The LG G4 features a 5.5-inch display, but the South Korean consumer electronics company apparently doesn’t believe that is large enough for everybody. Recent reports have indicated that a new premium smartphone from the company called the G4 Note or G4 Pro (presumably with a larger screen) could well be in the offing for some time later this year, or early next. It was none other than the President and CEO of LG Mobile Communications, Mr. Cho Juno, who, at the MWC 2015 event held in Barcelona, had reportedly started all the speculations about an upcoming phablet from the company by initially claiming that a “super premium” LG smartphone was being prepped for the second half of this year. Though Mr. Juno has since backtracked from his lofty claims, he has still reiterated LG’s plans to launch a new high-end device at some stage before the end of this year.
While not much at all is known about the upcoming device, rumors emanating from South Korea seem to suggest that the handset could very will come with a removable battery – a feature that is going the way of the dinosaurs of late, at least in premium smartphones. The report also claims the G4 Note will continue to have the volume buttons on the rear, and will come with a plastic build much like the current flagship of the company, the G4, rather than a metallic unibody design, which is probably to facilitate the alleged removable battery. While phones with fixed batteries does allow a slimmer profile, it’s mostly a case of form over functionality for the most part, but companies seem to be increasingly following that trend anyways. As for the volume buttons being positioned on the back of the phone, it is a design element which was debuted by LG with the G3 last year and has since become a regular fixture on all smartphones from the company.
It is worth noting that all these are very early rumors, and while there is absolutely nothing seemingly out of the ordinary about any of the claims, only time will tell how many of the claims will eventually hold up, as the phone graduates from the planning stage to its eventual commercial launch. When it finally does arrive however, it will also be interesting to note whether it will go the way of Sony’s recently-announced Xperia Z5 Premium, and feature a 4K screen, seeing as all this talk of “super premium” features have been swirling around the device for long now.