The LG G6 is the South Korean firm's flagship smartphone for 2017, taking over from the innovative-but-unsuccessful G5.
The LG G5 certainly wasn't boring though. With two rear cameras and an accessory slot that allowed you to modify the hardware, it was a phone that really thought outside the box.
But with the LG G6, the brand has dialled down the 'out-there' innovation and gone for a more quietly refined design, while doing enough to make it feel like an all-new phone, a fit warrior for the great smartphone battle of 2017.
The huge display on the front is complemented by a large battery, water-resistant chassis and new interface - and you can see all those new features in great depth in our hands on: LG G6 review .
But if you just want to see what's new, we've rounded up all the information you need to know right now, right here.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The next flagship phone from LG
- When's it out? Announced on February 26, released March 10 in Korea, early April US
- What will it cost? Likely around £490/$600/AU$820 SIM free
LG G6 release date
- LG G6 launched at
MWC 2017 on February 26 - LG G6 release date March 10 in Korea, early April in US
The LG G6 launched on February 26, at the company's MWC 2017 press conferencein Barcelona.
We're expecting a March 9/10 LG G6 release date for the South Korean market, with Europe and the US following suit in early April.
That's big news for LG fans, as it'll put the G6 squarely in the battle against the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 - and have it on the shop shelves slightly ahead of its great rival.
Had LG gone for the latest and greatest chipset from Qualcomm, it may have had to wait until after Samsung launched, so this move makes sense strategically.
There's no news on when the LG G6 will land in the UK or Australia, but it's likely to be around the same time as the US, so for now April 7 is our best guess.
LG G6 price
According to LG , the G6 will have a similar price to the LG G5, so that means it's likely coming in at $500-$600 (around £400-£490/AU$685-AU$820), but we've still not had official word on that just yet - we'll update this piece when we do.
We wouldn't be surprised if the price is raised to accommodate that new screen though.
Indeed, a recent rumor suggests LG will hike the retail price by around $50 (around £40, AU$65) because of all the extra tech the firm is packing into the G6.
The silver lining is that the LG G5 dropped in price pretty quickly, so if you're patient you may be able to get yourself a better deal if you wait a couple of months.
LG G6 design
- Water-resistant metal and glass body
- Front of phone is mostly screen, with slender bezels
- No longer modular
- 18:9 longer display
One of the most obvious changes to the LG G6 from the G5 is the lack of modular design, but instead we get a sleek and sophisticated-looking handset.
It's water resistant, uses Gorilla Glass 5 on the rear (although there's still some confusion as to whether the front is Gorilla Glass 3 or 5) and a metallic rim to hold it all together.
It'll be coming in platinum, black and white color choices, although only the platinum version is going to pack the shimmer that makes it look attractive on the table when placed face down.
The rear of the phone is devoid of a camera bump, with the camera slimmed down, rather than powered up to a larger sensor, to accommodate the new design language.
There's USB Type-C on the bottom (along with the single speaker), with the headphone jack still present and correct at the top - this is a phone with a sleek body and lovely lines that feels great in the hand.
The fingerprint sensor and power button combo is on the rear of the phone, landing right under the index finger - it's easy to find and feels like a nice move from LG.
Overall, this is a premium-looking phone that'll put LG in the same conversation as Samsung and Apple - and that's exactly what the brand will have been looking to do.
Sadly, as we expected, the interchangeable modules - what LG calls "friends" - are out, with LG's chief technologist Skott Ahn saying that LG is moving away from modular designs .
It's a sad move, as modular phones could have ushered in a new wave of handset design, but clearly it wasn't going to work for now in LG's eyes.
Although pour one out for the Rolling Bot . We still can't believe LG killed you.
In terms of difference from the LG G5, the new G6 is the same length with a much larger 5.7-inch screen on the front (which you can learn more about below). The all-in-one body no longer packs a removable battery, but the microSD slot still pervades within the SIM tray.
LG G6 display
- 5.7-inch QHD+ display
- Ultra-wide 18:9 aspect ratio
- Resolution of 1440 x 2880, pixel density of 564ppi
The LG G6 packs a 5.7-inch, FullVision QHD+ screen with an ultra-wide 18:9 aspect ratio. That means you'll get a screen resolution of 1440 x 2880, and a pixel density of 564 pixels per inch.
