LG is considering leaving the smartphone business

[Dimitrios]

Sooooooooooo does this mean we can blame Biden?

 

[Reehahs]

It would be nice if they start doing things to remain relevant. Good devices don't have to be flagships, look at Motorola.

 

[GeforcerFX]

Most of my tracfones have been LG phones, there budget phones have been great for the price. I went with the Moto e5 for the insane batterylife a year ago. But now I might get another LG, they have a monster 6.5" screen phone for around $100 and it might be the last LG I can buy.

 

[Solace50]

No big loss, their products were mediocre and quality control was awful.

I've touched a g2x back in the day which over heated and suffered from flaws all over.
I recently touched a g7 one of which turned out to have an engineering build on it that had its own update repo that was not updating past 2019 for updates.

The only way to flash the g7 one was through sourcing a firmware utility and authentication file as they removed normal methods of pushing updates offline to the device too which was quite comical.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Aside from their attrocious build quality that alienated many customers, LG also completely missed the boat on affordable midrange phones, the bigger battery trend, eve. Now their current flagship looks interesting, but isn’t available unlocked.

They’ve been completely out of tune with the market for years now. Surprised it took them this long to figure out they suck at this.

I agree. LG and quality control can't be used in the same sentence. I have now been burned 3 times with LG gear, be it phone, bluray player and microwave and all failed or in the case of the phone had serious hardware fault with GPS which plagued a lot of people and LG would never admit or fix. It'll be a cold day in hell before I ever buy another Lucky Goldstar product. They have some great tech but their customer service is rank. I won't even risk an LG OLED TV.

 

[ruddevil]

The competition has Apple and Samsung sitting on top and everything else below them.

But the real divergence is the Chinese brands which are gradually splitting away from iOS and Google in order to avoid (and ignore) their US based scrutiny.

The Chinese brands number so many, that all of Asia and Southeast Asia will be consumed with them.

As I witness in the Philippines and Bali, these phones are so incredibly cheap that virtually any and everyone can have a smartphone - even those in dire poverty.

I'm not that poor. I'm just finding the best value like most of us here.

 

[Morphine Child]

Only QP can compare a $150 phone to a $1349 phone and not see any issues with the comparison.

A lot of people I know went from cheapest Android money can buy (literally those no-name garbage phones you buy at a register in a grocery story) directly to iPhone 11 Pro Max Turbo Mega and stated how much better it is. And they honestly do not see the problem with that comparison...

 

[navuho]

The problem with those companies is that they somehow have no clue what people want and where are the gaps and niches in the market, instead they copy each other or when they try to be original they do unbelievable stupid things.
What LG should have done is continue to make phones like LG G3 to fill that niche, replaceable batteries, 3.5mm jack, SD card slot, plastic cover, high end chip, gorilla glass display and 5 years software support at mid range prices.
Instead they followed the trend and they do gimmicky stupid stuff trying to be original.
You can't have 10 companies doing exactly the same product and to expect that all 10 of them will sell well..

 

[SirDigby]

Maybe Google should buy that division and hopefully do something more to increase the market availability and better devices for their Pixel line.

Didn't Google buy HTC and then basically dissolve it? At the time they were designing phones then outsourcing production, brought in HTC probs kept 25% of staff and let the rest go.

LOL, remember HTC?

The problem with those companies is that they somehow have no clue what people want and where are the gaps and niches in the market, instead they copy each other or when they try to be original they do unbelievable stupid things.
What LG should have done is continue to make phones like LG G3 to fill that niche, replaceable batteries, 3.5mm jack, SD card slot, plastic cover, high end chip, gorilla glass display and 5 years software support at mid range prices.
Instead they followed the trend and they do gimmicky stupid stuff trying to be original.
You can't have 10 companies doing exactly the same product and to expect that all 10 of them will sell well..

My first premium flagship was the LG G4 and I gotta say I bloody loved that phone, way more so than my last two (OnePlus 3T and 6T), I loved the camera, the curved screen, the geometric plastic back, MicroSD card, competing CPU and RAM! OP have been good phones, but they're 8-8.5 /10 compared to competitor flagships 8.5-9.5 /10

 

[GamerNerves]

Generally LG is a company whose products seem very good at first glance, but eventually you find a one major flaw somewhere. Their phones are much the same. I very much enjoyed G2 and G5, but the latter got too slow after a while. I just can't stand phones that slow down over time, I want them snappy.

LG has been a nice price competitor in the smart phone business, since they don't make everything exactly premium, but many people can live with that, like not having the best antenna in the world or using somewhat bloated software. Unfortunately the mass market is in this case for paying more to get better stuff, so cutting costs is not a sensible solution it seems.

I appreciate LG for it's innovative solutions like extensive manual camera controls and the 'quad DAC'.

 

[Steve Lalancette]

Nooooo... I bought a LG phone in 2019 and I NEVER got ANY update.They can't get out of the business without releasing, at least, ONE update for my phone. It's outrageous!

 

[Lionvibez]

LG can right this ship if they fire some people and bring the right people on.

And QP that story was obviously bs. Glad to see we have we have intelligent posters that call you out on it.

 

[mctommy]

LG can right this ship if they fire some people and bring the right people on.

And QP that story was obviously bs. Glad to see we have we have intelligent posters that call you out on it.

You are smoking crack. After 23 quarters of losses, there is no way to right size this ship. They went from being a contender with Apple and Samsung to falling too far behind to matter similar to HTC.

Their rep took a hit due to the constant quality issue and QC... they just never really recover.

 

[Lionvibez]

You are smoking crack. After 23 quarters of losses, there is no way to right size this ship. They went from being a contender with Apple and Samsung to falling too far behind to matter similar to HTC.

