For a company with a two letter name, LG loves nothing so much as an unwieldy title. A form of overcompensation, perhaps? Whatever the case, the lengthening of LG phone names is one of this world’s few constants, and as such, it ought to be no surprise that the company’s first 5G handset happily continues the trend as the LG V50 ThinQ 5G.
The phone will be available for Verizon and Sprint customers “this summer”. As for price, I’d put that somewhere in the admittedly vague ballpark of “more expensive that a regular LG phone.”
The device looks to be pretty premium, sporting a 6.4 inch OLED display, Snapdragon 855 and a beefy 4,000-mAh battery. The company isn’t revealing how 5G will impact battery drain, but it’s pretty safe to say it will take a hit. On the upside, anyone who picks up a 5G phone in 2019 will almost certainly be spending a lot of their time still riding the LTE rails.
The phone could eventually be available to additional U.S. carriers.
Dual screen case
The company also announced an accessory for the LG V50 ThinQ which adds a second screen to the device — tapping (gently) into the ‘foldables’ trend that’s been unfolding ahead of MWC.
“The attachable second screen for the V50 is a practical, likely more affordable alternative to folding tablets (yes, they’re really folding tablets),” said Forrester analyst Frank Gillett in a statement.
An LG rep demoed the accessory to us on the company’s MWC booth, showing how the dual screen accessory can be used for mobile gaming. In this scenario the phone screen can be used as (a choice) of digital controller.
The screen on the accessory is slightly smaller (6.2 inch) than the panel on the LG V50 itself but otherwise much the same. When folded the device appears like a handheld gaming console, with a shiny surface that resembles (but isn’t) yet another screen.
There’s no word yet on price nor availability for the dual screen case, including whether or not it will come to the U.S.
LG’s rep also wouldn’t show the internal of the case once the phone itself has been popped out so it looks like it’s still in a quasi-prototype stage.
