When LG announced its latest flagship smartphone G7 ThinQ during a special launch event in New York City on Wednesday, a number of people observed that it had an appearance similar to that of Apple iPhone X.
It is hard not to notice the same notch design at the top of the display. It has an uncanny resemblance with iPhone X. However, LG G7 ThinQ users have a choice of either displaying or concealing the notch. If they choose to conceal it, the phone will instead display a horizontal black notification bar with indicators for Wi-Fi, battery percentage and other features. LG has left a bezel at the bottom edge of the screen which, experts say, it could have avoided.
The powerful Apple iPhone X was released on November 3, last year. LG G7 ThinQ is not the first phone design to be inspired from the market giant. In March 2018, Huawei released its P20 and P20 Pro smartphones that had the slightly different notch. The notch stays on by default but when it is turned off, the screen to the left and right of the notch goes black, making the bezels look larger and the area of the display smaller.
The G-series phone has a 6.1-inch display with a notch at the top of its LCD, powered by a Snapdragon 845 processor and a comparatively mean 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. There is a dual-camera system. It is IP68 rated for water and dust resistance, like most rivals, and it supports wireless charging, like many, but not all.
It has a quad-DAC system for sensational headphone audio, the same sound quality which one can get from the last year’s LG G6 or V30/V30S smartphones.
It also has much-talked-about and promising cameras (8-megapixel front; dual 16MP shooters rear). By applying artificial intelligence, the camera can automatically recognise what is being shot (person, pet, flower, beach or building) and optimise the settings accordingly for a better picture.
The price of LG G7 is yet to be announced, however, it is estimated to cost over USD 650 (PKR 75,582) considering it as a successor of G6. The flagship phone will compete with the likes of Apple iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy S9, Google Pixel 2 and Huawei P20 Pro.
LG, as a smartphone company, is nowhere near the top five manufacturers with the highest market shares, according to the report of International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi and OPPO occupy with top places.