LG is bringing the V50 ThinQ 5G to Australia – AKA the boldest and weirdest 5G smartphone by a wide margin. Here’s why you should ignore your instincts and get excited.
You’ve got to hand it to LG – they sure aren’t afraid to innovate. Ever since the release of the LG G5, the Korean conglomerate has been walking its own path, prioritising modular designs and audio oomph over more conventional smartphone considerations.
The V50 ThinQ 5G could be its weirdest model yet – and we mean that in a good way. Boasting a detachable second screen, a bass-friendly Boombox speaker and a blisteringly fast fifth-generation wireless chipset, it’s an entirely different beast to the usual Android handset.
It follows a similar design template to the Nintendo DS, but with a detachable second screen that serves as an optional add-on. (Handily, this will be provided to Aussies at no extra cost.)
The secondary 6.2-inch OLED display locks onto the side of the device. This effectively gives you double the screen real estate with the ability to run different applications on each screen.
LG is bigging up the phone’s gaming potential, with the lower screen perfect for touch-control UIs. Intrigued? Here are the Australian price, specs and release date.
LG V50 ThinQ 5G specs
Apart from its wild dual screen, the LG V50 ThinQ 5G’s main claim to fame is its support for Telstra’s 5G network. Alongside the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and Oppo Reno 5G, this is one of the few 5G products available to Aussies at the moment.
If you live in or near a Telstra 5G-enabled area, you can expect to receive a very significant speed boost over 4G. In a real-world test during the phone’s Sydney launch event, it averaged a download speed of 1.2 to 1.3 gigabits per second.
[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2019/05/the-samsung-galaxy-s10-5g-is-a-goddamn-monster/” thumb=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/05/S10-5G-410×231.gif” title=”Samsung’s New Galaxy Phone Is An Absolute Monster” excerpt=”Today, Samsung made history by releasing the Galaxy S10 5G in Australia – the first 5G-capable smartphone for Telstra’s burgeoning network. We briefly got our hands on the device during its Sydney launch and can attest to its astonishing size and speed. Simply put, this thing is a fricking beast.”]
Other noteworthy specs include an ultra-wide 6.4-inch QHD+ OLED, a fingerprint scanner and facial recognition software, a completely overhauled vapour chamber cooling system, Qualcomm aptX and aptXH audio support and the aforementioned Boombox speaker. This provides a huge injection of extra bass when you place the phone on a solid surface.
It also comes with two cameras in the front (a 8-megapixel main and 5-megapixel wide-angle) and two in the rear (12MP main and 16MP wide-angle.)
In terms of components, it’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, 6GB RAM, 128GB inbuilt storage and a 4000mAh battery. These are pretty average specs for the price tag, but should happily handle any application you care to throw at it.
LG V50 ThinQ 5G pricing and availability
The LG V50 ThinQ 5G will be available to buy outright in Australia from June 11. It will carry an RRP of $1728. That’s around $330 more than Oppo’s Reno 5G. On the plus side, LG has confirmed it will be bundling the second screen at no extra cost.
At launch, the phone will be exclusive to Telstra’s network. We’ll report back with plan pricing as soon as we have them.
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