LG may be developing a dual-screen smartphone that… doesn’t look like any other dual-screen phone to date. According to reports from Korean new sites ETNews and the Korea Herald, the upcoming phone will feature two screens that sit on top of one another — and a swivel that allows you to rotate the top screen to reveal a T-shaped design.
This lets you, for example, view an app in full-screen, landscape orientation while also using a virtual keyboard that doesn’t cover the display.
And that’s… honestly just about the only application that makes any sense to me. Theoretically this sort of design could open the possibility of custom apps designed to take advantage of the second screen. For example, instead of a keyboard you could interact with a digital palette when using painting app or shortcuts for video or audio editing apps. But I’m not convinced LG has enough cachet to convince developers to create apps designed specifically for this unusual form factor.
The smartphone, which is said to be code-named “Wing,” is said to have a 6.8 inch primary display and 4 inch secondary display with a 1:1 aspect ratio. It’s expected to be available later this year for around $820, and it’s said to feature a Snapdragon 700 series processor with 5G support, and three rear cameras including a 64MP primary camera.
This wouldn’t be LG’s first entry into the dual-screen smartphone space. But it would certainly be the company’s most ambitious such project to date.
Up until now, LG’s approach to dual-screen and foldable phones has involved offering optional LG Dual Screen accessories for certain flagships, allowing you to attach a case with a second screen to a phone that would otherwise have just a single display.
It may not be quite as impressive a feat of engineering as the foldable AMOLED displays used in the Samsung Galaxy Fold, Galaxy Z Flip, or Motorola Razr. But it has the advantage of being a cheaper (and perhaps less fragile) alternative.
If the LG “Wing” does indeed come to market for $820 later this year, it could likewise be a cheaper alternative to foldables… albeit a funny looking one.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Surface Duo dual-screen laptop is also expected to launch by the end of 2020. Microsoft has yet to announced a price for its book-shaped dual-screen Android smartphone, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s also a heck of a lot cheaper than current-gen foldables. And it has a design that looks a little less out-there than the LG Wing.
Following the recent trend of multi-screen innovations, I appreciate that this phone is at least trying to solve a practical problem, not just a stylistic appeal. The goal of allowing your screen to remain fully visible while the keyboard is being used is interesting to me. However, the compromises seem too unappealing.
How do I securely hold it while swivelling? Seems like I’ll need to clutch it with my fingertips while the edges are not free to hold?
How much internal space was sacrificed for this hinge? How much battery capacity was lost? Was there enough room for headphone jack and MicroSD?
Somebody at LG likes The Expanse.
Somehow this is economically viable, but having a headphone jack, expandable storage, displayport alt mode, a back made of something other than glass, a flat screen with no camera hole, a removable battery, and an IR blaster, isn’t.
Or,
Somehow this economically viable, but having the articulating second screen on the back (like the ZTE Axon M) isn’t.
(I’m pretty sure you meant “clout”, not “cache” by the way)
I meant cachet.
I agree. I think they “jumped the shark” on this one.
I just want a good camera and not break the bank… the android version of the iphone se 2020.
Experimental designs are economically viable only they command a price premium and target customers who are typically more forgiving of any foibles and shortcomings they have, keeping the number of returns down. They are also not expected to sell in the hundreds of thousands like mainstream commodity phones so their value propositions cannot be compared directly.
No doubt LG already knows that adding stuff from your wish list (some of which would also require serious design compromises) will not result in significantly higher sales for their flagship phones, which is why they are more willing to release speculative designs to test the market in other ways.
Smartphone manufacturers spend many millions of dollars on market research every year, so the idea that there’s a large untapped market for the things you personally want in a phone is not particularly credible.
A galaxy s5 from 2014 has all of that (except usb-c alt modes because that wasn’t implimented yet, but it does have MHL). It can be done.
And still I hear complaints about those features missing, although as people have just given up hope of them ever coming back that’s died off quite a bit.
But I would like to clarify that a manufacturer would have to have ALL those design aspects to try and draw those guys. Except maybe video output because there’s not a lot of stuff you can do with that if you’re not interested in lapdocks.
…and I’m sure they’d find something else to complain about like, it has to have stereo speakers, or a bigger screen because we hate bezels now. So yeah, I guess if you can’t really please anyone, best to just please the shareholders.
Honestly I wouldn’t even feel a need to bring this up if the S5 got official updates to android 10 (it still has Linage support). Or if I had got the s5 instead of the s5 sport.
I still think the Axon M is a more useful concept than this thing.
I agree.
The ZTE Axon M has a great usability. The problem is that it wasn’t really available outside of China and was exclusive to AT&T. Plus it had last year’s SoC which gave these Biased Reviewers an easy target. Had they made it slightly cheaper, used the latest SoC, sent free models/samples to thousands of influential reviewers, and made it available worldwide it could have been a hit. Also, making things great for “power-users” and also for the developer community, are an easy way to generate a cult following and word-of-mouth.
Any underdog company can win the current “smartphone” market fiasco very easily just by bucking the (bad) trend. They need to be creative and throw shade at all the other devices, just like the early OnePlus One days.
Example:
– see this Samsung? Triple the price
– see this Google? Bad battery life
– see this LG? Poor software support
– see this Huawei? Less features
– see this Oppo? Fragile build
– see this Xiaomi? Bad security
– see this Lenovo? Poor speakers
Remember the last 2014/2016 era of phones, a la the Samsung S5/Note4 or LG G5/V20. Basically need an evolution of that, with modern components. The Axon 7, made by the same company ZTE, still remains one of the best compromises in phone design, if only it had ingress protection too :'(
The Underdog Phone (or flagship killer) just needs to go for a 9mm thick phone, Standard 16:9 ratio for portable dimensions, with very durable hardware design, running a sleek AndroidOne software, single good camera with attachable Lens, keep the price sane ($500 ?), and bring back all the features lost over the years:
– User Removable Battery (8,000mAh ?)
– Proper USB-C (3.1 variant, OTG, Host, HDMI-out, USB-PD fast charging)
– Headphone Jack with good QuadDAC
– microSD slot (great for video recording, watching shows, playing emulators)
– IrDa blaster, FM Radio, Notification LED
– Non-burning screen display for good +5 year lifetime
– Flat Glass protector compatible (applied, ready to go)
– A proper “Pro Model” kit (+$300 ?)
Comes ready for professionals, with highest spec, extra accessories in-box:
(extra Glass Protectors, 50W Super Fast Charger, Braided USB-C cable, Quality Earbuds, Second Removable Battery for hot-swapping, Bumper case for extra protection, Attachable Lenses for Macro/Wide/Optical Zoom, Landscape DeX-like dock for charging/cooling/ports, Two JungleCat-like pocketable JoyCons for Everywhere Gaming, Active Pen to keep in your purse/bag, 256GB microSD card, $50 Gift Card to buy some Apps)