In the Spring of each year we look forward to three hotly anticipated smartphone launches – the new Samsung Galaxy S series, the HTC One series and the LG G series. The new HTC One M9’s release was rather meh this year, Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge were exciting, and now it is LG’s turn to wow us. The LG G Flex 2 was warmly received, but is almost a footnote already as we are waiting for the legendary LG G4 to arrive. It was confirmed the device is to be unveiled on April 28 at two parallel events in London and New York and the following day the LG G4 will be available in Korea…which is not unusual for LG. When the rest of the world will see it is still not completely know, but it certainly should be in May.
The LG G4 is still a mass of fact and fiction, with leaks all over the place, the device on the website, then pulled, several images leaked by LG and updates on their Facebook page. There are certain things we know for sure, such as how it looks and the beautiful optional covers for the back that will be available. LG Innotek has confirmed a new and improved 16MP main camera and 8MP front-facing camera (FFC). We know that it will come with the newest Android Lollipop and LG’s newest UX 4.0 running on top. We are fairly certain it will sport an improved 5.5-inch Quad HD (QHD) display with a resolution on 2560 x 1440 pixels. One major item still not know is what type of processor will be powering the new LG G4 – the newest 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor or the 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 hexa-core processor, but the latest leak on LG’s Facebook page has them opting for the Snapdragon 808, probably due to the uncertainty with overheating issues with the Snapdragon 810.
The processor is such a big deal that analysts are predicting that if the LG G4 does ship with the Snapdragon 808 – a step below the 810 – it could hurt sales to the point that LG will only see sales hit that of last year’s LG G3 at 10 million devices. LG is trying to increase their market share from homegrown rival, Samsung and their massive success with their new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge.