If you were looking forward to any kind of mobile device from LG, you will have to look elsewhere as the company has now exited the smartphone business.
Although it is true even from their executives that LG has had trouble selling phones, their stint in the smartphone industry has been one to marvel.
So, in honour of their exit, here is my selection of the six outstanding phones it launched over the years, which lie somewhere between crazy and awesome.
LG Crystal (2009)
In 2009, LG released the LG Crystal GD-900, a 3-inch full touch phone that was presented as the world’s first transparent design phone.
The transparent part of the phone was its sliding alphanumeric keypad, with an actual see-through into the internal components.
This was truly a first-of-its-kind 3D user interface.
The keypad was also designed with a glowing feature that illuminated it during use making it amazingly easy to operate in the dark. The stylish phone’s dedicated Bluetooth headset also came transparent in parts.
‘Self-healing’ LG G-Flex (2013)
The LG G Flex launched back in 2013 was the company’s first one to have a flexible display and incorporated more impressive tech. The rear case of the phone had what they referred to as “brushed metal”, which was a coated panel that could “self-heal” from light scratches and repair minor abrasions on it.
On the rear is also where LG placed buttons for power and volume control, as well as an IR blaster. This IR blaster could be used as a remote control for other electronic devices such as TVs and music players if they supported it.
LG V10 (2015)
In 2015, the LG V10 was considered as the company’s best smartphone yet, and with a reason. It was a flagship from the Korean manufacturer that carried the first dual selfie camera in any phone at the time.
The two front-facing cameras were important in introducing means of taking wider selfie shots.
The V10 had a premium look, to say the least, built with a main 5.7inch main screen and a secondary 2.1inch screen right below it. This secondary display had its drivers and could function independently of the main screen. The phone also had steel rails on the edges and metallic protection around the camera.
LG G5 (2016)
It would be impossible to walk through LG’s smartphone history and ignore the LG G5. Well, this one is an LG failure, but it did not go down without a fight.
Very few smartphone makers had ventured into modular smartphones but LG being LG, they dived into this “experiment.”
This ambitious wizardry of technology came with a button on the left side that when pressed, loosened the lower section of the main display revealing what LG called a Magic Slot. Sliding its user-replaceable battery provided the ability to interchange modules for additional functions.
These accessories that also went by the term “LG Friends” included a camera grip that added a zoom wheel and other physical buttons. There was also a built-in battery in the add-on and this was significant in boosting the phone’s battery capacity.
LG V40 (2018)
One of the greatest items in its legacy bag is the fact that LG was the first smartphone maker to offer the market a modern triple camera set up, first seen in the LG V40 released in 2019.
Coupled with the dual front-facing cameras, it was the star of the show with its five cameras in the design and build.
Other than the camera with the primary sensor, phone manufacturers at the time only added either the wide-angle or telephoto zoom but never both.
LG decided to spice up clarity and color reproduction by going with, both and consequently setting precedence for more than two cameras at the back, a common modern sight replicated across smartphone makers.
LG WING (2020)
The Wing was released in October 2020. It was, from all angles, an experimental device, and LG promised that the device would be part of its Explorer series.
LG Wing is nothing short of a brave and bold device; at the time of its release, it made tongues wagging because of its swivel system that expanded its functionality that also brought in that ‘wow’ factor.
We really hope the company would have stuck around for the successor of the Wing that would have polished up the device in a world where manufacturers are taking different approaches to foldables and increasing screen sizes while making phones as compact as possible.
