LG just announced two new flagships, the LG G8 ThinQ and the LG V50 ThinQ 5G. Like most people, you're probably wondering "Why, what's so different about them that there need to be two?" Well, now that we have their official specs, let's take a quick look at what each has to offer.
Starting with the displays, we see that the V50 is sporting the bigger one, but they both have the same resolution, meaning one on the G8 has higher PPI, if that's your thing.
The biggest difference
Going down the list, we notice both smartphones have Qualcomm's latest and greatest mobile platform, the Snapdragon 855. However, on the V50 the chip is paired with the Snapdragon X50 5G modem, which is arguably the biggest difference between the two phones. That addition makes the V50 more futureproof, but likely a fair bit more expensive as well. The 5G modem doesn't come without some drawbacks, however. When in use, it's using up quite a lot of power and producing a significant amount of heat in the process. The V50 does have a new cooling system, but it will be up to the task?
ToF or Wide-angle, the choice is yours!
When it comes to cameras, the LG V50 has the edge once again, adding a telephoto camera to the dual setup of the G8. Meanwhile, at the front, the G8 receives a ToF camera, which means a more secure face recognition, while the V50 has a wide-angle selfie camera instead.
The front-facing setup of the G8 also allows it to have a new security feature: Hand ID. Using the cameras the phone can recognize your palm and use it to identify you. That's something definitely interesting to try out, but we're not sure if we'd consider it a significant advantage over the V50.
Further down our short list of specs, we see that the V50 logically has received the bigger battery as well, a hefty 4,000mAh one, compared to the 3,500mAh one that can be found on the G8.
The unique accessory
A feature we haven't listed in our table but is worth mentioning is that the LG V50 supports a new case with a secondary screen on it, adding a whole new dimension to the smartphone if you're willing to buy it. While the case does look cool, it might turn out to be yet another failed experiment from LG. Even if it works well, we doubt many V50 users will get it, making it hard to consider as an advantage for the LG V50. You can read more about the display case in our hands-on with the V50.
Mystery prices
We don't have a price for either device right now, but it's safe to say that with all the extras the V50 has, it will probably come at around $200 more than the G8. Overall, LG's decision to announce the phones without any pricing is a bit unusual and might mean the company is waiting to see how competing phones will be priced to make some final adjustments. If there's one thing we know, it's that LG needs some aggressive prices for its flagships, if it wants to get back in the game.
If you're interested in comparing the full list of specs of both devices, we've selected the two models in our specs comparison tool.
As you can see, not much has changed over at LG, we've received the expected upgrades that 2019 is bringing, along with a couple of surprises, one for each device (the palm reading and the display case). When it comes to looks, it doesn't seem like LG's design team spent much time at the drawing board, you'd hardly notice any differences between the new phones and the last year's models.
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