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LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

jcronenberg 6y ago
What I find most sad about this is that LG appears to be the only manufacturer who makes phones with both wireless charging and a headphone jack. Somehow these features seem to contradict themselfs for other manufacturers. Wireless charging is seen as a premium feature, while headphone jack is seen as a budget feature. I unfortunately have gotten so used to both that I don't want to give them up. I love my wired headphones and my phone is pretty much always at 80% (Battery limiter) since it always charges when I'm at my desk. Right now I don't see a reason to upgrade my V30 but when that time comes I hope someone makes a similar phone (my biggest hope is Sony as they at least appear to be interested in headphones, now they just need to add wireless charging)
- briankelly 6y ago
  These, the higher quality DAC, and the lack of software bloat are killer features for me. I'm not looking forward to replacing my G7.
  - sodality2 6y ago
    I just got a G7 as well and I love it. really don't want to replace it either.
- 3v1n0 6y ago
  Agree, still typing with a V30 and rocking. Amazing pictures and nice and slim look, working with no problems for years now.
- simfoo 6y ago
  Samsung S10e has both. Best smartphone I ever owned (once you got rid of all the crapware using ADB).
  - jessriedel 6y ago
    Are there any services that will strip off bloatware using ADB for you? Would be happy to pay $100 for it to just reliably work out of the box then spend a bunch of time reading forums and worrying that something will break.
    - kogepathic 6y ago
      Just pick and choose from the list of bloatware: https://github.com/khlam/debloat-samsung-android https://github.com/khlam/debloat-samsung-android
    - Mindwipe 6y ago
      Honestly you don't need to remove anything. You can just hold the icon and uninstall virtually anything nowadays. There may be a few megabytes of shim left behind but that doesn't really matter and will never affect your life.
    - simfoo 6y ago
      I have a list of packages that can be safely removed from modern Samsung phones (I'm not missing anything at least, updates still work). Email me at <my_profile_name>@imap.cc if you're interested
- coolg54321 6y ago
  > only manufacturer who makes phones with both wireless charging and a headphone jack May be the you should mention "flagship" because there are many android mid-rangers with both headphone jack and wireless charging, but this too is not true because sony's flagship xperia 1 mark 2 still have both headphone jack and wireless charging + sd card support that the others have abandoned.
- fX0rObfoMN4 6y ago
  You can use GSM Arena's Phone Finder tool to search for phones with specific feature sets. In this case released 2019 or newer, 3.5 mm jack, and wireless charging[0]. As of now there are 26 phones that match those criteria and 10 of them are from LG. Three are from Huawei which means they are basically useless outside of China. Looking at high end devices you are left with the 3 year old Samsung S10[+], the Motorola Edge+ from last year, and Sony's Xperia 1 II. Sony has an announcement on the 14th where they will likely announce the Xperia 1 III[1]. I would look forward to that to see if it retains the headphone jack. [0] https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2019&chk35mm=selected&chkWCharging=selected https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2019&chk35mm=... [1] https://www.techradar.com/news/sony-xperia-1-iii-gets-possible-launch-date https://www.techradar.com/news/sony-xperia-1-iii-gets-possib...
  - drewzero1 6y ago
    I'm currently in the research phase of switching back to a smartphone and have been using GSM Arena a lot for comparing specs, but didn't realize their search tool could be used like that. This is exactly what I needed to see right now, thank you!
- lwelyk 6y ago
  Yeah, I unfortunately finally gave up the headphone jack. My phone broke and I couldn't find a good phone that had wireless charging, a headphone jack and a micro SD card slot. I went with the S20 FE since it had 2 of them. The budget galaxys seem have headphone and mcicro sd but not wireless charging. I almost bought an old S10 since that's the last galaxy with all three, but figured since it'd be losing update support soon I had better pick which feature to lose. I'm kind of regretting it already. I don't have portable bluetooth headphones right now, had to order some and I kept wanting headphones over the weekend since they haven't arrived yet. I was kind of leaning towards and LG, but everyone online was saying this was going to happen soon.
