There are reports LG may exit the smartphone industry soon. While the Korean giant has posted losses for several quarters, it has continued to show with the launch of its products that it hasn’t lost its drive for innovation, a trait that we wish was common among manufacturers.

In honor of LG’s contribution to the phone industry, here are six innovative smartphones that it has made, some of them from an era when it wasn’t a struggling phone company.

LG DoublePlay

Dual display phones are not new to LG and one can even say that only a very few manufacturers have as much experience with dual displays as LG.

One of its earliest dual-display phones was the 2011 LG DoublePlay, an Android smartphone with a horizontal slider design that opened to reveal a QWERTY keyboard with a screen in between the keys.

The main display was a 3.5-inch screen with a 320 x 480 resolution and the smaller display was a 2.0-inch screen that divided the keyboard into equal halves giving it a split design.

What did the smaller display do? It could display music playback controls while you surfed the web on the main screen. The smaller display also served as an extension of the bigger one for certain features. For example, you could cycle through your bookmarks or open tabs on the small screen while the main browser was open on the larger display. There was also an app called Richnote that allowed you quickly jot down information or ideas without exiting the app on the main screen. There were multiple other uses too but one interesting feature LG added was the ability to push the app on the small screen to the larger display with a single button.

LG Crystal

These days, we have seen companies launch phones with see-through back panels that allowed you to see their “internals”. These phones are meh when compared to the 2009 LG GD900 Crystal, a slider phone with an actual see-through part that didn’t show fake or ugly internals.

The LG Crystal’s transparent alphanumeric keypad is actually a touchscreen with alphabets and numbers etched on the surface. It had its own illumination which made it even cooler in the dark. And since it is actually a touchscreen, you could glide your finger over it and use it to navigate the device just like you would use a touchpad. It also supported multi-touch gestures such as pinch to zoom.

LG G Flex

The LG G Flex was a device that packed multiple impressive technologies. From its concave curved Plastic OLED screen that made it comfortable to use, to its flexible LiPo battery, and the specially coated back panel that self-healed from scratches; the LG G Flex deserves to be in the smartphone hall of fame.

Other interesting features of the LG G Flex include its rear-mounted power and volume buttons as well as its rear-mounted IR blaster that allowed you to control electronic appliances by holding the phone upright rather than horizontally like a regular remote control.

LG G5

The LG G5 may have been considered one of LG’s failures but it deserves to be mentioned as it is LG’s take on a modular smartphone, an area that only a few manufacturers dared to tread.

The G5 had what is called a Magic Slot that allowed you to remove the bottom part of the phone and swap it for an add-on accessory. LG called these accessories LG Friends. One of these add-ons is the LG Cam Plus which brought hardware camera controls such as a physical shutter button, a camcorder button, and a zoom dial. This add-on also had a built-in battery, thus bumping up the phone’s total battery capacity. Another add-on was the LG Hi-Fi Plus which had a Bang & Olufsen DAC for hi-res audio.

LG V10

Remember we said earlier that LG isn’t new to dual displays, the LG V10 is another example of the Korean manufacturer’s obsession with dual screens. This flagship which launched in 2015 had two screens that sat atop each other.

The main screen was a 5.7-inch QHD screen and on top of it was a smaller 2.1-inch touchscreen next to the dual selfie cameras. By the way, LG was the first manufacturer to launch a phone with two front-facing cameras.

This second screen had its own display driver which means it worked independently of the main screen. It was always on and apart from displaying notifications, it also had shortcut icons for certain apps and toggles for features such as Wi-Fi, camera, Flashlight, and ring mode. You could also customize it to display a message of your choice. When the main display is in use, the smaller screen displayed the recent apps menu and shortcuts to features such as taking a screenshot.

LG Wing

The LG Wing is the manufacturer’s latest attempt at a dual-screen device and its approach is different from the others we have mentioned above.

This time, LG has hidden a second display behind the main one, and to access it, what you have to do is slide the 6.8-inch outer display, which is connected to a swivel mechanism, to the left. With the main display, which now sits in a landscape position, out of the way, you can now access the smaller 3.9-inch secondary display. When opened, the LG Wing looks like an upper case “T”. You can hold the phone in this mode or turn it upside down, so the larger display is at the bottom.

There are several use cases for this dual-screen design. You can watch a YouTube video on the main screen while scrolling through the comments on the second screen. Also, if you launch the camera app, the second screen will display the camera controls and you can decide to scroll through your gallery on the smaller screen and the larger display will show the current selection. A number of multimedia apps also take advantage of the second screen by displaying controls there while the content plays on the larger screen. These are a few of the use cases of the LG Wing.

