Make way for an LG G7 announcement in January at CES 2018! Read the latest news on the LG G7 release date, price and specs.
Samsung held all the strings earlier this year when LG was forced to make the tough decision of launching its new flagship with an older processor or waiting a few months until after the Snapdragon 835-toting Galaxy S8 arrived. It chose the former option, which has almost certainly harmed its sales against the faster Galaxy S8.
So it’s no surprise to learn that LG is in a rush to update its flagship, and that it may unveil the successor even earlier than usual – potentially in January 2018. Business Korea suggests the smartphone will be unveiled at CES 2018.
With rumours of a Snapdragon 845 on board, Samsung is then the one forced to update its flagship quickly or risk lost sales in the meantime. Of course, that’s if rumours that Samsung once again holds exclusive rights on the first batch of chips are untrue – the company claims that a Galaxy S9 launch at CES is unlikely.
The new LG G-series flagship typically arrives a day ahead of MWC, which in 2018 would put its probable launch date as Sunday 25 February.
However, The Investor claims that the LG G7 may arrive much earlier than expected, with LG announcing the new flagship in January 2018. That would place the announcement at CES 2018 in Las Vegas.
Business Korea also cites CES 2018 as the launch date for the new LG smartphone.
LG could take this strategy to get the flagship phone on the market quicker than rivals (largely Samsung and its Galaxy S9). It is also understandable that it might want to update the LG G6 earlier than expected due to its inclusion of the older Snapdragon 821 processor.
The LG G5 was unveiled in February 2016, so it’s not totally out of the question.
We’re speculating on the LG G7 price for now, since there are no credible rumours.
Phones have increased in price recently – partly due to Brexit and the value of the pound – so it’s expected that a flagship device costs in excess of £600. The LG G6 cost £649 and we expect the LG G7 price to be about the same… and then fall quickly in the months afterwards.
It seems the phase of modular phones is pretty much over and even if it’s not, we don’t expect LG to go back to it for the G7. We’re expecting another combination of metal and glass.
We wouldn’t be surprised if the fingerprint sensor is moved from the rear of the phone to underneath the display. This is a feature we’re about to start seeing a lot more of, even in 2017 so it may well be normal by the time we reach 2018.
As well as the fingerprint scanner there is expected to be an iris scanner, and a patent has been unearthed for just such a feature that will allow you to lock the phone and protect sensitive data. Although iris scanners usually work with infra-red, LG has developed a camera that can switch from IR to a regular one.
The LG G7 is almost certainly going to come with Qualcomm’s new 7nm Snapdragon 845 chip .
Key new features offered by the Snapdragon 845 include a secure processing unit (SPU) that Qualcomm says offers « vault-like security » with the microprocessor, memory, crypto engine and random number generator all sitting on its own power island. Performance and battery life will also improve, thanks to an octa-core Kryo 385 CPU with four 2.8GHz high-power cores and four 1.8GHz low power cores; the 845 is 30 percent more efficient than the 835 for gaming, video and AR/VR, says Samsung.
Qualcomm’s new super-fast X20 LTE modem is built-in, offering CAT 18 speeds of more than 1Gbps, as well as an enhanced Spectra 280 image signal processor. Qualcomm has bumped up video recording potential to Ultra-HD, and added in various AI improvements.
LG fitted the G6 with the older Snapdragon 821 (rather than wait for the 835) so being the first with the 845 would be a big win.
We’re expecting another dual-camera setup and decent core specs. The main question is what LG will do with the display after introducing an 18:9 aspect ratio with the G6. There are rumours that the firm will switch to OLED for the G7.
Keeping an eye on LG Display is the best bet as the display using in the next flagship phone is typically announced in advance. This branch of the company recently showed of a 77in flexible and transparent OLED display (above) so we’re wondering if some of that technology might find its way into the LG G7.
Read next: Best new phones coming in 2017 & 2018
