
Pretty much every flagship smartphone released over the past few years could be described very succinctly as a “glass sandwich.” Sure, there are some cool design trends happening and each OEM brings its own flavor to its lines, but they are all very similar.
Pretty much every flagship smartphone released over the past few years could be described very succinctly as a “glass sandwich.” Sure, there are some cool design trends happening and each OEM brings its own flavor to its lines, but they are all very similar. That is decidedly not the case with the LG Wing.
The LG Wing is the codename for an upcoming smartphone that will allegedly have a rotating display. This rotation will allow the user to optionally use a landscape-oriented smartphone display with a smaller display underneath. It sounds kooky, but we are pretty sure it’s in the pipeline.
We expect the LG Wing to launch at some point in 2020. Here’s everything we know so far about the device! Be sure to bookmark this page so you can stay up-to-date on the latest info.
LG Wing: Name and release date
As far as we know, the LG Wing name is only a codename. It is unlikely it will launch as the “Wing” commercially, as smartphone companies very rarely use codenames as official names.
That being said, LG did significantly change up its naming scheme this year when it launched the LG Velvet. With that in mind, it is possible the LG Wing could end up launching under that moniker. We aren’t ruling anything out yet, but we’d be very surprised if LG didn’t use a different name at launch.
Speaking of the launch, when can we expect to see LG unveil this device? We don’t yet have a solid date, but we have heard rumors saying to expect it in October 2020. That’s a huge launch month for phones (it’s commonly called “Techtober”), so that makes sense to us. Unfortunately, we don’t have anything more specific than that as of now.
Yes, it has a rotating display
If you’re having trouble imagining what a modern smartphone with a rotating display would look like, our mockup above might help you out. That image shows what the LG Wing might look like in its “open” state. In its closed state, it would likely look like a typical smartphone, albeit much thicker.
When you want to “open” the LG Wing, you would rotate the top-most display in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. This would expose the smaller display underneath.
We’ve actually seen this kind of thing in plenty of other phones over the years. Check out three very old designs below to get an idea of what might be inspiring the LG Wing’s design:
According to ET News, the secondary display that lives underneath the main display of the LG Wing could have a 1:1 aspect ratio. The main display might be 6.8 inches, which would obviously make the phone pretty big. It also would likely be pretty heavy due to the multiple displays and hinge mechanism.
LG Wing: Specs and features
According to ET News, the LG Wing could be equipped with the same processor found in the LG Velvet, which is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765. This would make the Wing a 5G-ready phone but would prevent it from having the speed of a flagship running the high-end Snapdragon 865.
Other than that info, though, we don’t know much else about the LG Wing’s specs. It’s difficult to even make many assumptions about it because it appears to be so unique. For example, how big of a battery could LG fit in a phone with this kind of design? We assume the hinge mechanism would take up some considerable space, so what would LG need to sacrifice to fit it in?
The LG Wing might have a Snapdragon 765, making it 5G-capable.
There’s also the question of the secondary display. What is the point of it being there? It’s possible LG is hoping that it could be used for better interaction with applications, much as it hopes that the dual-display Velvet (and the LG V60 and G8X before it) allows for smartphone functions you just can’t do with one screen.
As of now, though, all we can do is guess as to what those functions might be. Something that came to mind would be watching a YouTube video on the main screen and using the bottom 1:1 display to post comments or engage in a Twitter discussion at the same time. We can only assume LG has plenty of ideas for the usefulness of the LG Wing’s star feature, or else it wouldn’t be making it.
Price and availability
Unfortunately, there’s not much to go on yet for pricing and availability of the LG Wing. Since we have info suggesting that the phone could launch in October 2020, it’s possible it will land in stores in time for the holiday shopping season, as that’s the primary reason so many phones and tech products launch in October.
However, it’s also possible LG will only unveil the Wing in October and then release it sometime later, possibly even in 2021.
As far as pricing goes, this product is so unlike other smartphones on the market that it’s impossible to even guess. It’s not a foldable phone so we hope it won’t be priced in the range of prominent folding phones, such as the $1,400 Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. However, its unique rotating feature as well as its novelty might drive the price way up, so $1,400 (or more) shouldn’t be written off, either.
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