2018 could well be the year that AI takes a massive leap forward. Google, Huawei and Samsung have all focused on it in recent times and it looks like LG are set to do the same with their upcoming flagship.
Last year LG announced their ThinQ brand which is designed to signify an AI-centric device. It was no surprise that at MWC, when they decided to not announce the upgrade to the LG G6 but instead produced an incremental upgrade to the V30s, the V30s ThinQ. The V30s ThinQ, aside from being a mouthful, had some improved AI functionality compared to the original V30s hence the ThinQ branding.
Continuing their focus on AI LG are set to announce the successor to the G6 and call it not the G7 but the G7 ThinQ — signifying it’s strong AI functionality. We expect it to arrive with much of the same added AI features that we saw on the V30s ThinQ which has some extra LG-specific Google Assistant commands.
Other rumours surfacing overnight have pegged a few of the details of the hardware in the G7 ThinQ. The phone will be the first smartphone to arrive sporting an M+ LCD display. The M+ LCD display adds white pixels to the standard RGB pixels in the LCD. The added white pixels allows for a brighter display with a lower power consumption (up to 35%). The 6 inch M+ LCD display will allow LG to produce a cheaper phone and thus be more competitive in the market.
Along with the M+ display the G7 ThinQ will also sport a dedicated AI button, much like Samsung’s Bixby button. This was visualised on the renders leaked yesterday but this new rumour “confirms” that. We are not surprised that LG are deciding to go down the AI button path after all they would not be the first to do so — Samsung have their Bixby button (which would be useful if it triggered Google Assistant), and HTC have Edge Sense to trigger Google Assistant.
According to other rumours and leaks the LG G7 ThinQ is expected to arrive with a Snapdragon 845, 6GB of RAM and 64GB and 128GB variants (although some rumours are pointing at 256GB we find this hard to believe LG would do this). The display will include the notch design to maximise display size but their software will incorporate the ability to “hide” the notch with a black bar.
The standard LG dual rear camera with wide-angle lens will also be included and will have an aperture of f/1.5 to improve it’s low light imagery. There is also expected to be some added AI functionality within the camera app as well.
We have HTC and OnePlus announcing their 2018 flagships in the next month or so and we expect LG to fit in this time frame as well. Rumours are suggesting a Korean release at the end of April which in turn suggests that an announcement is imminent.
LG are another company looking to turn around their fortunes with their new flagship. What do you think about it? Would you consider purchasing one?
You didn’t mention they are saying the launch is at the end of this month.
The AI stuff is unconvincing, and the screen would have to mean longer battery life to matter. In the end the price is going to be the key. This needs to be south of US$500 to find a market.
Yes, I’d consider it . . price would be the determining factor, though. I like LG phones, but the OnePlus is high on my list of ‘next phone’ also.
Oh, and am I one of the few who doesn’t care about AI? Comments?
Can anyone tell me… Does the quad DAC in the V30 make the headphone audio a lot better than on a Galaxy phone, for example? If LG keep the quad DAC then I am in.
Not sure about V30, but my V20 vs S8 definitely sounds much nicer, though it is much less obvious on low end headphones (you just get volume boost), with a high impedance headphone the sound is noticeably richer and obviously louder.