LG to launch a smartphone that “stands above the G series”

Now that the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9 have both officially been unveiled, everyone is setting their sights on LG’s next big smartphone. With the rumored launch of the LG G4 set for mid-April, one could assume that the company’s next flagship will be a worthy competitor to the S6 and M9. But according to LG, that’s not all they have up their sleeve for 2015.

According to Juno Cho, CEO of LG Mobile, the company plans to release a smartphone with higher-end specifications than the popular G series. At MWC 2015, Cho explains:

We are planning to release a product that stands above the G series. It will be launched during the second half of this year.

The LG exec didn’t reveal any specifics when it comes to the new high-end flagship line, but since last year’s G3 already featured great specifications, it’s difficult to speculate as to what the company could improve. LG has made some great advancements in the flexible display world, so perhaps the company is planning on truly bringing their flexible display tech into the mainstream. LG’s most recent high-end device, the G Flex 2, featured a 5.5-inch P-OLED display that we really enjoyed. But the device’s battery life, camera quality and a handful of other factors ended up tarnishing our overall experience with the device.

Of course, LG could also be working on something to compete with Samsung’s Galaxy Note line. Back in December, LG filed a trademark for something called the “G Pen”, or what’s purported to be a smart stylus, much like Samsung’s S Pen. So perhaps this new mystery device that LG is building could better take on the Samsung’s Note line in a way that the G Pro series never could. This is all speculation for now, so we’ll have to see what LG comes up with later this year.

Cho also commented on the company’s in-house built processors that we may see rolling out to more LG devices sometime soon. As we reported earlier, LG announced last year that they would begin building their own chipsets, and that production was slated to start in Q2 of 2014. In turn, LG rolled out their first chipset in the LG G3 Screen, which debuted in October 2014. The processor in the Screen is called the Nuclun (pronounced NOO-klun), and features a big.LITTLE octa-core design with four 1.5GHz Cortex-A15 cores for high-performance tasks and four 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 cores for less intensive processing.

At MWC, Cho commented further on the importance of building their own chipsets:

Producing our own mobile application chips is very important. As LG Electronics has been consistent in developing these, we plan to gradually incorporate into our new models… We do have a lot of issues that need to be addressed, but second- and third-generation processors will be much better.

LG has historically used Qualcomm chipsets in the majority of their handsets, and it’s obvious why they’d want to move away from that. Samsung has used their in-house built Exynos processors in many of their devices, and even Apple has developed their own mobile processors. In order for LG to regain its spot as the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, using their own processors could potentially help that happen.

Even after the recent announcement of two of the biggest smartphones of the year, Cho remains confident in LG’s success with their upcoming smartphones:

Samsung did a very good job with the Galaxy S6 smartphone. I believe our G4 will also be good. With higher expectations, LG put huge resources into the LG G4.

It remains to be seen whether or not LG will use a new iteration of the Nuclun processor in their upcoming handsets, but we do know that they’re working hard to bring more of their own to market.

LG Watch Urbane LTE first look

LG has announced two new wearables here at MWC 2015, and they’re some of the most premium-looking smartwatches we’ve ever seen. The first of which is the Android Wear-powered LG Watch Urbane. We went hands-on with the watch a few days ago, and you can check out our first impressions here. The second new wearable from the company is the Watch Urbane LTE, a standalone smartwatch running the LG Wearable Platform OS (based on webOS). We’re taking a look at this LTE-enabled watch today, so let’s dive right in. Here is our hands-on and first impressions of the LG Watch Urbane LTE!

The first thing you’ll notice about the Urbane LTE is the bulkier build to make way for the extra equipment needed for the LTE model. Furthermore, the proprietary band houses all of the antennas in the watch, which will allow you to connect to Wifi, Bluetooth and LTE networks. This also means the band isn’t removable. The overall chassis is similar to the Watch Urbane with its aluminum housing, though the LTE model is, as mentioned, quite a bit bigger. This watch features three buttons on the side which allow you to access your home screen, settings menu and more. While the chassis of the watch is classy and sleek, the band is very similar to what we’d usually see on a sportswatch. This will allow you to exercise with the wearable without worrying about getting a nice leather watch strap dirty. Additionally, the watch has a heart rate monitor, which is always nice to see on a fitness-oriented wearable.

As far as software is concerned, the Watch Urbane LTE is running the “LG Wearable Platform” OS, which is based on webOS. While it’s not actually running webOS as we once knew it, this is basically the same software we’ve seen running on LG’s smart TVs only with modifications for wearables. The interface takes on a circular design, offering up a carousel view of apps to scroll through. With this being an LTE-enhanced model, you can take calls and respond to text messages directly from the watch. You’ll need to respond to messages using an on-screen keyboard, which surprisingly wasn’t too difficult to use.

Due to the LTE functionality of the device, the battery has been upped to 700mAh. We obviously couldn’t test the battery in length with our brief hands-on time, though it will be interesting to see how the battery holds up in our full review.

Gallery

Specs

• 1.3-inch POLED display with resolution of 320×320
• 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor
• 1GB of RAM
• 4GB of internal storage
• 700mAh battery
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Sensors: 9-axis, PPG, barometer, A-GPS/GNSS
• IP67 certification for dust and water resistance

What do you think of the Watch Urbane LTE? Do you think you’ll pick one up?

LG breaks down its event into a 3 1/2 minute highlight reel

LG’s big moment in the sun was actually back in January, where they unveiled the G Flex 2 and quickly became the big talk of the show. But what about MWC? While LG didn’t have any flagship level devices to show off, the Korean device maker did formally show off plenty of newly released products including its new “affordable premium” phone lineup, the Watch Urbane and the Watch Urbane LTE. Looking for a breakdown of all their announcements? LG has your back.

The video above gives the big highlights of their 20 minute press event, going through all the devices mentioned above and even giving some love to CES’ darling, the G Flex 2. For those that would rather watch the press event in its entirety, you can do so through the video directly below:

What do you think of LG’s latest watches and low-end handsets? Were you hoping to see more from them at MWC this year?