As much as I liked LG’s 2016 flagship, the G5, it seems no one much else did. What was a technically capable phone inside simply failed to sell; it didn’t look as polished as other phones released this year, and the modular system — though quirky — can only really be considered almost a complete flop. Really the only thing that was rather popular was the replaceable battery. The 360 Camera was good, but not marketed aggressively at all, and the other modules were all but invisible. Some of LG’s own staff admitted, not long after the launch in fact, that some of the modules were of fairly poor quality. On this, I can probably agree; the 360 VR goggles were pretty awful, and the CAM Plus module was a good idea, but poorly implemented; a scroll wheel for zoom, instead of something more traditional like shutter speed or aperture? Madness.
Anyway, I’m not alone. The market panned the LG G5, and reviewers didn’t rate it much higher (though I did love its dual-lens arrangement with the wide-angle option). According to a report out of Korea this weekend, in a very unsurprising move, LG will ditch the idea of modules next year. Though many years of work went into developing the modular concept, LG has to offer what the market is asking for, and if the market wants modules, it didn’t want them the way LG did it.
Not only did customers not buy the modular phone / ecosystem, but LG even received a number of complaints about the modular system; the modules were hard to remove from the phone, and hard to attach. We can confirm this; it really does feel like you’re about to break the phone when you remove the bottom housing. When your staff at Mobile World are struggling to get it apart and put it back together, you know something isn’t right. Personally, I got used to it, but it remained unnatural feeling.
LG’s move leaves the Moto Z as the only really modular phone on the market. Google’s modular Project Ara never really materialised, and LG’s Friends are now all but gone. Will we see other brands adopt the modular approach next year, or was it something that we just didn’t really need?
It Is a bit of a shame the g5 did not have just a bit more polish, it is a good daily driver.
I do think that Lenovo’s implementation of how modules attach to the Moto phones is cleaner and better than LG’s effort, regardless of the merits of the actual phones.
I love my g5
Whatever you do with the G6 make sure I can still use wireless charging!
Put a removable back on the G6, and a removable battery (the Note 7 disaster should bring those back into fashion). SD slot, obviously. Small temp battery to keep things alive over a battery swap. Put the decent DAC in the phone from the get go, along with stereo front facing speakers. Put the photo controls into a better photo app. Maybe put the power and volume up/down buttons together at top left and allow them to be used as camera controls? Create a decent, Daydream compatible VR visor, but with AR cutouts. Go for a 4K screen. 360 camera… Read more »
That’s likely much of what we’ll see in the G6 anyway.
Currently using it as my daily phone. I have the B&O DAC and extra battery with the charging dock. Using the dock as a battery pack is really handy. The phone is really quick and i have no complaints.
Rumores are that mid November I’ll have a nougat update too.
If I hadn’t updated to the Pixel — which I have — I would still be using the G5 too. As much as other tech media panned it, and as much as it was a commercial failure, I actually quite liked it. I liked its innovative nature, I liked the battery pack/spare, and the 360 Cam was cool though I don’t really have a need for it.