advertisement

Follow Mint Lounge

Latest Issue

Home > Smart Living> Innovation > MWC 2017: Is the LG G6 a second Android flagship phone?

MWC 2017: Is the LG G6 a second Android flagship phone?

It is loaded with new features, such as a 5.7-inch FullVision Display, Google Assistant and plenty of cameras, yet the LG may not be the torchbearer in its battle against Samsung

For starters, the G6 has a 5.7-inch IPS LCD display with minimal bezels around it.
For starters, the G6 has a 5.7-inch IPS LCD display with minimal bezels around it.

The LG G6 may no longer be the flagship phone from LG’s Android smartphone line-up, but it is certainly dressed up to mean business. At the Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona, LG unveiled the G6, the logical successor to the G5, which was replaced by the V20 as the flagship.

For starters, the G6 has a 5.7-inch IPS LCD display with minimal bezels around it. LG calls it FullVision. But that’s not what is unique—it has a rather odd 18:9 aspect ratio, and a resolution of 2,880x1,440 pixels. This is yet another attempt at ensuring that genuinely big-screen phones remain single-hand useable. However, this might pose a bit of a challenge, as some Android apps may initially have scaling issues, till app developers roll out updates. What you’ll also notice is that the edges of this display are rounded, and LG claims this makes the LCD panel more durable and absorbs impact from drops better. That’s not all, because there is a layer of the Gorilla Glass 5 over the display, to further protect it from impacts.

The G6 is water and dust resistant as well, the first time for a G-series phone, and it has an IP68 rating. This means, that unlike the predecessors, the battery will not be the removable type. The phone will be available in Astro Black, Ice Platinum and Mystic White colour options—we will miss the brown leather option from the predecessor.

The LG G6 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 chip, and will be paired with 4GB RAM and the options of 32GB or 64GB internal storage. It is a bit perplexing why LG didn’t go with the newer Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip in the G6, and the reason for that could perhaps be the fact that they chose better software optimization rather than risking the newer processor for outright performance. This will pack a 3,300mAh battery.

After the success of the G5’s dual camera set-up, and the popularity of this feature in phones launched over the past few months, LG has sensibly made an upgrade in the G6. Instead of the 16-megapixel and 8-megapixel combinations earlier, the G6 instead uses dual 13-megapixel Sony IMX258 sensors—one is an ultra-wide-angle with f/2.4 aperture and 125-degree coverage, while the second has an f/1.8 aperture and 71-degree vision and optical image stabilization. While the hardware may be in place, the software optimization will be critical for the camera performance, particularly for the depth of field effect.

The phone runs Android 7.0 (Nougat) with a slightly tweaked version of LG’s custom interface wrapped around it. The interface has been altered for the new aspect ratio, yet heavily relies on an overall square dominated visual look, like before.

Pricing details and India availability specifics have not yet been announced.

Next Story