LG Shows Off the G8, G8s, and V50 Smartphones at Mobile World Congress

Samsung may have stolen everyone’s thunder a week ago, but LG wants you to know it isn’t out of the Android game just yet. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the company is introducing three phone designs.

V8 ThinQ

The LG V8 gets the company’s annoying “ThinQ” branding but otherwise looks like a solid if unambitious design. It’s equipped with the latest Snapdragon 855 processor, 6 GB of RAM, and a 6.1-inch display with the familiar rounded corners and notched cutout. That screen is OLED, by the way, with a generous 3120×1440 resolution. And that’s not its only trick: the flat surface of the display is used as an amplifier for the phone’s speaker, a neat extra.

LG is hoping for a bit of differentiation with more hardware flexibility, including 128GB of storage and a MicroSD card slot, a headphone jack, and a choice between a fingerprint reader, face unlock, and “palm vein” biometrics. That unlocks your phone or apps with the unique pattern of blood vessels in your hand, recognized via a dedicated camera on the front. That camera can also handle hand gestures, which sounds less interesting. The conventional cameras are 8 megapixels and 5 megapixel wide-angle on the front, with a dual 12/16 megapixel setup on the back. Confusingly, some international market variations of the G8 will also get a third 12 MP telephoto lens. The battery is 3500 mAh.

G8s ThinQ

The company also announced the G8s, a cheaper alternate version of this model that will appear in some markets. It’s mostly the same, but uses a slightly larger 6.2-inch screen with a lower 1080p resolution. The rear gets three cameras, 13 and 12 megapixels main sensors and a 13 MP telephoto lens, while the front is only packing one (plus the vein and gesture sensor cam). Note that it omits the SD card slot and that speaker-screen is nowhere to be found. It also starts at “just” 64GB of storage.

V50 ThinQ

The LG V50 is the company’s new flagship in the main line. It has all the features of the G8 above, with a larger 6.4-inch OLED screen, the same camera setup plus a 12 MP zoom lens, and a boosted 4000 mAh battery. The biggest differentiation is that it will launch with ultra-fast 5G wireless support, which is probably what that bigger screen and battery are accommodating.

To ostensibly compete with Samsung’s Galaxy Fold design, the V50 will also have an optional dual-screen add-on case. The “Dual Screen for G V50 ThinQ 5G” (just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?) packs an additional 6.2-inch 1080p OLED display, connecting to the main phone via POGO pins. It’s a secondary screen for apps, but it can also be used horizontally as a keyboard or game controller.

Prices and precise release dates haven’t been announced yet. Expect them to be competitive, more or less, with Samsung’s Galaxy S10, S10e, and S10+, respectively.

Source: LG Newsroom