LG has spilled new details about its upcoming 5G-ready smartphone, now confirmed to be showcased at this year’s MWC 2019 even at the end of February. The remarks on details about the new device could hint that it be a followup to the LG V40 ThinQ since the new information is compared directly to that previous handset.
The company’s stated goal is to ‘speed up’ the premium smartphone market and that, unsurprisingly, begins with the same octa-core Snapdragon 855 SoC that ever other top tier device is expected to use. The 45-percent information processing improvements provided by the chip will help accommodate the throughput of 5G, LG says.
To offset the added heat generated by 5G, LG will also be incorporating a new “Vapor Chamber” cooling system that consists of a copper heatsink that’s 2.7-times larger than the one found in the LG V40 ThinQ.
The heatsink mechanism sounds similar to that used by Samsung in last year’s flagship model in that it will depend on water vapor inside to dissipate high temperatures and takes up a substantial portion of the device’s overall footprint. It will also contain more than twice the water held in the LG V40 ThinQ cooling tube.
Not only will the removal of heat benefit the processor and 5G radio. LG is including a battery that’s 20-percent larger than that found in the LG V40 ThinQ — with a capacity of 4,000mAh. The new components included in the handset aren’t necessarily going to be more energy efficient, so it remains to be seen how much difference the larger battery makes in average overall screen-on time.
Hardware isn’t the big news here
LG has already said it will be releasing its first 5G smartphone on Sprint’s network in the US and says it plans to launch on other major networks too. Talks are still in the works to make that happen, although no exact date has been provided yet and it isn’t clear if the new 5G phone will be available after its launch at MWC 2019.
It may seem odd for LG to give away core details this early on, with that event scheduled to run from February 25 through February 28. But the hardware aspects of this device don’t appear to be the big story with regard to LG’s new handset either.
There has been some speculation that the handset would not be shipping as an entry in the Korean tech giant’s “V”-series lineup at all but that it would launch a new model designation instead. LG hasn’t given any details about that away, only referring to the new device as a 5G smartphone. It’s also previously been speculated that this will be completely unique in other ways to differentiate from other 5G smartphones launching at the same time.
The showstopper here won’t likely be revealed until the MWC 2019 LG press conference itself. More directly, LG released an ad for the feature just this week explaining that it’s time to “say goodbye” to touch interactions. The clip touted gestures that didn’t require contact with the screen and that’s almost certainly going to be the new handset’s centerpiece attraction.
LG could buck the trend and reveal more details
Since the premier global mobile event is still a month away and LG is already showing off internal specs about its next-gen 5G flagship. The company has not provided details about internal storage speed or capacity, or how much memory it will include to back up the Snapdragon SoC. It also hasn’t touted how large the display might be. The new 5G handset is shown as being the same size as the LG V40 ThinQ in the representative image included with LG’s announcement, but that may not be accurate in that regard.
The details that are still unknown, with the exception of LG’s teased touch-free new UI, appear relatively arbitrary or at least as arbitrary as those it has now revealed. So it shouldn’t be surprising if more details leak out ahead of its press conference.