LG unveils unibody LG G5 flagship with 5.3-inch display, modular accessories
LG took the wraps off the LG G5 at Mobile World Congress 2016 on Sunday, the company's most radical smartphone introduction to date as it looks to turn a profit from mobile sales.
The LG G5 is a modular smartphone, featuring a uni-body metal design while still encompassing a slide-out battery and a plug-in module port for a slew of high-end accessories.
LG says current modules available will turn the LG G5 into a digital camera or Hi-Fi player for audiophiles. The LG Cam Plus lets you grip the LG G5 like an actual camera, featuring its own zoom, power, and shutter/record buttons. The LG Hi-Fi Plus provides better audio in partnership with Bang & Olufsen.
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Further, the LG G5 features a 5.3-inch (2560 x 1440) display, packing a higher pixel density than the similar Nexus 6P and last year's LG G4.
Inside the device is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor and 4GB of RAM, providing a snappy experience. On the rear of the device is a fingerprint scanner, along with dual cameras that function both as a normal 16-megapixel smartphone camera and a 135-degree wide-angle 8-megapixel camera.
The LG G5 has 32GB of onboard storage, a microSD expansion slot, the new USB-C standard for charging, a removable 2,800mAh battery, and a maximum thickness of 8mm.
Previously announced before Sunday, the 5.3-inch Quad HD IPS Quantum display on the LG G5 has an Always-on feature, showing the time and date continuously even when the G5 is in sleep mode.
To minimize power consumption, LG redesigned the display driver IC memory and power management function so that the display's backlight only illuminates one small part of the overall display. Thanks to this technology, the Always-on Display requires only 0.8 percent of the battery's full capacity per hour to operate , LG says.
Past hardware, LG is introducing a new version of LG UX, a single-layer interface LG is throwing on top of Android Marshmallow.
LG says the LG G5 will be released in the US in April.