Released last year, the LG G3 was a surprisingly good phone, with the highest resolution screen that we'd ever seen. The question is, what can LG do to make the G4 even more desirable? The competition is certainly going to be tough with the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One (m9) both due to launch at MWC in Barcelona in March. We dig through all of the rumours to find out what LG has in store for us and when we can expect the LG G4.
LG G4 release date
It's usually fairly easy to predict when a manufacturer will launch a handset: you add one year to the previous launch date. Unfortunately, LG has been rather unpredictable with its launch dates: it launched the G2 in September 2013, and followed up with the G3 eight months later in May 2014.
With this kind of unpredictability, many people believed that LG would choose to launch its new flagship handset at MWC in Barcelona, but it turns out that was just a false hope.
Talking to the Korea Times, an LG executive said, "We rolled out the G3 in May last year so we do not plan to unveil the G4 at this year's Mobile World Congress and [will] spend more time perfecting the new phone.”
An LG earnings call, reported on by ZDNet Korea, pointed to the G4 being released in Q4. Given all of that information it looks as though we're going to have to wait until April or May to see the new handset, with LG wanting its own even so that it's phone stands out.
LG G4 display
The QHD (2,560x1,440) display was the stand-out feature of the LG G3, setting it apart from all of its competition. It's no wonder then that there have been rumours that LG is planning to better this for the G4. First, MyLG showed a leaked document that suggested the new phone would have a 3K screen (1,620x2,880). Following that, there have even been rumours that LG will leap straight to a 4K display.
Given that there has been no further information on either of these accounts, and that QHD is plenty of resolution for the screen size, we have to say that LG is more likely to stick with its 2,560x1,440 resolution.
That doesn't mean that it can't innovate, though. With the G Flex 2, the company showed that it has the technology to make a handset that you can bend, and there's no reason why it won't bring that technology to its flagship handset.
Then, LG has recently announced that it has developed a new 5.3in smartphone display with 0.7mm bezels. This would make the screen practically edge-to-edge and would slim down the smartphone. This is all down to a technology that LG calls Neo Edge. Currently LG only has a 5.3in screen in production, which is a touch smaller than the display on the LG G3, but that doesn't mean it's not planning larger screens or that the G4 will go for a slightly smaller display.
LG G4 design
We don't know a lot about how the LG G4 will change compared to the G3, although in its recent earnings call, the company promised to differentiate itself from the competition with its design. While that hints that the G4 will be different the G3, we don't know how. As we've already seen in the Display section of this article, that could mean a flexible body or a thin-bezel display. Hopefully, it means that LG will move away from a plastic body and to a more premium metal design.
LG G4 specifications
As a high-end smartphone, the LG G4 is going to have to have the specifications to match. A leaked file, shown on TechManiacs, shows that the LG G4 will have a Snapdragon 810 64bit CPU and 3GB of RAM. This is a clear and obvious choice for the phone, as Android Lollipop is 64bit ready.
LG G4 camera
LG is said to be focussing on the camera for the G4 launch. It's said to have a 20-megapixel sensor in the works, although the leak on TechManiacs points to a 16-megapixel camera with a resolution of 5,312x2,988. That's a aspect ratio of 16:9, which is wider than the typical 4:3 of most compact and smartphone cameras. This ratio makes sense, given that the screen also has a 16:9 aspect ratio: everything you take will perfectly fit the screen without any need for cropping or black bars.
