South Korea’s two largest smartphone makers were at Mobile World Congress last month, where they took the veil off their latest flagship phones on the same day, with only a few hours separating the two events. Evidently, these two companies were none other than Samsung and LG, but despite their similar debut time-frame the Samsung Galaxy S7 was set to hit the shelves considerably earlier than the LG G5. The former is already available for purchase in the U.S. and other regions of the world, whereas the G5 is set to launch at the end of March. Fortunately for fans of LG located in the States, the Korean manufacturer seems to have made significant progress in making the LG G5 available to consumers, as four carrier variants have finally been approved by the FCC.
The LG G5 destined for the U.S. market recently received FCC clearance for four specific variants, particularly the ones headed for Verizon (LG VS987), T-Mobile (LG H820), Sprint (LG LS992) and AT&T (LG H820). This means that LG has one less formality to worry about before it can launch its latest flagship in the U.S., and might give the manufacturer and local carriers enough time to prepare their pre-order deals and promotions. It’s not going to be an easy task for the LG G5 to win the hearts of gadget enthusiasts in the U.S., especially since Samsung has had nearly a month head start with the release of the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. Several carriers in the U.S. have already bundled Samsung’s latest flagships with a free Gear VR headset for every pre-purchase, and T-Mobile along with AT&T have even prepared BOGO (buy-one-get-one) promotions for the Samsung Galaxy S7 series (Verizon to follow soon).
On the other hand, the LG G5 is a different type of beast compared to the Samsung Galaxy S7 & Galaxy S7 Edge, and might earn some fans thanks to its unique modular design. But regardless of how the smartphone’s story will unfold, its journey in the US should begin on the 1st of April, with certain carriers such as U.S. Cellular expected to fire up pre-orders on March 28.
