LG Velvet took the industry by storm earlier this year when it was announced as it came with a design that indicated the tech giant’s resolve to rethink its product lineup. Apart from the physical design, the LG UX interface was replaced by Velvet UI on the smartphone. LG Electronics has now reportedly announced that the Velvet UI will be expanded to its budget models. Under this arrangement, smartphones such as the LG Q51 and Q61 will get the UI within the year, the company is reported to have stated.

Apart from the Q-series, the company had earlier indicated that it will push the Velvet interface to the older generation of flagship models. The company has been criticized in the past for neglecting older launches, but it seems that LG is mending its ways. The devices set to receive the update includes the V50 ThinQ, V50S ThinQ, V40 ThinQ, V35 ThinQ, G8 ThinQ, and G7 ThinQ.

LG Velvet’s UI doesn’t really represent a super drastic change from LG UX. Apart from the change in the naming, the new UI also features a few tweaks in the interface like notification bar color customization, volume adjustment settings, and a new pop-up window during a call. It seems that the smartphone maker is dropping the UX naming in favor of the Velvet UI. But there is no official confirmation of that.

LG doesn’t really hold the best record when it comes to supporting its old devices in terms of software updates. The Velvet UI may represent a change of direction not just in its smartphone designs but on the software end, considering that some of the models that have been announced to get the proposed update stretch back to those launched in 2018 like the V35 ThinQ.

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LG has announced a smartphone named LG Q61 in South Korea. While it may sound like a new device, it is a rebranded version of the LG K61 phone that went official in global markets in February this year. A large-sized punch-hole display and 48-megapixel quad cameras are some of the major attractions of the smartphone.

LG Q61 specifications

The LG Q61 has a 6.5-inch IPS LCD panel. There is a punch-hole positioned at the upper-left corner of its display. The screen supports full HD+ resolution and 19.5:9 aspect ratio.

The modest MediaTek Helio P35 chipset is present under the hood of the LG Q61 smartphone. The 12nm SoC is accompanied by 4 GB of RAM. The native storage of the device is 64 GB. There is a dedicated microSD card slot on the phone for more storage.

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The LG Q61 has a front-facing camera of 16-megapixel. The horizontal quad-camera setup placed on the backside of the device has a 48-megapixel main lens, an 8-megapixel ultrawide sensor, a 2-megapixel macro shooter, a 5-megapixel depth sensor and an LED flash unit. The phone draws power from a 4,000mAh battery.

The Android 10 OS comes preinstalled on the LG Q61. The phone features a rear-facing fingerprint sensor and there is a dedicated hardware button for accessing the Google Assistant. The phone has a 3.5mm audio jack and it supports DTS:X 3D Surround technology. Other features of the LG Q61 include MIL-STD 810G certified chassis, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, GPS, and USB-C.

LG Q61 price and availability

The LG Q61 is priced at 369,600 KRW (~$299) in South Korea. The first sales of the phone will begin on May 29 in the home market.

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