Android powered flip ‘phones have never sold well outside of Asia. This all appears to be a matter of taste: smartphone consumers away from Asia have a preference for candybar style ‘phones rather than flip ‘phones. Yet, flip ‘phones are in some respects ideal designs. When the handset is closed up, the potentially vulnerable touchscreen is protected by the chassis. There’s scope to use another screen on the outside of the ‘phone, which could be used for notifications. The screen could use an OLED technology, or e-Ink. For those of us less familiar with smartphones, and here I am thinking of the elderly, a flip ‘phone can make life easier as to start the unlocking device, one simply has to open the flip. To lock it, simply close the flip. The main weakness of the flip ‘phone design is that the hinge needs to be both svelte but robust. But perhaps because of the improved touchscreen protection, there are many manufacturers still offering flip ‘phone designs and this Upleaks image is the latest, which appears to show a LG handset called the “Ice Cream Smart.” This is an interesting choice of name as LG released a model called the Ice Cream back in 2008. It would seem likely that the Ice Cream Smart is a follow up to this device, but running Android.
The clue to the device running Android is in the layout and icons showing on the screen, but as we have seen from other manufacturers such as Samsung, a user interface may share icons and a look and feel across different operating systems. However, if the Ice Cream Smart is a smartphone (rather than a more sophisticated kind of feature ‘phone) then it seems a fair bet that it is indeed running a version of Android.
At this juncture, we don’t know any other details such as the screen size, type or resolution, the processor, memory or camera configuration, nor the size of the battery. As this is an unannounced device, we don’t know the price and availability either. However, if it’s designed for a less experienced smartphone user, it is reasonable to expect it to have at best mid-range internals, so something less than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor and 3 GB of RAM. My money would be on the Snapdragon 410 but this is speculation. However! Let us know what you think to LG’s latest potential device in the comments below.
