So far 2016 has been all Apple and all Samsung, all the time. So much so that we’d almost forgotten that there are other players on the field. Apple and Samsung would probably prefer that we kept it that way but it’s not to be. There are other major phones on the way and we’re going to poke around in the rumours before Mobile World Congress comes along and spoils all our fun.
LG has had a strong showing in Stuff‘s eyes in recent years, though the LG G4 was unable to secure the company their Top 10 hat-trick. Aww. Samsung pulled the rug out from under them there. Does LG have what it takes to put their G5 smartphone on the top of the charts? Well, based on these rumours…
New Metal?
Metal and glass are the components to have, with Samsung’s dip into that ocean marking the fall of one of the largest hold-outs. Now that Sammy have gone premium, will LG do the same? They might, if a nearly-visible casing leaked recently holds true. By the look of things, LG could be opting for a metal-bodied design for the G5, a design which you can almost see behind the dummy case in the image above. That doesn’t conclusively mean that LG are going to be throwing their old casing overboard, this could just be a prototype box, but several reports claim to have seen an all-metal handset coming. Trouble is, a few reports are saying that LG will stick with the plastic for the G5 and keep the removable battery and microSD slots. We’re not sure which we’d prefer more.
Specific Elements
A report from VentureBeat claims that LG are plumping for some serious hardware. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 is thought to be at the heart of the handset, which would bring it on par with one version of Samsung’s Galaxy S7 for 2016. That’d level the playing field some. RAM and storage would remain unchanged from the G4, sticking with 3GB and 32GB respectively.
LG will apparently drop the screen size, down from 5.5-inches in the G4 to 5.2-inches in the G5 but they’ll be keeping the resolution. 1,440 x 2,560, a higher res than the monitor this is being typed on. Not remarkable at all, though. That’s reserved for talk that LG will be including a so-called Ticker display, an always-on second screen which will be borrowed from the LG V10. Of course, there’s a conflicting report saying that LG’s going bigger, not smaller, for the G5. Time will tell whether we get 5.3-inches or 5.6-inches.
In Camera
The LG G4 was all about the camera, to the detriment of just about everything else. The rumoured specs and build make it look as though the company is looking at a more rounded approach but then there are the dual camera sightings that have started to turn up. Again, we have the LG V10 to thank for that.
LG’s resident weirdo features dual 5MP front cameras and the feature is supposed to carry across to the G5. Except that they’re going to be moving the dual cameras to the rear of the phone. As seen above, the configuration could look something like this. The image here is supposedly the G5 16MP camera setup, which will have laser autofocus and an LED flash. Of course. LG are reportedly sticking with the 8MP front-facing camera for their flagship.
ETA?
Biometric access (fingerprint and iris), battery changes and possibly hardware expansion (think add-on modules) are also supposed on the cards. We’re hoping to see the G5 (and the answers to several questions) at Mobile World Congress next month, with a release date in the first half of the year. That’d be about normal for LG, who have typically picked an April international launch date for their flagship. Most reports agree that it’ll be making an entrance before the end of June this year but we’re expecting it sooner rather than later. As we get closer to the time, more info should start surfacing. We’ll keep you posted.
