LG Unveils Smartphone With Dual Camera, Virtual-Reality Set

It will run Google’s Android Marshmallow straight out of the box. The G5 also now gains the collage photo mode that is available on the LG V10 smartphone, which stitches the images together using multiple lenses.

It’s an undeniably sleeker phone than the G4, not to mention a better-feeling one in the hand. The feature allows the display to show key information – like the time, battery status and basic notifications – even when the screen is “off”. More importantly though, LG has cooked up some slide-in modules to amplify what the G5 is capable of.

Inside, the phone is powered by the powerful new Snapdragon 820 chipset and 4GB of RAM, putting it on-par guts-wise with Samsung’s newly-announced flagships. LG has moved the volume buttons that used to surround the power button on the back, and has located them to the left side of the phone. Will it be the modular marvel that LG hopes it will be?

What makes the G5 particularly interesting is its modularity. All that one needs to do is pop out the phone’s bottom and swap in new hardware features.

Now, while it’s not as wide-ranging in its interchangeability as, say, Google’s Project Ara, the G5 does have the advantage of actually being market-ready. Early options include a camera grip with physical buttons to take shots and control video recording.

Hi-Fi Plus with B&O Play: This portable Hi-Fi audio player developed in collaboration with B&O Play supports 32-bit, 384KHz high-definition audio playback. On the connectivity front, the smartphone is equipped with 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, NFC, Bluetooth 4.2 and USB Type-C port.

The 16-megapixel sensor acts as the main camera, while the 8-megapixel sensor acts as the supporting secondary camera.

Finally, the LG 360 cam is a tiny 360-degree camera that grabs both photos and videos.

More importantly, the microSD slot has returned (huzzah!), and the Galaxy S7 is also IP68-rated for waterproof and dust resistance.

For one, LG introduced its first virtual reality device, the LG 360 VR.

Samsung’s onstage demos looked impressive of course, but we’re waiting to pass full judgement in our final review. Alternatively, you can use the G5 as a control pad. Of course, without that modular angle, the G5 is yet another handsome, well-made flagship Android phone with a good camera. As of now, LG has only shown two accessories; LG’s Hi-Fi Plus DAC module and the Cam Plus.

In practice, removing the battery from the phone worked well, but attaching the modules to the battery did not work very smoothly (I gave mine to an LG rep to try, and it was not a smooth process for him, either).

As devices go, though, the G5 has a lot to recommend it off the bat. This year, LG built a denser, more premium feeling machine.

LG isn’t talking specific release dates at this point, though we’d expect to see the G5 sometime around Q2.

The G5 will come in gold, silver, pink and gray.