The notch-clad LG V50 ThinQ 5G has been about as elusive as the Loch Ness Monster. It first surfaced back in February when it was announced at Mobile World Congress (MWC 2019), but the fate of the handset was later cast into the wind after it emerged that it was suffering from some optimization issues — which resulted in LG suspending its April 19 release date indefinitely.
The firm has now revealed, however, that it will launch the LG V50 ThinQ 5G in South Korea on May 10, where it will be available through Korea Telecom, LG U+ and SK Telecom for ₩1,199,000 ($1,030) outright. There’s no word on whether, or when, it will touch down in other markets; though we seem to think it’s likely seeing as rival Samsung’s Galaxy S10 5G is headed to the United States later this month.
So there we have it: The LG V50 ThinQ 5G has a new launch date. But why was it delayed in the first place? Well, LG said it was because it wanted to ensure that the Qualcomm-made Snapdragon 855 CPU and Snapdragon X50 5G modem configuration it adopted is capable of switching between a 5G and LTE network with ease, after it emerged that was an area of weakness on the Galaxy S10 5G.
To be more specific, the Galaxy S10 5G — like the LG V50 ThinQ 5G — has separate 5G and LTE antennas that simultaneously maintain both a 5G and an LTE network connection, combining them to deliver transfer speeds of up to 2.7Gbps. Although, some customers were, and still are, reporting that their handset is unable to re-establish a 5G connection after losing it, without being rebooted.
There are a number of reasons the antenna could drop the 5G connection, ranging from the device passing between two cellular towers — one of which had to hand off the connection to another — to the handset deciding against taking advantage of the LTE standard because the 5G signal strength is too weak to be sustainable, so that’s not a cause for concern; but the inability to reconnect to 5G is.
LG is believed to have been working around the clock to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen on the LG V50 ThinQ. After all, what with 5G being brand new, dropping down to LTE will be an all-too-common occurrence. It’s no different to how a device switches to 3G when coursing through an area that’s lacking 4G cellular hardware, reconnecting to the latter when it detects the required signal.
What else do I need to know about the LG V50 ThinQ 5G?
The LG V50 ThinQ 5G has a 6.4-inch QHD+ P-OLED screen, the aforementioned Snapdragon 855 CPU, 6GB of RAM, a tri-camera setup on the rear (12MP + 12MP + 16MP), two cameras on the front (8MP + 5MP), and a 4000mAh battery.
It also has a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microSD card slot, which can be used to add an extra 512GB to the handset’s 128GB of internal storage. If you’d like to know more about the LG V50 ThinQ 5G, check out our official announcement.