LG phones say goodbye to us, and they do so with a spectacular legacy. Not for its sales success, of course, but for showing that if there was a brave manufacturer in this segment, that was LG.
We have precisely wanted to pay a small tribute to some of the company’s most striking terminals. The ideas they came up with were at times crazy and at times ahead of their time, but they were always original and brave.
Along with them are, of course, other ideas and advances that left their mark and showed that LG always it could be one of the greats of mobile telephony Even if I never made it If it probably did not, it was because it was surely the funniest and most risky manufacturer in the history of mobile telephony: here are fifteen examples of it.
LG Prada (2007)
Engadget was just taking its first steps when the LG KE850 Prada was launched, a mobile that reminded a bit of the iPhone (it was announced a few weeks before) and that with its touch screen it certainly posed a twist to the usual concept of the feature phone. That name, by the way, was no accident: it was only officially sold in Prada stores.
LG’s mobile was hampered by limited touch support (no pincer gestures to zoom for example), but especially by an operating system based on Macromedia Flash software that did not measure up. LG would end up launching a second version with a drop-down physical keyboard the following year.
LG GW820 eXpo and the attempt to add a pico projector (2009)
There was a time when even LG tried to bet on Windows Mobile 6.5. The LG eXpo was one of those terminals, and to try to add new ideas incorporated a pico projector (with a hump that wasn’t too “spike”) that would help to easily deliver portable presentations.
The concept was striking and in fact other manufacturers tried to raise similar ideas in their smartphones and tablets, but the fact is that none of them succeeded in this field. In Windows, by the way, neither.
LG Optimus 3D and the total commitment to the 3D world (2011)
The overwhelming success of Avatar made the fever for 3D support became an obsession for TV manufacturers. Some mobile phone manufacturers were infected, and LG tried to bring that idea to their phones.
He did it with the LG Optimus 3D, a mobile with a “3D screen” that allowed, without the need for glasses, to view content in 3D. Not only that: its dual camera system also allowed you to take photos and record videos at 720p in three dimensions. The idea, gimmicky like others in the past and future of LG, did not have much travel.
LG DoublePlay and a sliding keyboard that hides a second screen (2011)
Physical keyboards still made sense in the early 2010s, and LG wanted to take the idea a little further and combine it with the inclusion of a secondary two-inch display.
The proposal became the LG DoublePlay, and on that small screen it was possible to have shortcut icons or view SMS while on the main 3.5-inch screen you saw something else.
LG Optimus Vu, long live the (almost) square format (2012)
The LG Optimus Vu appeared shortly after that absolutely huge Samsung Galaxy Note (5.3 inches in 2011 were a lot of inches) and did it with a 5 inch diagonal but above all with a most curious idea.
It was about your screen format, which was 4: 3, as in the old TVs before the 16: 9 format was imposed. The proposal was certainly original, but that idea did not work.
LG G2 and the physical controls on the back (2013)
It is clear that the LG G2 was one of the best representatives of the family, but it also included some strange ideas. The obsession with reducing the frame by a few millimeters actually led LG to move the physical buttons to the back.
There we found the volume and power buttons, which also allowed moving around the interface although it took a little getting used to. Too bad LG’s customization layer hurt the user experience.
LG G Flex with curved screens and self-healing rear (2013)
It’s 2021 and foldable or dual-screen mobiles are on everyone’s lips, but seven and a half years ago LG challenged the world with a surprising concept: a mobile with a curved screen.
This is how the LG G Flex landed, which also added a curious (kinda) self-healing back shell technology. The proposal was original and LG came to present the LG G Flex 2, which used the same technology but reinforcing the bet on internal specifications.
LG G3 and 2K screens ahead of time (2014)
It was the expected successor to the fantastic LG G2And when the LG G3 arrived it certainly did so with a striking bet that was a bit ahead of its time.
It was because this model included a 5.5-inch screen (again, large for the time) that Above all, it stood out for its 2K resolution. The proposal was remarkable, but the LG G3 suffered from its software, its camera (somewhat poor) and a number of rather worrying instability problems.
LG G4 and a leather back (vegetable, yes) (2015)
In the middle of the discussion and the debate on which material was the most “premium” for a high-end mobile — glass or metal — LG wanted to take advantage of the appearance of the LG G4 to make a very original bet in this section.
In fact, if this mobile stood out for something It is because of its vegetable skin back, a really striking choice that avoided having to use housings and that gave these terminals a differential appearance. That proposal was never seen on the market again.
LG V10 and the independent mini-screen (2015)
The V series debuted in 2015 to propose a philosophy in which I was aiming for the two high ranges per year, like Samsung with its Galaxy and its Galaxy Note.
In the LG V10 the surprise gave it his upper mini-screen, which allowed to have some quick accesses or small notifications. The proposal of this 6-inch ‘phablet’ was successful in many areas (such as its camera), but not in this one. By the way: at least it was a curious (and perhaps unintentional) way to get ahead of the notch in hole format. Curious, no doubt.
LG G5 and the modular bet (2016)
There was a time when the world aspired to have modular mobiles. Google’s celebrated Project Ara seemed to have that future on the right track, but Google threw in the towel at the end of 2016.
Some time before, LG had presented its particular proposal in that direction. It was the LG G5, whose modules (called “Friends) allowed adding a camera grip with an additional battery included or adding a higher quality sound module. The idea was unsuccessful, and the G6 was left without friends the next year.
LG G6 and another screen that was ahead of its time (2017)
Do you remember when mobiles had beastly frames? LG wanted to get rid of them, and precisely the LG G6 stood out for a screen that tried to reduce them to their minimum expression.
Looking at it in perspective, they don’t seem so small, but those frames were. Not only that: the reduction It was accompanied by a screen in 18: 9 format, which seemed very long to us at the time but that today is the norm. Like mobile phones without frames, of course. LG was ahead of its time, but as is often the case, we didn’t even notice it then.
LG G8 ThinQ and the useless gestures at a distance (2019)
I never understood LG’s craze for adding the ThinQ surname and thus complicate the already legendary name of the G family, but that was actually somewhat less if we compare it with the characteristic that the firm wanted to make the protagonist in the LG G8 ThinQ.
It was about Air Motion, the system to control some functions of the mobile with gestures and that now Google is rescuing with Project Soli (integrated into the latest Nest Hub, for example). There were other curious additions such as Hands ID, a biometric recognition system for the palm of the hand, but that was more effective than anything else.
LG V50 ThinQ and the dual screen that hardly anyone cared about (2019)
Manufacturers that are now investing in launching phones with folding and dual screens should have perhaps paid a little more attention to what LG did in 2019, when tried to push the use of the dual screen with models like the LG V50 ThinQ and with the LG G8X ThinQ.
Actually these mobiles were normal, but a case allowed to add a second screen with which to work and enjoy twice. The idea did not seem to catch on, but as I say, the market acted as if nothing it would have happened and today we are witnessing a new impulse of a concept that for the moment still does not demonstrate its true utility (if it has any).
LG Wing and the rotating screen (2020)
Things had already gotten out of hand on the subject of LG’s original ideas, which at the end of 2020 left us speechless with a terminal that took the idea of having more than one screen to new ground: the one with the rotating screens.
That was what he proposed with the LG Wing, a terminal that undoubtedly will go down in history as one of the strangest we’ve ever seen. The rotating screen was intended for curious scenarios such as enjoying video and chatting with contacts, but the market reception has been, as with other brave ideas from LG, somewhat cold, and with a certain reason: the concept once again seems like a solution looking for a problem to solve.