Loyal LG fans hoping to see the LG G7 at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) next month are going to be disappointed. The LG G7 release date might just have been pushed back by at least a month. The Korean company’s G series hasn’t been doing well for the last few years. The modular LG G5 was a disaster to be blunt. Last year’s LG G6 was criticized for sporting an older Snapdragon 821 chipset when other premium Android phones were powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC.
LG G7 to be redesigned from scratch
LG Electronics seems to have realized that the LG G7 prototypes lacked any attractive selling points. An LG official told The Investor that the company’s vice-chairman and CEO Jo Seong-jin had asked the R&D team to revise the G7’s design from scratch. The phone is supposed to compete with Apple’s iPhone X and Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S9. It won’t have a chance against them if it lacks attractive selling points.
The source told The Investor that Jo Seong-jin had asked the G7 smartphone team to “halt recent work related to the development of the newest phone.” The team will now “review the new product from scratch.” Jo had said at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week that the company would “unveil new smartphones when it is needed.” LG will not launch a new phone “just because other rivals do.”
The unnamed LG official told the publication that right after Jo’s announcement at the CES, the management sent a direct order to “the working-level officials to start over.” Soon after the CEO’s CES statement, an LG public relations official said the company was working on new marketing strategies and that nothing had been set in stone yet.
It is unclear what level of makeover the LG G7 would go through. A complete redesign from scratch means there would be no G-series flagship this year. But if the company is going to change the industrial design and add new features, it could be done in months. Jo Sheong-jin hinted at the CES that the Korean company would retain the existing models for longer and introduce more variants of the G and V series.
The new LG G7 release date could affect the V series launch
Previously, there were speculations that the LG G7 release date was set for the last week of February at the Mobile World Congress (MWC). Now the phone is unlikely to be announced before March at the earliest. If the LG G7 release date indeed gets pushed back, it would give Samsung’s Galaxy S9 a few weeks of free run with little competition in Android segment. The unnamed LG official told The Investor that the new release time frame would be selected around the Lunar New Year (February 16).
Any major change in the LG G7 release date could affect the launch of the V series, which is refreshed in the fall. There are also concerns about what kind of changes will be made to the upcoming V flagship. Though LG Electronics has been doing particularly well in the home appliances segment, its smartphone business has been in a downward spiral. LG’s smartphone business had been losing money for 11 straight quarters.
LG G7 rumored features and specs
Earlier this month, sources familiar with the company’s plans told Digital Daily that LG was considering changing the G7 moniker in favor of a new brand. It was exploring options such as numbering it with a “two-digit number” or “rebranding the phone with a new name.” But the phone was recently spotted on the company’s official website as “LG G7,” which indicates that the reports of changing the brand name might not be accurate.
According to the rumor mill, the LG G7 would retain an OLED display with an 18:9 aspect ratio, though it would have slimmer bezels than its predecessor. The Investor says it would have dual cameras on the front, one of them would be used for the iris scanning feature. The device would come with an advanced iris scanner that cannot be fooled even with a photo or 3D mask because it will be tracking your eye movements in real-time. Users will have to set it up with a dark screen and a light screen.
The LG G7 is expected to be powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 845 chipset. LG Electronics would not make the mistake of including an older processor in the upcoming flagship. The LG G6 came with Snapdragon 821 when almost every other Android flagship featured the Snapdragon 835. As expected, the G6 was rejected by consumers. The phone could also offer 5G support, though whether consumers will be able to enjoy 5G speed would depend on their wireless carrier.