  - mdhen 6y ago
    I recommend getting an es100 to pair with wired headphones
    - exikyut 6y ago
      Genuine question: isn't a "Bluetooth" "DAC" an oxymoron? The only way I can imagine I'm getting the quality level I'd expect for $100-$200 is if I were sending it uncompressed audio. Which Bluetooth definitely doesn't have the bitrate for.
  - boring_twenties 6y ago
    I use a NextDrive SpectraX USB-C DAC/AMP with my Android phones, and am pretty satisfied. (I still demand and sometimes use the built-in headphone jack, mind you. The SpectraX obviously sounds better than that, though.)
shmerl 6y ago
That's surprising. They make one of the best devices. What else is there, Sony? I have no interest in Samsung in the least. I don't find it "incredibly competitive" when the number of decent options is approaching zero. I guess mass market junk approach pushes good options out.
qmarchi 6y ago
I can't really blame them. Ever since the LG G4, they haven't really been relevant, which is unfortunate. They have the capability to experiment outside of the box, like the Wing, but a business is a business. RIP LG Mobile.
- bogwog 6y ago
  I'm still amazed at how well the LG G3 holds up today (with custom roms). That era of LG phones was great. It's too bad that they started to concentrate all their efforts on coming up with the dumbest gimmicks possible (like that ridiculous second screen on the V20) Sometimes it seems like Apple owes much of its success to the bizarre fact that all their competitors are completely incompetent.
  - xpressvideoz 6y ago
    I think you and the GP are disagreeing with each other. You are criticizing LG's gimmicky adventurous choices, which are the exact reasons why the GP liked LG.
enos_feedler 6y ago
Good move. Time to focus on other home products, especially the living room TV before they become relegated to panel supplier.
deleted 6y ago
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klondike_ 6y ago
What happened to the Android phone ecosystem? Android phones used to offer unique and useful features like removable batteries, headphone jacks, IR blasters, SD cards, etc. Now it seems that Samsung and Google are obsessed with copying whatever Apple does, even their controversial decisions like removing the headphone jack, even after making fun of Apple for doing it. No thanks, why would I buy a shittier iPhone with a worse OS? When my LG V20 bites the dust or becomes obsolete I don't know what I'll replace it with. I hope that the Linux phone ecosystem matures by then otherwise I might buy an iPhone.
- michaelmrose 6y ago
  My $170 new moto g7 power has a 5ah battery, a headphone jack, an sdcard slot, a 6 x 3 in screen, and no lock to any carrier. I wouldn't love a Linux phone but app support is going to be in need of help unless it can run android apps
  - OkayPhysicist 6y ago
    Amen. Best phone I've had, because it flawlessly hits the only things I care about in a phone: Stock Android, an SD card slot for my music library, a screen big enough to read shit on, a biggass battery, and cheap enough that I don't feel too bad when I inevitably lose or break it.
- deleted 6y ago
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- scruffyherder 6y ago
  I’ve been thinking of getting a pine phone. The concept sure looks interesting.
- deleted 6y ago
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  - toiletfuneral 6y ago
    Honest question, who are the people who need more chargers? Definitely being anecdotal but everyone in my circle is drowning in generations of random usb adaptors, myself included. I’ve been very supportive of removing wasteful redundancy but again, this is subjective
dmitrygr 6y ago
This is actually very very bad. Google's lack of focus/vision w.r.t Pixel all but guarantees that Samsung can eat up the whole high end android phone market. Samsung's desire to stuff so much garbage unto their phones that they are molasses-slow even with the fastest mobile SoCs available to them all but guarantees that for most users, android will remain a huge mess. As an android user, this saddens me.
