With the New Year just a few days away, most tech enthusiasts are waiting with bated breath for a couple of tech expos that are scheduled to be held within the first few months of next year. While the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will be held from January 3 to January 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Mobile World Congress will return to the Spanish city of Barcelona in late February. Many technology companies from around the world are expected to launch their new gadgets or showcase their new innovations at these two trade shows, so it promises to be an interesting few weeks if you’re looking for the cutting edge in consumer technology.
LG Electronics is one such firm that has chosen MWC in the past to unveil its flagship smartphones, with the LG G5 being a case in point. The device was announced by the South Korean company this past February at MWC 2016, and this coming year, too, LG is rumored to launch its all-new flagship at the same event. Expected to be marketed as the LG G6, the handset will succeed the LG G5 as the company’s next-generation G-series offering, and will reportedly come with a number of new and innovative features that the company hopes will help it stand out against competing products from Samsung, Apple, Sony and others.
Talking about bringing new ideas to the table, LG tried to do just that last year with the LG G5, making it the very first true modular smartphone from a mainstream vendor. The device, however, got mixed reviews in the media, and failed to set the sales charts on fire. This time around, LG is rumored to skip the modular design in favor of a more conventional form-factor for the LG G6. According to the rumor mills, the smartphone is expected to come with waterproofing and wireless charging, along with a number of other interesting features. The device is also expected to come with an iris scanner, which is something that’s still not become as prevalent as other biometric identification technologies such as fingerprint scanners. Other rumors have also suggested that the upcoming LG flagship will very likely ship with a Snapdragon 830 SoC and at least 32GB of built-in storage. About 6GB to 8GB of RAM is also being talked about, although there’s no reliable info regarding that at this point in time.
Some rumors suggest that the LG G6 will be compatible with Google’s Daydream, in which case it will sport an OLED display as per Google’s guidelines. In terms of screen resolution, the device is expected to come with either a WQHD or 4K panel, but the latter will definitely enhance the VR experience. There are also rumors that with the G6, LG may unveil its own mobile payment service to rival Samsung Pay. There’s nothing definitive on that front as of yet, but whether or not LG decides to jump into the mobile payment ring, its upcoming flagship should have an embedded NFC chip, so expect it to be compatible with services such as Android Pay irrespective. The new device will reportedly be priced between $650 and $700, which is pretty much par for the course for flagship smartphones from tier-1 vendors these days. The handset is also expected to run Android Nougat out-of-the-box, so all in all, the upcoming LG G6 definitely promises to be a smartphone worth waiting for.