On the heels of its South Korea launch, the new LG Velvet will begin rolling out in key European markets this month. LG VELVET arrives in Germany, Italy, Spain, Hungary and Poland first, followed by various countries in North America, Asia, Middle East, Africa and Latin America in the weeks ahead.
Ditching the understated design of the G-series, LG’s Velvet sports a new design characterised by flowing lines, curved corners and symmetrical front and rear edge of their new 3D Arc Design language. In simpler terms, it bears a striking resemblance to Huawei’s P30 Pro.
The Velvet is an exceptionally slim device with a thickness of only 7.9 millimetres but still manages to pack in a 4 300mAh battery to power its 6.8-inch P-OLED Cinematic FullVision display and 5G capabilities (provided by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G chipset). The battery also powers the compatible LG Dual Screen (sold separately). In an interesting twist, both the Velvet and Dual Screen displays work with compatible active stylus pens.
To limit accidental touches on the curved display, LG developed the Grip Suppression algorithm that identifies deliberate versus unintentional screen touches.
“Powered by the Snapdragon 765G, the LG Velvet is equipped to deliver exceptional performance to meet even the most demanding 5G use cases, while also enabling intelligent multi-camera capture, high-speed gaming and all-day battery life,” said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president and general manager of the Mobile Business Unit, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “We’re excited to continue working with LG to help deliver 5G to more consumers with this truly global device.”
If you want to use the phone for content creation then you’ll be pleased to know that LG offers a suite of imaging solutions called LG Creator’s Kit that takes advantage of the phone’s 48MP main camera, other high-quality lenses and camera software. Timelapse Control lets users adjust exactly how fast they want their videos to look, while ASMR Recording employs the two high-sensitivity microphones to capture the faintest of sounds in all their magnificent detail. Voice Bokeh minimizes background noise in videos to keep the focus on the subject while 3D AR Sticker and 3D Photo Effect make taking portraits of friends and family a whole new experience.
Keeping with tradition as being one of the only manufacturers to release higher-end devices with a 3.5mm headphone jack, LG has kept the legacy port on the Velvet, however they’ve dropped the Quad DAC support of previous G and V series handsets. If listening to audio via the phone’s speakers is something you, then you’ll enjoy LG’s 3D Sound Engine which the company says “delivers realistic and detailed audio through its stereo speakers.”
The LG Velvet comes in a range of colours – Illusion Sunset, Aurora Green, Aurora White and Aurora Gray – with more colours such as Aurora Silver, New Black and others coming soon. LG says that Illusion Sunset is “the first phone from LG to utilise a customised optical pattern repeated in intervals of less than one micron, or one-hundredth the width of a human hair. This pattern is covered in a special film created with nano-stacked lamination technology to reflect and refract light for a shimmering effect.”
“We think today’s smartphone customers want and deserve more than cookie-cutter designs and tried-and-true features,” said Johan Chung, executive vice president of overseas sales and marketing at the LG Mobile Communications Company. “In LG VELVET, we’ve created a differentiated smartphone with a design that can’t be confused for anything else and features with unique propositions that provide considerable value. We’re confident in the message LG VELVET communicates and believe that there are customers out there who agree it’s time for a change in the way smartphones are developed and marketed.”
Key Specifications:
LG VELVET
· Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G 5G Mobile Platform
· Display: 6.8-inch 20.5:9 FHD+ P-OLED Cinematic FullVision (2,460 x 1,080 / 395ppi)
· Memory: 6GB RAM / 128GB ROM / microSD (up to 2TB)
· Camera:
– Rear: 48MP Standard (F1.8 / 0.8μm / 79˚) / 8MP Wide (F2.2 / 1.12μm / 120˚) /
5MP Depth (F2.4 / 1. 12μm / 81˚)
– Front: 16MP Standard (F1.9 / 1.0μm / 73˚)
· Battery: 4,300mAh
· Operating System: Android 10
· Size: 167.2 x 74.1 x 7.9mm
· Weight: 180g
· Network: 5G / LTE / 3G / 2G
· Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac / Bluetooth 5.1 / NFC /
USB Type-C (USB 3.1 Compatible)
· Biometrics: In-Display Fingerprint Sensor
· Colours: Illusion Sunset / Aurora White / Aurora Gray / Aurora Green / Aurora Silver * / New Black *
· Others: Stereo Speaker / AI CAM / Google Lens / Google Assistant /
LG 3D Sound Engine / IP68 Water and Dust Resistance / HDR10 /
Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ Technology / MIL-STD 810G Compliance /
LG Pay / FM Radio
LG Dual Screen
· Display: 6.8-inch 20.5:9 FHD + P-OLED Cinematic FullVision (2,460 x 1,080 / 395ppi)
· Cover Display: 2.1-inch Mono
· Size: 174.4 x 84.6 x 14.4mm
· Weight: 129g
· Display Contact Type: USB Type-C
· Folding Type: 360 Freestop Hinge
· Colors: White / Gray / Silver
*4G only
South Africa pricing and availability have not yet been confirmed by LG South Africa