- enos_feedler 6y ago
  I think it’s more likely we will see Microsoft and Google taking substantial share of the US Android market over the next 5+ years
  - posguy 6y ago
    Isn't OnePlus starting to eat the share that LG, HTC & Motorola once served? They seem to be the only ones that reliably update their software, don't have horrendous hardware issues and consistently have good LineageOS support.
    - enos_feedler 6y ago
      I am sure they will. I just mean over time MS and Google will cut deep into this as well. Portable gaming and TV over 5g will be a bit part of their hardware lineup. This is longer term 5+ years thinking though
  - martinald 6y ago
    Yes, I think a Microsoft Android phone could do extremely well. The Surface hardware is good. As someone else pointed out, the real problem with the Android ecosystem isn't so much the hardware imo it is the absolutely appalling software everyone but Google seems to ship (I definitely include Samsung in this). Microsoft could do a good job of this and has the $$$ to throw at marketing (plus could leverage the cloud streaming Xbox stuff).
    - enos_feedler 6y ago
initself 6y ago
Blackberry Key2 is still a normal phone with excellent normal phone qualities, including a normal physical keyboard.
- Lorin 6y ago
  Hoping the upcoming sequel is worth the wait, no longer produced by TCL, but OnwardMobility. Considering no product design folk are listed on their team page, I won't get my hopes up.
Exmoor 6y ago
I wish I could be more sad about this. LG lost a lot of trust during their bootloop era, around the time of the G4. They had some interesting ideas with their V series, but I just couldn't bring myself to trust them after my G4 died in less than 18 months.
- Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
  I have two nexus 4's with bootloop, Nexus6P faced bootloop too but that's because Qualcomm messed up S810,S808 so bad that it had physical core separation. Both LG & Google had to face settlements for it. There were reports of Pixel devices facing bootloops too. I've decided not to buy flagships until it's at least a year in the market. Btw, Nexus6P bootloop can be fixed in most devices by disabling the 4 Big. Cores and the phone can be used for less-demanding tasks with the 4 Little Cores. My Nexus6P has been resurrected this way[1]. [1] https://abishekmuthian.com/resurrecting-nexus-6p-from-bootloop-of-death/ https://abishekmuthian.com/resurrecting-nexus-6p-from-bootlo...
- unclekev 6y ago
  > after my G4 died in less than 18 months The whole G4 bootloop fiasco is why i'll never buy a LG phone again. Went through 4 G4's in 12 months because of it.
- aidenn0 6y ago
  I don't know what model of phone it was, but I had an LG phone lockup after a system update. I called support and they said it was out of warranty and I could send it in for repair at my cost. I never bought an LG phone after that. It's just not possible for a company to push out a software update that bricks your phone and refuse to fix it in a competitive market.
llaolleh 6y ago
They peaked at LG V20. Replaceable battery, useful 2nd screen, and kickass audio chip. An end of an era...
- ekianjo 6y ago
  I dont know about the LG G2 bit the V20 also has the same characteristics.
  - llaolleh 6y ago
    Yeah I meant the V20. Apologies.
axaxs 6y ago
Can't say I blame them. Phones are really close to being commodities. Samsung and Apple have the top end on lockdown. Xiaomi will obliterate you on the low and mid range. So your only real option is to dump huge amounts of cash into top photo and app folks and try to fight with the big two.
- Scarbutt 6y ago
  I wouldn't discard Huawei, they are on par with Samsung.
  - VWWHFSfQ 6y ago
    Huawei is basically dead as a consumer brand after USA and EU went after them [0]. They've re-branded most of their consumer stuff as Xiaomi. [0] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chinese-telecommunications-conglomerate-huawei-and-subsidiaries-charged-racketeering https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chinese-telecommunications-co...
    - manojlds 6y ago
      Wait, what? Are you trying to say Xiaomi is rebranded subset of Huawei?
