LG has announced that its latest flagship smartphone is now shipping worldwide. Initially made available in its home country of South Korea, LG has today given notice that the LG G6 smartphone will start to be delivered to international markets from this week. "Key countries in North America, Asia, Europe, Central and South Americas over the course of the next several weeks," says LG.
In UK specific terms I received an email from CPW yesterday afternoon, saying that the LG G6 is now available for pre-order with delivery by 3rd May. Pricing at CPW is from free on a £44pcm contract, or £650 SIM free. The Mystic White version is a CPW exclusive in the UK, other colours available are Ice Platinum and Astro Black.
As a reminder of the attractions of the LG G6, at the MWC launch event the following attributes were highlighted:
- A big screen (5.7-inch) that fits in one hand.
- A flexible camera for close ups and wide angle shots.
- A way to view and review photos while you are still taking shots - LG Square Camera mode.
- Built for unexpected accidents it is IP68 certified for water and dust resistance, plus resistant to accidental knocks and drops.
In terms of tech hardware specs the LG G6 packs the following:
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 Processor
- Display: 5.7-inch 18:9 QHD+ FullVision Display (2880 x 1440 / 564ppi)
- Memory: 4GB LPDDR4 RAM / 32GB or 64GB UFS 2.0 ROM / MicroSD (up to 2TB)
- Camera: Front 5MP Wide (F2.2 / 100°), Rear Dual: 13MP Wide (F2.4 / 125°) / 13MP Standard OIS 2.0 (F1.8 / 71°)
- Audio: two high AOP mics and high-fidelity recording capability
- Battery: 3,300mAh (embedded)
- Operating System: Android 7.0 Nougat
- Size: 148.9 x 71.9 x 7.9mm
- Weight: 163g
- Network: LTE-A 3 Band CA
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac / Bluetooth 4.2 BLE / NFC /
- USB Type-C 2.0 (3.1 compatible)
- Colours: Astro Black / Ice Platinum / Mystic White
- Other: Water and Dust Resistant / Fingerprint Sensor / UX 6.0 / Dolby Vision / HDR10 / Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0
Since its launch the LG G6 has been in the hands of various seasoned mobile phone reviewers. LG's newest flagship might be attractive in its own right, in terms of design and hardware, but in this highly competitive field it is going up against the likes of Samsung's new Galaxy S8 handsets. Ars Technica, for example, hoped for "some kind of discount," compared to rival flagships, due to LG's decision to launch with an older SoC and 32GB of storage. It simply isn't competitive against the high end Samsung, surmises Ars. I note that a 64GB Samsung Galaxy S8 is about £689 SIM free in the UK, includes a free Samsung Bluetooth speaker, and is due to be available on 20th April.
If history shows us anything though, LG flagship prices do indeed tumble and end up near mid-range rival prices rather quickly. That's why I snapped up the still serviceable SIM free LG G4 a year or so ago when it was widely available for less than half of its launch price.