So these were some of the interesting smartphones from LG over the past few years. Do you think we missed out on a particular model? Let us know down below.

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The post Six interesting phones that Prove LG was Never Afraid of Innovation appeared first on Gizmochina.

There is no denying that curved screen smartphones are the new trend in the market, and several known Chinese makers including Xiaomi have already released a curved screen flagship in the market. But Xiaomi isn’t a company that’s usually happy with just one flagship. So, could it be possible that Xiaomi has another curved screen smartphone in the works? At least that’s what a newly leaked image indicates.

Weibo is the hub of leaks, and the latest leak is said to reveal an unannounced curved Xiaomi smartphone. Now, the company already has two flagships with amazing displays — the Xiaomi Mi Mix and the Xiaomi Mi Note 2. But this one’s a bit different. We just get a glimpse of the alleged phone, but that’s enough to reveal a different style of curved display used on the device.

The image shows that the phone is running MIUI and comes with a curve near the center, much like the LG G Flex. Now, if you remember, the Mi Note 2’s curved display is supplied by LG, so having a phone with a similar display as LG’s old G Flex isn’t entirely out of the picture. But given that the design didn’t really work out well for LG, it remains to be seen whether Xiaomi will experiment with the same design again.

Of course, before you get too excited, I would like to add that there is no conclusive evidence to say this is indeed a new smartphone from Xiaomi. So, we better wait for more details.

The post New Curved Display Xiaomi Smartphone Leaked, Looks Different appeared first on Gizmochina.

LG G Flex phone arrived in Canada in January and will be facing strong competition in June from OnePlus, when the new Chinese company will release its powerful and reasonably priced OnePlus One. These two phones make for an interesting comparison, The LG G Flex boasts unique features, and the OnePlus One is a strong and affordable flagship phone from a new producer hungry to bite into the Canadian Market.

Upstart Chinese company, OnePlus, is set to release its flagship smartphone, the One. It runs Android 4.4 Kitkat featuring the Cyanogemod 11S. The One has high-specs and a reasonable price tag. The display of the G Flex is larger, but less powerful at 720p compared to the Full HD 1080p of the One. A state-of-the-art 2.5Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset coupled with 3GB of RAM gives the One a power and performance advantage over the G Flex which has an older Snapdragon chipset and only 2GB RAM. Neither phone has room for expanded storage; the One comes in 16GB and 64GB options while the G Flex offers 32GB. The One boasts more powerful cameras in the front and rear.

Unique features to the LG G Flex are a slightly curved screen, offering easier accessibility in pockets if nothing else, and a curious self-healing feature to fix scuffs and scratches on the back of the phone. It works, to an extent, but is not a technology which is extremely useful at this point. The G flex wins in the battery category with a replaceable 3,500mAh compared to the fixed 3,100mAh of the One.

All things considered, the One is a clear winner. The high-spec approach of OnePlus One into the Canadian market sets it ahead of the significantly more expensive LG G Flex. The larger curved screen and gimmicky self-healing feature cannot compete with the One when the One retails outright for half or less than the G Flex. For those looking for a powerful new Android device, waiting till June for the affordable and powerful One is a persuasive option.

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LG has announced the official release date of the curved smartphone LG G Flex for their home country, South Korea. This smartphone will be released in Korean market on November 12th 2013 and will be dealing with a rival who had first slide, the Samsung Galaxy Round.

LG G Flex is verydifferent from the Galaxy Round. The LG G Flex that has a body that is really flexible, both the screen and battery. While both devices are powered by Snapdragon 800 processor, but the G Flex has a lower screen resolution, which is 720p.

LG G Flex much awaited consumers from different countries, not just like the Galaxy Round are only sold in Korea. LG promises that LG G Flex smartphone will be available immediately in Europe, USA and China.

However, until now there is no information about the release date and the price of this phone.

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Information concerning the existence of a smartphone with a curved screen from LG, the G Flex is now is began to unfold. After there is a leaked picture of the phone, For a device that’s bound to only hit Korea and even that in limited quantities, the curved LG G Flex is sure enjoying a long, healthy run in the rumor mix.

According to the benchmark tests, the LG G Flex smartphone’s specs is revelaed. Among these are powered byquad-core Snapdragon 800 processor with a speed of 2.2 GHz clock-speed, Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory. In addition, this smartphone will come with 13 megapixel rear camera.

Also mentioned that the curved screen smartpone will come with a 6 inchs screen size. But do not expect that this smartphone will come with a high resolution. According to data from the benchmark tests, LG will embed a screen with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels on the smartphone. In addition, this smartphone will running Android Jelly Bean OS 4.2.2. And rumor says that this smarpthone will be officially introduced by LG in November.

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