      - 411111111111111 6y ago
        I'm not the parent author but they're both state sponsored enterprise. I can't speak about wherever they're rebrands though, you'd have to take all their phones apart to figure that out.
        rchaud 6y ago
        Shouldn't the government own the majority of the shares for it to be a state sponsored enterprise? Or does it just have to offer tax breaks and subsidies?
pookieinc 6y ago
Can someone enlighten me on why manufacturers who have experience with software, such as Microsoft, don’t create their own OS for their mobile phones? I recognize that it’s easier and faster to iterate to just use Android with some sprinkles on top, but even if it meant spending 4-5 years developing it, the potential market share is absolutely massive. I can see the first year or two would not be great since app developers would need to build their apps, but after that initial hurdle, then I’d imagine it wouldn’t be as bad. After that, it comes down to sales, marketing and mindshare adoption. To me regarding LG, I was never a fan of their phones, but less competition is always bad in my book. Edit: Yes I remember the Windows Phone and it’s failures, was thinking more of starting a newer OS these days rather than several years ago.
- bawolff 6y ago
  Microsoft has tried and failed multiple times.
- eli 6y ago
  Microsoft, of course, famously did create their own phone OS. It wasn’t bad either, but among other problems they were a little late to market and there were no apps for it. A real chicken and egg problem. Not worth the engineering effort to build an app for a tiny marketshare and no one wants a smartphone that can’t even hail an Uber.
  - dtx1 6y ago
    Having developed for windows phone 8, 8.1 and 10 i can say with certainty that it was bad in a plethora of ways and microsoft's constant over promising and under delivering made it worse.
    - eli 6y ago
      Compared to competing OSes at the time? I don’t remember any being particularly fun. (But also I didn’t spend much time in the Windows Phone ecosystem) But I think you’re right that MS lost focus on developers on mobile. Ironic given "developers, developers, developers" was the literal mantra.
villgax 6y ago
Can manufacturers do a wedge like design with a thicker top & tapered bottom edge? That way there is no camera bump & the device sits flat on a desk & a bit raised towards you as well. Bonus camera points coz the lenses are along the same axis horizontally & closer to the centre of the device than in one corner, likewise for the front facing camera too, which could just be shoved into one corner without leaving a hole-punch or notch at all.
- DenseComet 6y ago
  The original Pixel had that exact design, although the later designs went in the opposite direction.
  - eru 6y ago
    I don't remember them being wedge shaped?
- tsjq 6y ago
  That will be a beautiful and practical design
- paxys 6y ago
  Camera bumps are all cancelled out by cases anyways. What you are describing sounds uncomfortable to carry around in the pocket.
  - villgax 6y ago
    Both are cuboidal & I don't think it would make any difference without the case in a pocket
- Stratoscope 6y ago
  I don't mind a camera bump if it is symmetric horizontally. But most of the ones I've seen have the bump on one corner, which ruins the use case you mentioned of setting the device flat on a desk or table. My Note 8 and a friend's Note 9 don't really have a camera bump at all, other than a barely raised ridge around the camera section. But unlike many other phones, this ridge is symmetric: it extends equally to the left and right. Even if this were a raised camera bump, it would still work for setting the phone on a table. The iPhone I got from work is quite different: it has a rather thick camera bump on one corner. So when it sits on a table, if I tap on the display the whole phone wobbles. That is very poor design, but now Samsung seems to have copied it! The newer Samsung phone have bumps in one corner just like the iPhone, so they would be just as annoying to use on a table. For the moment I am hanging on to the Note 8 for dear life, until I find a newer phone with a good camera and either no bump or a symmetric bump. Are there any high end phones like this any more? (Regarding a sibling comment about cases, that is one solution, but I don't use one and don't plan to.)
chrisco255 6y ago
Given LG's success in the TV biz with WebOS, I'm surprised they never made a port of the OS for their mobile line.
- akvadrako 6y ago
  WebOS is originally made for mobiles. Not enough people want an OS that doesn't have native support for Android or iOS apps. Even windows couldn't cut it.
