Some bits of background information:
##. The sample shown here is not production-ready, it's a revision "DV2" (visible at timestamp 5:50 in the upper left corner of the device) which was hand-assembled approximately one year before the planned launch (~Oct/Nov 2019) to be presented at CES and closed-door customer meetings.
DV stands for "Development version", which is the phase where all the parts are assembled to proceed development in the various SW/HW/Quality Teams.
In LG-terms that means it was only the SECOND revision of that hardware that the R&D built. Usually there were 4-5 additional revisions on mechanical design, board layout, RF-tuning etc. before entering mass-production (LG cycle: EV->DV1->DV2->DVx->PV1->PV2->MP--> Mass-production)
The MP-revision is the initial mass-production test, where the factory tested if they can efficiently mass-produce this design by producing ~500pcs and keeping notes on issues and difficulties to fix before entering actual high-volume production.
Meanwhile sales of the last flagships LG G8, V50, V60 was behind expectations, the period required a massive increase in R&D investment to commercialize 5G technology and Chinese vendors (Xiaomi, Oppo/Vivo/OnePlus, Lenovo) made a huge push into international carrier-markets.
It was all on thin ice already, but there were also some great Mid/High-tier devices in the pipeline, LG was in the lead for commercializing 5G in many markets and had a few aces up its sleeve for the coming quarters like this rollable device.
Then COVID came. Global Sales of the industry collapsed, everything became slower and also semiconductor pricing exploded.
The companies which made it through COVID better than others were those who already had solid brands and high-volume sales before that period. They had the warehouses filled with tested and launched devices, they cut a bit on profit, increased a bit on price and prepared a semi-hibernation mode.
LG's mobile division was not in such a state in most markets. It wasn't profitable for several quarters at this point, and it was clear that it won't be profitable for several quarters to come.
The key tech is less in the panel itself than the supporting structure (the skeleton supporting and stabilizing the panel, you can also see this in the R&D involved in the hinge-tech of folding devices)
Oppo (and Lenovo iirc) were presenting similar rollable form-factors on roadshows or press-events ~2019, but this was prior to the patents (especially [0]) being granted, likely also used the OLED Panel from LG Display (but I'm not sure the designs were actually considering durability as much as LG already did at this stage)
[0] https://patents.google.com/patent/EP3506247A1
https://community.ultimaker.com/topic/15743-global-link-prop...
As seen here: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsN...
- the original Motorola StarTac "Star Trek Communicator" flip.
- the Danger Hiptop / Sidekick II rotating screen-over-keyboard
- the Motorola Droid slide-out keyboard
- the OnePlus 7Pro slide-out selfie-cam
Only that last one was motorized, but mine is still working. Holes and divots and islands and any other kind of screen interference is strictly inferior.
The front camera was hidden and you would slide the back up to expose it. Was not motorized and functioned using magnets. Very similar to what old dumb phones used. Super reliable and easy to use.
Bummer that AT&T dropped network support for it just a year after I got it
The site also puts two non-youtube video ads in front of the youtube video so you can't just watch it.
https://citl.news.niu.edu/2024/07/08/upcoming-changes-to-you...
https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1n04464/i_have_you...
The G5 was another great phone, I believe it was designed to be a "modular phone" the bottom would come out letting you take the battery out, but it could also add an attachment to the phone, I never did buy an attachment though, and I think the last one I had was the G7.
I enjoyed their tablets too.
For some reason people cling to other brands, and slept on LG which made some really decent Android phones.
Both my G5 and G7 still turn on, I always say that by the release of the G7 (I forget the year) and possibly the G5, all decent quality smartphones got to the "good enough" stage of smartphones where it feels like I could own one for more than just 2 years before it shows signs of wear.
The Nexus 4 should have lofted LG into the big league and the Nexus 4 owner should have graduated to a LG flagship. But this didn't happen, in part because people stayed with Google and moved on to what would become the Pixel series.
The problem with smartphones is that they are ultimately 'hand rectangles' and the average customer only needs adequate rather than super-deluxe. For a while it was possible to compete on features, battery life and mega-pixels, for people to queue outside phone retailers to be first with the new status-symbol-gadget. But times changed as the tech matured.
Most people couldn't care less about their phone specifications, so long as it works. Getting the latest and greatest phone makes as much sense as on insisting on the latest model of hand basin or the most hi-tech garden trowel. Who cares apart from reviewers or people with little going on in their lives.
I used to put mine on my wallet, and it took ages to figure out why I kept dropping it: the moment you set it down, it would start sliding _incredibly_ slowly.
Every morning I had to wakeup fast enough before the vibrating alarm would have it jump off my bedside table.
Of course the back cracked quickly with the constant falling. It eventually met its demise during a bike accident. I landed on a tiny rock that pushed through my pocket, exploded the glass, and ultimately broke the charging circuitry. You could see the hole through the front glass! And it was still playing music. At least until the battery died.
Plus their software support was poor, even for the era.
In terms of what the phone delivered between software and hardware: it was a wonderful phone, but I lacked confidence in the brand to buy another.
In contrast, I have never had a defective phone from another company. Heck, I've only had two phones that ended up with cracked screens (and those were clearly my fault).
It was a nice phone. The G7 was peak LG phones.
I still have a photo of it kicking around here somewhere.
I replaced LG's ROM with CyanogenMod back in the day, and it was such a smooth experience. The main reason I moved on from it was because I cracked the screen and the replacement screen I got (installed by a local repair shop) had a touch sensitivity issue along the top edge.
Never used it with the dual screen case as it was too large. But funnily enough I now use it all the time as a pro music player, remote for my Tv, tablet, etc. The dual screen is actually very well implemented and so is the "desktop" mode if you plug it in via usb-c to a big screen. The thing even shoots 8K video !
LG was way ahead of the time.
Sent it to warranty 3 times, but it happened again every time. The middle of the screen got so hot I could barely hold my finger there.
I am still kind of shocked that the non-leading manufacturers haven't standardized on hardware. Every company besides Apple, google, and Samsung, should get together and create the beige box computer of cell phones, you can get influencers modding them, gamers overclocking, etc. all the things that keep the desktop market alive.
Instead of working together, every one of these companies acts like a greedy monopoly when they don't have monopolistic powers, or even any soft form of lock-in. Even if all they did was make phones that had easy to replace standardized screens and batteries. I could see them quickly making in-roads in corporate IT, and for kids.
But none of them want to work together, so we get iphones, a few higher end iphone ripoffs, and a bunch of low end iphone ripoffs.
edit: I'm also mad that I lost my cat S61, and that the S62 looks like everything else.
edit 2: I also hate that I switched to an iphone, and how comfortably easy it was to get full locked-in in two years.
It doesn't rule out that other people might have better ideas, but it does suggest why LG decided it wasn't worth it.
The last few times I bought a phone for myself or the company my main question was how low the price per years of software support is. Then I pushed the proposals up for approval and they asked me... the same thing.
Phones get the crap kicked out of them. They need to be really robust.
I have an iPhone 17 Pro, and it's the first one that I've had (since the SE), that seems to have some "clunk" to it. I've already dropped it a couple of times, with no issues.
I want one of those "shake to flip" phones they had in Geostorm.