In comparison, the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus has a pixel density of 401ppi, while theSamsung Galaxy S7 Edge comes in at 534ppi. In short, the screen on the LG G6 should be eye-popping.
The 18:9 aspect ratio also makes it longer than most smartphone screens, which means it's ideal for split-screen apps and movie playback.
It's also apparently 30% less power hungry than the previous generation of LG QHD displays, as well as having smaller bezels, better touch performance, and being easier to view in direct sunlight.
But it's also HDR-enabled, with both Dolby Vision and HDR10 supported - while there's a dearth of such content available at the moment, LG tells us that it's worked with both Netflix and Amazon to bring high-res HDR content to your phone, making use of the extra clarity and color reproduction to give high-quality images during your movie time.
If you're worried about the way apps will look on the longer screen, you'll have had the same consternation as us - but thankfully there's an option to extend apps further down the screen, and it seems very fluid.
The LG G6 screen also maintains an always-on mode, permanently showing the time and some notifications just like it did on the LG G5.
LG G6 camera and battery
- Dual-lens 13MP camera with focused and wide sensors
- f/1.8 and f/2.4 aperture respectively
- A non-removable battery
- 3,300mAh battery size
LG's G6 camera is a 13MP dual-lens snapper, one of which is a wide-angle lens with a 125 degree field of view. The main change there from the G5 is that the wide-angle lens is the same quality as the normal one, up from just 8MP on the G5.
LG has also made the selfie camera wide-angle, with a 100 degree field of view.
The news may upset those hoping for a boost in the camera performance from LG, as the sensor itself can't take much better pictures than before. The idea behind making it two 13MP sensors was to remove the jump when switching between focused and wide-angle pictures, but the lack of a sensor upgrade is down to a design decision.
Making the camera sensor smaller means no bump - clearly LG thinks the snaps it can create are good enough.
The camera app itself has been overhauled to make use of the 18:9 display, with two squares stacked on top of one another providing all manner of options: collages, a live preview of your photos or just an extra strip to see all your recent snaps.
The battery is no longer removable, which will upset a small subset of LG fans, as the brand was the last main holdout of the feature among the mainstream phone manufacturers.
However, the encased unit can last longer and be thinner, improving the design and allowing the phone to be made water resistant - so you'll need to join the other battery pack-toting masses if you like the idea of being battery safe.
It's a 3,300mAh battery pack in there too, and LG's promised that the G6 will be able to keep working for longer by modulating the charge at the right time to not overwork the power pack.
LG G6 OS and power
- Android Nougat overlaid with the new LG UX 6.0
- Powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 821 chipset
- This chip is at heart of the Google Pixel, OnePlus 3T
The LG G6 specs call for a powerful chipset, but it's the Snapdragon 821 that's used in this phone, which also appears inside the Google Pixel , Google Pixel XL andOnePlus 3T .
It's plenty powerful and capable of running many tasks, but it's been dethroned by the better-equipped Snapdragon 835 chipset.
Why not go with the absolute best chip? Samsung is manufacturing Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 and likely hogged the first 10nm chips for the Galaxy S8.
The LG G6 has got 4GB of RAM on board, and Android Nougat is coated in the firm's UX 6.0.
LG's UX 6.0 focuses on advanced multi-tasking, an enhanced camera experience and a better way to enjoy games, films and applications with side-by-side app layouts creating square applications on screen.
LG G6 other features
- Super speedy wireless charging
- USB-C port for charging
- Google Assistant
LG had already confirmed a new Quad DAC (digital-to-analog converter) for the phone, which will apparently lead to almost no distortion or loss of acoustic information, as well as offering balanced sound so all of your audio is at its best.
Sadly, that's only coming to South Korea, not anywhere else in the world.
LG also announced a brand new wireless charging transmission module a few days after it revealed the LG G5.
The charging module can pump your phone battery up to 50% in 30 minutes, the same charging rate we see from fast chargers on phones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge.
But the bad news globally is that this phone won't be able to wirelessly charge anywhere other than the US, where it's nabbed the Samsung Galaxy S7's ability to charge off both PMA and Qi wireless standards.
And great news! The LG G6 has a headphone port!
LG also uses Google Assistant in the G6, which is odd as it's not running Android 7.1... we're not sure how it's managed that, but it's a nice feature to have on the phone and shows that LG is thinking about how users want the latest features now.