  - chrisco255 6y ago
    They do now. We have all became acutely aware of Google and Apple having too much power over the mobile ecosystem. Windows Phone 8+ didn't offer any differentiation other than UI design and they were charging for Windows mobile at first. Windows never got the critical mass of apps. It wasn't open source. Microsoft is just another tech giant. But if they piggy backed off the TV market success of WebOS they could have a truly open source alternative to Android that other organizations could have more influence over.
- paxys 6y ago
  Not sure if joking or not...
  - chrisco255 6y ago
    Not at all. I realize WebOS started as a mobile project but I want to see it come full circle back to mobile.
    - paxys 6y ago
      That isn't going to happen. There is no room for another smartphone OS. Look at how much cash Microsoft threw at the problem, and they still couldn't succeed.
- Der_Einzige 6y ago
  People don't like their TVs because they have WebOS (which sucks big time btw), they like them because they make the best quality OLED panels for reasonable prices. The CX is a phenomenal TV or monitor replacement (in 45 inch configuration)
ohazi 6y ago
I never understood why Samsung phones were constantly receiving praise by tech reviewers while LG got crapped on. Samsung always wanted to do things their way -- different (shitty) UI, Samsung versions of all the core Google apps (but worse), reorganizing preferences for no reason, the stupid bottom button placement, non-remappable Bixby button, aggressively killing apps for power management and breaking widgets, etc. LG always seemed a lot closer to stock Android, and was good at staying out of your way. I had a Samsung Galaxy S4, then an LG G5, and now an LG V35. I hated the S4 and loved the G5 and V35. My fiance had an LG V20, and now has a Samsung Galaxy S20+ and feels similarly -- loved the V20, is super annoyed by stupid Samsung software quirks, even on this latest model. Do people actually like all those Samsung annoyances? Why is Samsung considered the flagship of flagships? Build quality beyond the V30 is basically identical.
- deleted 6y ago
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- juliand 6y ago
  I am a s10+ user and recently I ditched all the different google version of my phone apps. I decided to use samsung's version of the calculator, calendar, files and contacts apps. They seem solid enough for me and some of them present better integration with the Samsung ecosystem . Those apps are also integrated with different third party providers including google . I still despise bixby but I'm very satisfied with the rest of the phone.
  - mindentropy 6y ago
    Google Keyboard is the worst. It is so laggy and there is no way to adjust the keyboard keys for fat finger people.
    - dotancohen 6y ago
      Recommend another keyboard that will let me switch quickly between the five languages that I have installed, supports swipe in all those languages, has cursor navigation, and does not promote the use of emojis in conversation, has rich set of characters including diacritic marks for Hebrew and Arabic. If it pops up my selected text as an autocomplete selection that would be nice too. I would be willing to pay for such a keyboard. Alas the free Google keyboard does all that. For me, the only feature missing is language selection when attaching a hardware bluetooth keyboard. I have to switch to the default Samsung keyboard to be able to switch languages from the hardware keyboard.
xpressvideoz 6y ago
I've appreciated LG's adventurous moves. The one I liked the most was LG Optimus 3D, which provided a naked-eye 3D display similar to that of Nintendo 3DS. The most recent LG Wing, I was hopeful. But LG also left a bad taste in my mouth. The last LG phone I used, Nexus 5X, died all of a sudden, but after months of despair, I could revive it using a freaking hair dryer.[1] Yeah, some of you who are well versed to soldering may not be surprised by this, but the fact that such a huge company makes such a minor mistake completely turned me down. My reaction might be irrational, but after the incident I could not get close to newer LG phones anymore. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Nexus6P/comments/66wsvq/this_might_sound_absurd_but_i_just_fixed_my_nexus/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Nexus6P/comments/66wsvq/this_might_...
- djmips 6y ago
  If it was a car you would have just taken it to the local repair shop and hopefully it's an affordable repair but phones don't have that and so when they die, and they all do, it's quite harrowing (unless you are super rich).
