A few days before LG Electronics ships the LG V50 ThinQ 5G to consumers, the company recently described the personalized artificial intelligence features offered by the smartphone.
While most Android handsets already feature a personal assistant in the form of the Google Assistant, LG takes this further by better integrating virtual assistant features with the hardware of the handset. For example, when the V50 ThinQ 5G detects that a person has parked their vehicle, likely using location tracking and onboard sensors, the handset informs the user to take a picture of the area where they left their vehicle.
Another example is when a person rides public transportation like trains or bus. The smartphone will automatically inform the user once they approach their destination, making sure that the person will not miss their stop. Moreover, the handset can also provide people with the information that they need after they supply a set of related words, which are analyzed alongside other data provided by the handset’s sensors.
LG already boasts of the artificial intelligence capabilities of its handsets through its ThinQ branding. Earlier iterations of ThinQ devices, like the LG G7 ThinQ, featured facial recognition and a dedicated button for the Google Assistant, although the V50 ThinQ 5G takes advantage of the network latency and speeds offered by 5G networks to deliver information in a quick yet secure manner. Despite the extensive use of artificial intelligence on its devices, LG does not collect data from its users, and it instead utilizes algorithms designed using the data from focus groups and processed on the handset itself.
LG originally announced the V50 ThinQ 5G during the Mobile World Congress event last February, and it takes advantage of 5G networks that South Korean carriers recently inaugurated. This handset competes with another 5G device released by a rival South Korean company, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, although LG’s smartphone ships a little later compared to Samsung’s flagship offering. However, compared to Samsung’s 5G device, the V50 ThinQ 5G ships at a significantly lower price of $1,050.
LG Electronics claims that it decided to launch its 5G handset as part of its V series due to the larger design of the smartphone lineup, allowing the company to incorporate and arrange more hardware into the device. Like other flagship handsets, the V50 ThinQ 5G sports the Snapdragon 855 chipset from Qualcomm, although the device features the additional X50 modem, which allows the smartphone to connect to next-generation mobile networks.
The handset also comes with a 6.4-inch OLED display with a resolution of QHD+, and to support the increased power requirements of the 5G networking hardware of the smartphone, it features a larger 4,000mAh battery. For people who do not need 5G connectivity support, LG Electronics also offers the G8 ThinQ, which comes at a cheaper price tag of $820.
Many handsets already offer artificial intelligence-powered features that assist the user in their daily activities, ranging from AI modes inside camera applications to full-fledged personal assistants like Samsung’s Bixby. However, whether users take advantage of these features regularly will depend on how well the handset maker implements these features.