Last night, LG unveiled two new smartphones ahead of the official start of MWC 2019, and alongside the LG G8 ThinQ which we’ve already covered was the LG V50 ThinQ.
5G connectivity was the theme of LG’s event (and, in fact, most others), and it’s unsurprising then that the LG V50 ThinQ represents the company’s first foray into 5G connectivity.
The partnership between LG and Qualcomm continues as, unlike some other brands, LG doesn’t have its own chipsets in this space. The LG V50 ThinQ features Qualcomm’s current standard Snapdragon 855 processor paired with X50 5G modem, as well as a 6.4-inch OLED display, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage standard.
The display has an impressive pixel per inch measurement of 538, making it one of the most beautiful screens around. The best bit? If that’s not quite enough for you, you can add a 6.1-inch add-on screen / gamepad which gives LG twice the screen real estate on the V50 ThinQ without stepping directly into the foldable space.
What else is inside? Broadly speaking, this is an evolution from the previous model the LG V40; the rear cameras are a triple setup here – 40MP wide angle, 12MP standard and 12MP telephoto, and over on the front, there’s a dual-setup of 8MP and 5MP working together for some depth sensing capabilities.
Other notable specs include a sizeable 4,000 mAh battery, but with 5G connectivity widely expected to be a bit thirsty in these first generation handsets, it’s unclear how that battery will function in the real world. If you’re not using 5G regularly, though, expect this to be an all day phone quite comfortably.
What I’m personally finding quite interesting about the announcements – and not just from LG – is that while 5G is clearly a headline feature, there’s not a lot of conversation about what 5G actually means for handsets. A recurrent theme seems to be that manufacturers especially haven’t really developed compelling use-case arguments for what 5G will let us do that 4G couldn’t.
Regardless, the logical conclusion with 5G is that LG will be partnering with major carriers to bring the LG V50 ThinQ to markets where it can be best used on new 5G networks, and Australia (with Telstra’s 5G network) will be one of the launch markets.
Telstra confirmed as much yesterday, and obviously closer to the local launch we can expect to learn more about timing and pricing.
