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As LG continues to roll out Android 10 to the G8 series and sets its sights on the upcoming G9, now is a lucrative time to pick up some of LG's previous flagship hardware for cheap. Today, you can buy a brand new, factory unlocked LG G7 ThinQ for only 4.99 — the lowest price we've seen — at Amazon.
Phones are usually discounted several months after they're released, but the LG G7's price started dropping only two months after it hit the market and continued on the same trend over the past year. The company's 2018 flagship has now hit a new low, as it's now selling for almost half is original MSRP.The handset features a 6.1" 1440p IPS display, a Snapdragon 845 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, dual 16MP rear cameras, an 8MP selfie sensor, and a 3,000mAh battery. It's also water-resistant and has wireless charging, but didn't have any singular features versus the competition to justify its high price when it came out.
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Back in January, LG rolled out the Android 9 Pie update to the G7 in its home country of South Korea, but users elsewhere haven't been so lucky. It's now finally hitting devices in the US — better late than never, I suppose.Even though the G7 is an Android One phone in some regions, LG's track record of slow updates continues to blight it. According to a post on Reddit, both Verizon and Metro customers have received the update. It's also going out to some users in Europe.
We're approaching the spring phone season, so last year's latest and greatest devices are starting to see substantial discounts. Well, the G7 started seeing substantial discounts not long after launch, but now they're more substantial. This phone is down to $429.99 at B&H, which is $100 cheaper than late last year and more than $300 off the launch price.
T-Mobile has taken the wraps off of its Black Friday deals. This year, the company is offering the OnePlus 6T, Galaxy S9, and LG G7 ThinQ for "free" (or up to $750 off other phones) with trade-ins of eligible phones and the addition of a new line, as well as some deals on Bluetooth audio products.
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LG's latest mainstream device is the G7 ThinQ, a phone that was subject to months of rumors before the official announcement. The G7 isn't particularly special, but it's not necessarily bad either. If you've been wanting to buy it, you can now order the G7 from all major US carriers (except AT&T, who wants to sell you the V35 instead) and several retail stores.Sprint has the G7 for $792 full price, or $33/month for 18 months on Sprint Flex. T-Mobile has it for the slightly-lower price of $750, or $30/month for two years (with a $30 down payment). U.S. Cellular is selling the G7 for $749.70, or $14.99/month for 30 months. Verizon has it for $27.08/month for 24 months, or $750 full price. Finally, the phone is supposed to be available on Project Fi, but the carrier still says it's coming soon.Moving onto retailers, Best Buy has the Sprint and Verizon models, but not an unlocked version. B&H is selling the Platinum and Black colors unlocked. LG says the G7 will also be sold on Amazon, but the listing doesn't appear to be live yet.
Deal-hunting online is one of those seemingly harmless, fun pursuits that can quickly get out of hand. That tricky-to-satisfy urge to make sure you're getting the best value around is not at all helped by the existence of deals that come and go in a flash, tempting you to make some purchasing decisions right on the spot. While we've seen a few of those more ephemeral deals pass by this week, some sales have still managed to stick around, allowing you to make up your mind at a much more comfortable pace.
The Essential Phone was technically the first smartphone on the market with a notch at the top, but rumors of the iPhone X's design had already been circulating by that point. Now there are quite a few notched Android phones to choose from, including the Huawei P20, ASUS ZenFone 5, Oppo R15, and others. The newly-announced LG G7 also has a notch, but LG says it thought of the idea first.
Smartphone manufacturers know that shoppers have a ton of options, so making your own offering stand out from the crowd is critical. But all too often we end up with a phone that feels like it was designed by its marketing department, with a smattering of buzz-hungry keywords that do little to impact the day-to-day user experience. Case in point: With the new G7, LG returns to the “AI” camera experience we first got to know on the V30S. And while it can occasionally be impressive, it also feels like a truly “intelligent” camera should be held to a higher standard than what we get here.
