An LG-made device said to be called the Q9 leaked online earlier this week, having been depicted in a real-life image obtained by Indian tech blog Hometop. The device features an 18:9 screen and relatively minimal bezels, with its operating system being based on some variant of Google’s Android Oreo, as suggested by the photograph seen above, with one previous rumor pointing to Android 8.1 Oreo. While LG is already in the process of bringing the bezel-free aesthetic to its mid-range offerings, the Q9 won’t be borrowing the display notch from the G7 ThinQ.
Rumors from earlier this summer suggested the LG Q9 will be powered by Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 660, a 14nm mid-range chip praised for its energy efficiency. The South Korean electronics manufacturer is said to be preparing two models of the device so as to provide consumers with a choice between 32GB and 64GB of storage space. Both variants are understood to be featuring 4GB of RAM, though it’s still unclear whether a microSD card slot will be part of the package. Seeing how India appears to be one of the LG Q9’s target markets, dual-SIM capabilities are a given.
By most accounts, the Q9 will be a significantly more powerful version of the Q8, a device announced last month which effectively bridges the gap between LG’s entry-level and mid-range smartphones. As its screen is said to be around six inches in size, LG is also said to have resolved to equip the Q9 with a higher-capacity battery, though its exact specifications remain unclear. The Q8 was fueled by a 3,550mAh cell, so its sibling may end up shipping with a 4,000mAh one, a popular capacity mark for handsets advertised as offering long battery life. LG is expected to officially announce the Q9 by the end of the year, though the Android handset may not be available on a global scale.