It’ll set you back a hefty $1,035 USD.
After some delays, LG is set to launch its first 5G phone, the LG V50, on May 10 in its home country of South Korea. The V50 will be available on three domestic carriers and is priced at 1,199,000 won or about $1,035 USD. That makes it 200,000 won (or $173 USD) cheaper than the Galaxy S10 5G.
Initially, the V50 was supposed to launch on April 19 in South Korea, until LG delayed it to give more time to optimize the Snapdragon 855 and X55 modem. So far, the 5G rollout has been limited in South Korea and hasn’t offered the best user experience. LG was concerned that issues with the 5G network would be blamed on the V50 and not the network.
Regardless, LG has since decided to launch the V50 because of the strong interest the public has in 5G at the moment, rather than risk the V50 being forgotten. That makes sense, because Samsung and Xiaomi are both venturing ahead with releases of 5G phones of their own. The last thing LG wants is to be forgotten in the race to 5G or in foldables.
To that end, the V50 also use a case with a secondary screen to transform into a foldable phone. It’s not the single screen experience you’ve seen from Samsung or Huawei recently, it’s more of a half in half out sort of commitment to foldable phones.
At the same time, this approach should offer fewer issues and avoid the hardware failures Samsung has been seeing that caused them to delay the Galaxy Fold.
For a refresher on the specs, the V50 features a 6.4-inch OLED QHD+ display, the Snapdragon 855, three cameras on the back, two on the front, and a massive 4,000 mAh battery. It also carries on with the LG’s tradition of high-quality audio, making use of a 32-bit DAC and the Boombox speaker.
The fact that LG will soon be shipping its first 5G phone is some good news the company needs. LG’s mobile division continues to operate in the red, and just last week it came out that manufacturing would be moving from its home country to Vietnam to save money.
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The LG G8 is a solid performer with high-end specs and a good camera. It ranks as one of the top flagships of the year because of its hardware and design but also loses a couple of points for focusing on some gimmicky features.