Their rep took a hit due to the constant quality issue and QC... they just never really recover.

lol nope drugs are bad.

LG is big enough with enough money to stop the bleeding here and be a #3 players in the market. They will never overcome apple or samsung but I think there is room for profit still and to stem those loses but it will require big changes to the mobile game plan.

 

[Shaitan]

- DAC
- camera
- IR
- headphone jack
- bring back removable battery
- GET RID OF GLASS BACK
Price lower than Samsung (plastic back, I don't care, I'm not a journalist, I USE the phone)
- market it as a PRO device for PROS
- UPGRADE the damn software
I'm 100% sure A TON of people will go for it.
If not... Sony it is for my next terminal. Just my 2 cents.

 

[jdwii]

This actually makes me sad as I loved the V series of phones from them. Owned the V20 for years and it just now is starting to slow down.

 

[lazer]

I had several Samsungs, which were very good, then I dropped mine and so I got an LG. I was very happy with it. Plus it has excellent sound which for a hearing impaired person like me is very important.

I am now on my second LG and love it. Hope they continue, but nothing stays the same in electronics.

 

[lazer]

I still have my LG G3 Beats... and it still works so many years later. The headphones that came with it had very good sound quality as well compared to most..

I agree, the LG sound quality is very good.

 

[Avro Arrow]

You can blame that on the LG marketing team they were not as good as Samsung's or Apple's marketing teams.

I believe that you're 100% on-point with that. I mean, let's be honest here, it's a frackin' Android PHONE! Arguing over phone brands is like arguing over craptop brands.

Who makes the best Widows-based craptops; Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP or Lenovo?
Ask five people and you might get five answers.
Who makes the best Android-based phones; HTC, Huawei, LG, Motorola or Samsung?
Again, ask five people and you might get five answers.

It's all about marketing because I've owned ZTE, Samsung and Motorola. I've used LG, HTC and Huawei phones that friends of mine owned without no difficulty. The differences between them were so negligible that I would've been happy with any of them. The interface is Android, just like the interface is Windows on all the craptop brands that I listed. The actual hardware has a very secondary effect on the overall experience with the only exception possibly being the camera. They all use something similar to the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform if not the Snapdragon platform itself.

The fact that people in the US seem to ONLY buy Apple and Samsung isn't really based on them being the best but more on how successful Apple and Samsung have been at convincing the service providers to carry their phones. I buy phones like I buy most tech devices. I ignore the brand (unless it's a brand that I hate like Apple, Intel or nVidia) and get the best spec I can for the lowest price. Most people are not knowledgeable enough in tech to do this and couldn't be bothered learning it because it's not an interest of theirs. So, they know that Samsung makes good phones (and they do), the phone is there in front of them and all they have to do is use it. That's good enough for most people.

 

[lazer]

I believe that you're 100% on-point with that. I mean, let's be honest here, it's a frackin' Android PHONE! Arguing over phone brands is like arguing over craptop brands.

Who makes the best Widows-based craptops; Acer, ASUS, Dell HP or Lenovo?
Ask five people and you might get five answers.
Who makes the best Android-based phones; HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung or Huawei?
Again, ask five people and you might get five answers.

It's all about marketing because I've owned ZTE, Samsung and Motorola while I've used LG, HTC and Huawei phones that friends of mine owned. The differences between them were so negligible that I would've been happy with any of them. The interface is Android, just like the interface is Windows on all the craptop brands that I listed. The actual hardware has a very secondary effect on the overall experience with the only exception possibly being the camera. They all use something similar to the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform if not the Snapdragon platform itself.

The fact that people in the US seem to ONLY buy Apple and Samsung isn't really based on them being the best but more on how successful Apple and Samsung have been at convincing the service providers to carry their phones. I buy phones like I buy most tech devices. I ignore the brand (unless it's a brand that I hate like Apple, Intel or nVidia) and get the best spec I can for the lowest price. Most people are not knowledgeable enough in tech to do this and couldn't be bothered learning it because it's not an interest of theirs. So, they know that Samsung makes good phones (and they do), the phone is there in front of them and all they have to do is use it. That's good enough for most people.

in terms of the OS, you are correct, but I have seen lousy performance and good performance in Computers based also on the brand and manner it was put together. Also in smart phones, but basically you are correct....

 

[Avro Arrow]

in terms of the OS, you are correct, but I have seen lousy performance and good performance in Computers based also on the brand and manner it was put together. Also in smart phones, but basically you are correct....

Well sure, every now and again a manufacturer will release a dud product but that happens with pretty much all of them. The phone I use is an OLD (and I do mean OLD) Motorola Moto-G LTE from 2014. Specs-wise, it's a dinosaur but it still performs decently because I only use my phone for small things like reading, texting, maps and (gasp!) talking to people.

I actually keep using it because I want to see how long it takes for it to become unusable. If my phone is usable with its weak specs, then ANY phone would be. I got the thing for $120 back in the day and I only pay like $45CAD/month for service. That's how I know that it's all marketing BS, because I laugh at people who have a phone that's two years old and they whine about it while I'm perfectly content with my phone that's almost seven years old.

Motorola Moto G LTE specs

Motorola Moto G LTE specifications - Display: 4.5 inches IPS LCD; Camera: 5 MP (Autofocus); Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400; RAM: 1GB LPDDR2; Battery: 2070 mAh

www.phonearena.com

Keep in mind, I've been a PC enthusiast for a long time (>30 years). I'm not some old man who is content with a computer that just manages to turn on. I'm an OG PC enthusiast so if my phone's performance was awful, it would annoy me. I'm used to fast computers.