LG to launch Q6 phone this week
LG Electronics’ mid-range Q6 smartphone will hit the shelves on Aug. 2, the Seoul-based company said Sunday.
“The LG Q6 will go on sale in Korea on Aug. 2 through the nation’s three mobile carriers,” an LG official said.
The new smartphone will sell for 419,100 won ($372).
The Q6 is the first in the lineup of the tech company’s newly devised mid-tier Q series, aimed at offering a smartphone with many of the sought-after premium features at affordable prices.
LG also plans to release another variant Q6 Plus soon, along with the Q8 with top-notch audio and camera features.
The Q series is expected to be a bridge between the high-end G and V series and the lower-tier X and K series.
LG stresses that the Q6, a tinier version of the flagship G6 smartphone, boasts the essential features of LG’s premium phones.
“It will be the first smartphone to offer the FullVision display following the LG G6,” the official said. Howev- er, the Q6 will carry a smaller 5.5-inch panel, compared with the G6’s 5.7-inch display.
The budget phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of built-in storage.
The Q6 Plus will come with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
It also said the new smartphone offers better durability as its metal frame surrounding the Q6 is constructed of ultra-strong 7000 series aluminum, one of the highest-strength aluminum alloys available.
Plus, it won the U.S. military standard certificate approved by the Department of Defense after passing a vigorous series of 12 spec procedures to test its maximum durability.
It has a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera, along with a built-in battery with a capacity of 3,000 mAh.
“LG plans to continuously offer more high-end smartphones at reasonable prices,” said Lee Sang-gyu, director of LG Electronics Korea Mobile Group.
LG has been making desperate efforts to revive its moribund mobile communications division.
Its mobile business suffered an operating loss of 132.4 billion won in the second quarter of the year, extending the streak of quarterly losses to nine.
In the previous quarter, LG showed signs of revival after managing to post an operating loss of 200 million won, but the loss widened due to weaker-than-expected premium smartphone sales and increases in component costs.
Market insiders attribute the increased loss to lukewarm market response to the latest high-end G-series handset.
The G6 debuted in early March, with LG scrapping a modular design from its predecessor, the G5.
With the new model, LG shifted its mobile strategy by focusing on enhancing user experiences and on a string of basic functions without adding "wow" factors.
Brokerage companies were pessimistic over the rebound of the nation's second-largest handset maker. Mirae Asset Securities forecast LG's mobile operating loss to reach 93.4 billion won.