LG has just launched its latest flagship, the G7 ThinQ. While we weren't really blown away by any of the phone's features during our initial hands-on, it does seem like a solid enough (if not jaw-droppingly impressive) smartphone, delivering some worthwhile upgrades to the LG family of handsets. Among those is the G7's new screen, and while we could obsess over the notch (as seems to be the trend), for the moment we're instead taking a look at the panel's high-brightness output.
The G7 comes at a time when LG is arguably less relevant than ever in the high-end smartphone space. The V30 seems to have fallen on deaf ears with consumers (so deaf that LG launched it a second time), while the G6 was forced to use an inferior processor, a handicap that wasn't offset by more competitive pricing. Things generally aren't looking great for LG's mobile unit - which has been losing money for years - and it hasn't done a lot to positively differentiate its products from its arch-rival, Samsung, whose phones seem ever-more technically advanced by comparison.
The last 3 or 4 years in LG's history have been nothing but baffling to me. I have difficulty understanding how the company that caught my heart with its G2 and G3 smartphones fell so badly in the me-too camp, trying to emulate what has worked for others (mostly Samsung) and hoping that would be a recipe for success. The latest ThinQ brand and push is one more symptom of the same ailment: LG saw that AI was everywhere and wanted to get it on the game. Forget about useful AI, it's another "we have smart things for the sake of smart things" gimmick. Sigh.
Earlier this year, LG announced the 'V30 ThinQ,' a slightly-upgraded version of the V30 with the ability to detect objects in photos (which was later brought to the original V30). Then, just this week, Evan Blass reported that the company's upcoming flagship would be called the 'LG G7 ThinQ,' indicating it would have those same AI features. Now we have confirmation and more details, thanks to images from TechRadar.
Rumors about LG's next flagship have been all over the place. LG was considering rebranding the G series, then the company reportedly started over on the phone. A device called the 'G7 Neo' was privately shown at MWC last month, which had a 19.5:9 OLED screen with a notch. Whatever phone ends up being the G7, it won't have an AMOLED display, according to a new report from The Investor.
It's been very hard to follow LG's news regarding the future of the Gx series and what its 2018 flagship will be. We first heard that LG wouldn't be calling its next flagship "G7," then that LG has scrapped the in-development G7 for a completely new phone, and most recently that we'll see LG's flagship in June. That's all well and good, but this latest article and video shot by Israeli publication Ynet at MWC 2018 depicts a phone called the G7 (Neo). Interesting.
Earlier this year, LG announced that it would no longer release smartphones on a yearly schedule, opting to launch new models "when it is needed." Shortly afterwards, a report from The Investor claimed that LG was starting over on its next flagship. And all the while, there were conflicting reports on whether the phone would be called the G7 at all.
Despite the G6 and V30 being fairly good phones, LG's mobile division has continued to report losses year after year. Last week at CES, LG announced that it would no longer release smartphones on a yearly schedule, instead opting to launch new models "when it is needed." According to a new report from The Investor, LG CEO and Vice Chairman Jo Seong-jin told the company to start over on the upcoming G7 flagship.
For years, LG has released flagship smartphones in tandem with Samsung, but its devices have consistently played second fiddle. Now, LG's Vice Chairman Cho Sung-jin has confirmed a significant strategy shift at the company. LG will no longer launch phones in the G and V series on a set yearly schedule. Instead, it'll launch phones "when it is needed."
According to an article yesterday published by Yonhap News Agency, LG is reportedly releasing its LG Pay service in the US by June. The report also claims that LG's upcoming G7 and V40 handsets will accompany the launch. For the unfamiliar, LG Pay service will enable users to make payments with supported LG devices on normal credit card readers, similar to the MST used by Samsung.
LG's been using the Gx naming scheme for a couple of years now, starting with the Optimus G in 2012 and continuing with the G2 in 2013, the G3 in 2014, and so on. The latest G-series phone, the G6, was launched in early 2017, meaning that it's due for a refresh. But according to a company official, LG won't be using that branding for the G6's successor, instead opting for something new.