Before the rumors began rolling in, we put together a list of everything we wanted to see on the LG G6. Here's what we were hoping for on the next flagship from LG.
1. A more stylish design
LG G5
With the G5, LG finally embraced metal, giving us a handset that looked and felt far different and far higher end than the LG G4.
But it's not the home run it could have been. A thick layer of primer-mix paint on top of the metal left it feeling a little like plastic and the overall design is rather plain, lacking the flair of the similarly metal iPhone 7 or HTC One M9 . So we want the LG G6 to have a design that's not just high-end, but also stylish.
2. An app drawer
LG made the questionable decision to remove the app drawer from the G5. A decision that was so questionable it was quickly pressed to reverse it, so now thankfully you can restore the app drawer to the phone. But to do so you have to manually install an older version of the UI.
That's a hoop we'd rather not jump through to get a feature that should come as standard, so hopefully the LG G6 will have it out of the box. It's been rumored that Google might be planning to ditch the app drawer from Android altogether, but until or unless that happens we want our phones to keep offering it.
3. Better battery life
LG G5
The LG G5 deserves a shout-out for being that rare flagship that has a removable battery, but sadly the size of the battery is slightly smaller than we'd like.
At 2800mAh it's not tiny, but it is smaller than the Samsung Galaxy S7 , HTC 10 or, surprisingly, even the LG G4, all of which have 3000mAh juice packs. And they're not even the biggest batteries around. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge for example has a 3600mAh one.
Unfortunately, the smaller size of the G5's battery does lead to lesser performance, with it often needing a top up during the day. Next year we want a bigger one please.
4. Just as much innovation
One thing we love about the LG G5 is just how packed full of innovation it is, from its modular add-ons to its dual-camera there's a lot here that other flagships don't offer.
A focus on innovation is nothing new for LG. After all, this is the company that put buttons on the back, gave us self-healing phones and was one of the first to include a QHD display or a bendy screen in a handset.
That's not even a complete list of its smartphone innovations and hopefully we'll see a lot more from the LG G6.
5. A front-mounted fingerprint scanner
LG G5
LG added a fingerprint scanner to the G5, but it stuck it on the back. At first glance that might not seem like such a bad idea. After all, it's out of the way and easy to reach while holding the phone.
But if you've got the phone on your desk you've suddenly got to pick it up to unlock it, which wouldn't be necessary if you could just reach for a sensor on the front of the handset. Few other phones have this problem and hopefully the LG G6 won't either.
6. Front-facing stereo speakers
LG G5
The LG G5 just has a single speaker on the bottom edge of the phone and while it's adequate it's no match for a quality pair of front-facing stereo speakers.
Granted, audio through headphones is far more important and the G5 does a good job there, but it would be nice if the LG G6 also has powerful built-in speakers.
7. More modules
The ability to augment the LG G5's hardware is theoretically one of its best features, as it's not really something we've seen before outside the likes of Project Ara, which isn't out yet.
But currently there are only two plug-in modules for the G5 and neither feel particularly essential. Hopefully more will come, but we want a far wider selection for the G6 at launch, so buyers can really customise it and make it their own.
8. A wide-angle front-facing camera
The wide-angle lens on the back of the LG G5 is a genuinely useful addition, especially as it's an optional one, with a more conventional 16MP sensor also included. It's just a shame that innovation didn't extend to the front of the handset.
The LG V10 has two on the front but only one on the back, for the LG G6 we'd like to see two cameras on both the front and back.
9. A brighter always-on display
LG G5
Like the Samsung Galaxy S7, the LG G5 has an always-on screen and in some ways it tops Samsung's offering, as it gives you notifications for all of your apps.
Trouble is, it's so dim in this mode that it can be hard to actually see what it's trying to notify you of. Making it brighter could have an impact on the battery life, but it's a problem that we'd like to see solved for the LG G6.
10. A final layer of polish
Ultimately there's not a huge amount wrong with the LG G5, but it also just doesn't fully come together as a cohesive whole. It needs that final layer of polish that turns a good phone into a great one - the sort that feels special the moment you pick it up.
As it stands the LG G5 is an accomplished, interesting handset, but it feels a bit like LG threw everything at it to see what would stick, rather than having a clear vision for it.
We hope the LG G6 will be every bit as innovative and adventurous, but that the finished product will feel a little bit more complete.
- What would you like to see on the LG G6? Let us know in the poll and comments below
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