real, it folds, and it’s huge. 

Not so much when it’s folded up to just its 4.6-inch outer screen, but when unfolded flat, its 7.3-inch seamless inner display is impressive. Here is the future.

Or rather, the first big step toward the future. Despite refinements, the Galaxy Fold’s plastic display is still not as robust as glass. It packs the same Snapdragon 855 chip as the LG G8X, but packs double the RAM (12GB) and 512GB of storage with a 4,380mAh battery (4G version). It dwarfs the G8X with six cameras. And, accordingly, it costs three times as much. You get what you pay for.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Fold review

Huawei Mate X

The Huawei Mate X is a fitting enough alternative to the Fold: it’s an “outie” foldable, and thus simpler, with fewer cameras and an intriguing design that gives a “lip” to grab while wielding the foldable. It also shows you a preview when you ask someone to take a photo of you with it. 

With a front screen of 6.6 inches folded up, the Mate X is large; unfolded flat, its 8-inch seamless display dwarfs the LG G8X. When we handled it, the foldable seemed ready to take the Galaxy Fold to task, especially after the latter’s fragility issues.

And then the US government intensified its Huawei ban, which endangered the company’s reliance on Android. Even when it finally comes out - at a reported 16,999CNH (roughly $2,400, £1,870, AU$3,500) - the device will be three to four times the price of the LG G8X, unavailable on US carriers, and potentially cut off from its operating system’s feature and security updates. 

Read our Huawei Mate X hands on review