  - vbezhenar 6y ago
    You definitely can repair your phone. There are repair masters who can replace chips on the board. This is common in Kazakhstan and Russia at least.
    - offtop5 6y ago
      >Kazakhstan What's the typical income in this country, in America if you're talking about a $700 phone, and you make $70,000 a year it's not completely unreasonable to replace it every year. But if you're making $15,000 a year, spending $30 to repair your $700 phone makes much more sense.
      - vbezhenar 6y ago
        Average salary is $6,000 a year. But those numbers are according to the official statistics and I don't think those are true because of huge gray economy sector. I think that it's more like $3,000-$4,000 a year for most people (but those numbers are after all taxes, we usually don't pay taxes from our salaries, our employer takes care of that). I agree that's one of the reasons that repair is more common. Very few people would darn torn socks, because those are cheap enough just to buy them.
perryizgr8 6y ago
The mobile phone market is no longer rational. That is why we are seeing such weird things happen like LG exiting. I blame apple. There are basically three markets nowadays. 1. Ultra luxurious $1000+ phones. These phones are bought purely based on brand name. As a result they generally have a smaller set of features and put the users through some amount of pain. For example, the latest iphone does not have headphone jack, does not come with a charger, does not have expandable memory, does not have a fingerprint sensor, has outdated 5 year old-looking screens with a huge notch, etc. You cannot compete in this category with good, technically sound products. People will pay $1200 for a brick with an apple logo on it, but not for a genuinely advanced phone packed with features, just because it ain't from apple. 2. Mid tier phones. These phones are bought based on a mixture of features and brand value. It is possible to compete here because the customers are making some sort of logical decisions. That is the reason Oneplus is able to gain significant share here. But these also have started falling into the trap of removing features and making users suffer a bit for the brand. 3. Cheap commodity phones. These are extremely cheap, the software is barely acceptable and the hardware is decent. Once again, it is difficult to compete here because these customers will buy the absolute cheapest phone there is with the set of features they want. They will entirely disregard any software polish, any brand association, anything that requires attention to detail. As a result, chinese manufacturers are absolutely killing it in this space. So the only place for LG to fit here is the 2nd one. This is a downgrade from earlier when they used to be in the flagship game, before apple fucked it up. I guess they are not able or ready to adapt to the new reality of the market. Sony did the same. I respect the decision on some level.
Zardoz84 6y ago
And I Discovered that BQ get out of business like some months ago. Sadly... They make really good phones for a good price.
supernova87a 6y ago
Maybe it's a statement about how difficult it is to be profitable in the industry, and how much support/development effort it takes to keep up. If this is true, I might suggest that people who wonder "can't we just make our own open source phone" inject some realism into their estimates about how much work is needed to make an alternative that people actually want to use.
- justicezyx 6y ago
  > can't we just make our own open source phone This seems have nothing to do with LG's move. On the contrary, what drives LG to leave smart phone also enables the open source smartphone: the lowering of manufacturing puts more emphasis on software reconfigurability to the targeted audience of open source smartphone. LG cannot sustain because they don't have a strong software product to make their smartphone profitable. And open source smartphone is about open source anyway. It should not be compared to mass market products anyway.
VWWHFSfQ 6y ago
At this point there are basically no non-Chinese mobile phone makers aside from Samsung and Apple. And even those devices are still manufactured in China, right?
- Server6 6y ago
  Here's a list: Apple – American Samsung Mobile – South Korean Nokia Mobile – Finnish Google Pixel – American Sony Mobile – Japanese LG – South Korean BLU Products – American Lava – Indian Sharp – Japanese Fairphone – Dutch Philips Mobile – Dutch Yotaphone – Russian BQ – Spanish Acer – Taiwanese Asus – Taiwanese HTC – Taiwanese Essential Products – American Cherry Mobile – Philippino DoCoMo – Japanese Panasonic Mobile – Japanese. Afrione – Nigerian Mara Phone – