LG Electronics is looking to undercut its domestic rival Samsung in regards to the duo’s new premium smartphone products, industry sources said on Sunday, stating that the company is seeking to reduce its previously planned one million won ($882) price tag of the V30 in order to make its upcoming phablet a more compelling offering compared to the Galaxy Note 8. According to the same report, the base model of the LG V30 with 64GB of internal flash memory will be priced at 949,300 won ($838), whereas the LG V30 Plus will have a full retail value of 998,800 won ($881), thus being significantly more affordable than the Galaxy Note 8 which starts at 1.09 million won ($963) in South Korea.
Industry watchers were previously expecting the LG V30 to break the million-won mark due to the fact that the Android flagship is the first high-end offering from the Seoul-based consumer electronics manufacturer that is equipped with an OLED display panel, hence being more expensive to make than if the company opted for a conventional LCD module. If the handset truly ends up shipping with a sub-million won price tag, such an approach would see LG sacrifice its profit margins at the expense of competitiveness, though it remains to be seen whether that bolder strategy will ultimately pay off for the firm whose mobile division has been struggling to make an impact in recent years and has yet to return to the black. LG’s latest attempt at improving its commercial performance in the market came with the release of the G6 this springs and was relatively unsuccessful, with its Snapdragon 821-equipped device being denoted as one of the main reasons for its poor Q2 2017 performance in the smartphone segment.
A strong premium device lineup is important for any original equipment manufacturer (OEM) as this product category accounts for the majority of its income due to its traditionally high profit margins and if LG doesn’t manage to repeat the success of the now-obsolete G3 in the near future, its smartphone division is likely to continue underperforming and weighing down the rest of the South Korean tech giant. The V30 still doesn’t have a firm release date attached to it, though it’s expected to go on sale at some point in October.