LG’s troubled smartphone business seems to be taking a few marketing lessons from OnePlus in the hopes of building up a little buzz once again. The company has been dropping some key features of its upcoming LG Velvet over the last week or so, weeks before the phone’s official unveiling on May 7. In its latest update, LG gives away a few more details about the handset, including its local availability date, possibly leaving only pricing for the actual announcement.

In addition to what we already know, LG says that the Velvet uses a 6.8-inch screen in the tall 20.5:9 aspect ratio. While it's hard to make out from these renders if the display itself curves around the edges, the front glass does melt into the phone’s metal frame, keeping up with the forward-facing design language that LG has adopted. Based on the official renders, the display has prominent top and bottom bezels along with a centered notch housing the front camera. The handset also features stereo speakers, likely using the earpiece as the second channel, with some AI-based sound enhancements.

The Velvet’s rear camera setup includes three sensors — a 48MP primary unit that takes binned shots along with an 8MP ultra-wide-angle and a 5MP depth-of-field cam. Here too, LG has thrown in a few software additions, like one to cut background noise when recording videos and a cringe-worthy ASMR mode. As was previously revealed, the upcoming phone will use a Snapdragon 765G processor for enabling 5G connectivity. LG says that it can prevent the 4,300mAh battery from draining rapidly when on 5G using its low-power software algorithm — a boastful claim that will only be confirmed with real-world use.

LG will ship the phone in four color options — Aurora White, Gray, Green, and Illusion Sunset (based on what the translated text says). The Velvet will be compatible with a bunch of accessories, including LG’s dual-screen attachment and a stylus, both of which will be sold separately. It'll be released in South Korea on May 15, about a week after its official unveiling.

UPDATE: 2020/05/04 9:37am PDT BY JULES WANG

Early hands-on pictures

It seems redundant to post these pictures, but apparently, someone has posted hands-on pictures of the Velvet in a retail setting to Korean forums well before launch day.

We do learn that the display is marked at 1080p+ resolution — at 6.8 inches, make of that what you will. It also sports IP68 certification, a 16MP selfie camera, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of internal storage plus room for a 2TB microSD card. That's a new one.

UPDATE: 2020/05/05 3:11pm PDT BY STEPHEN SCHENCK

Video hands-on

Between what LG officially shared and those hands-on pics, we sure were getting what seemed to be a pretty complete picture of what to expect from the upcoming Velvet. While it won't be very long at all now before the handset makes its official debut, we've got yet another tease to share with you, this time in the form of a video :

UPDATE: 2020/05/06 6:59am PDT BY KARANDEEP SINGH

South Korean pricing

A day ahead of the Velvet’s official unveiling, LG has revealed its price for the South Korean market. The handset gets a retail price tag of KRW 899,800 (~$735), while those going for the carrier-locked variant can avail significant discounts. In comparison, last year’s G8 ThinQ with the then-flagship Snapdragon 855 chip was priced at KRW 897,600 (~$732). As it was previously told, the Velvet will ship starting May 15 in the East Asian market with no detail on its international availability.

Source: LG (in Korean), Naver