LG rises from the dead (kind of) to deliver Android 12 to one of its best phones ever
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Even though LG's mobile business had been struggling (both financially and creatively) for a fairly long time, the company still shocked the tech world by announcing its permanent retirement from the global smartphone market last year.
Understandably, fears quickly arose among owners of handsets like the LG Velvet, Wing, and V60 ThinQ that software support would become... nonexistent, and despite official assurances to the contrary, we're pretty sure many users remained skeptical.
But now the Korea-based tech giant is back in the mobile industry's spotlight to (domestically) deliver on one of its biggest 2021 promises (last reiterated just a few weeks ago). That's right, the beautiful LG Velvet has recently started receiving a highly anticipated Android 12 update in South Korea, according to both a regional support webpage and actual user reports posted on Reddit.
Released all the way back in 2020 running Android 10 out the box, this gigantic 6.8-inch mid-ranger managed to score its first major OS promotion before LG's smartphone market retirement was officially announced.
Believe it or not, the Velvet was one of several "premium" phones promised "up to three iterations of Android operating system updates from the year of purchase", and while that initially sounded a bit vague, LG clarified its "three year pledge" soon thereafter, explicitly committing to both Android 12 and Android 13 makeovers for both the 5G-enabled and 4G LTE-only variants of this device.
Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean all LG Velvet models around the world will receive these updates, but at least as far as Android 12 is concerned, we're hopeful this fresh over-the-air goodie pack shall make its way to the US... sooner or later.
All of this is to say (among others) that LG is definitely not planning any sort of a smartphone market comeback or Velvet sequel, which we're certain some of you are still upset about.
After all, this particular device was pretty great, looking like no other phone around back in 2020 and offering more than respectable specs for a... slightly excessive price. Said price has obviously dropped to around $200 for various refurbished and "open box" units at various eBay sellers right now, and if the handset were to receive both Android 12 and Android 13 goodies stateside, those would actually be some very nice bargains to consider for nostalgic LG fans.
In case you're wondering, the Korea-exclusive (at least for now) Android 12 update apparently weighs in at close to 1.4GB, including February 2022 security patches, which is definitely not bad for a March rollout for such an old phone.
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