For years I’ve been preaching that a truly innovative smartphone will need to embrace a new form factor. This has happened to a degree with foldable phones like the Samsung Galaxy Fold, the Motorola Razr 5G, or the Huawei Mate Xs. However, today we’ve seen LG’s new design, and it’s certainly a new approach. The new LG WING (LMG100N) has a swivel feature, which lets you rotate the display in order for you to make use of the screen underneath as well.
The multiscreen (main screen: 6.8” 20.5:9 FHD+ POLED, second screen: 3.9” 1:1.15 GOLED) feature unlocks interesting use cases, which could lead to a lot of productivity, user experience, as well as multitasking benefits. And while the hardware aspect appears to be a solid design, the usefulness, in the long run, will depend on third-party software developers who will support such a special resolution and multiscreen setup optimally.
LG WING specs
As of now, the LG Wing is planned to be available in two different color variants, which are aurora gray and illusion sky. The latter consists of a blue/pinkish color effect, similar to how you might have already seen on previous phones like the OnePlus 8. LG has not yet communicated an MSRP, but we’ve seen Verizon’s pre-order forms, which put a price tag up of 999.99 USD for the 5G variant.
| Display | 6.8″ 20.5:9 FHD + POLED 3.9″ 1:1.15 GOLED |
| Processor | Snapdragon 765G (5G) |
| Memory | 8GB RAM / 128GB/256GB |
| Rear Camera | Wide: 64MP Ultra-wide: 13MP Ultra-wide: 12MP gimbal motion camera |
| Front Camera | 32MP pop-up camera |
| Battery | 4,000mAh |
| Dimension | 169.5 x 74.5 x 10.9 (mm) |
| Other | In-display fingerprint recognition |
LG has the capability to manufacture world-leading display panels and can produce many parts of the device in-house without the need to source from externals. They have a house full of designers and possibilities to try out novel product designs in a way that many competitors can’t. This certainly gives them an advantage in trying new things out, but whether this will get adapted by the user base as well as software developers, remains to be seen.
The bokeh microphone for ASMR recordings and the gimbal video recording function show us, LG wants to be part of the content creator game. I welcome this news and hope more smartphone makers would more often try out something new. Not every new feature or form factor can prevail, but if you stop trying, you start losing.
YouTube: LG WING – Q&A 편
Photo credit: All material shown is owned by LG and was made available for press usage.
Source: LG Wing press release
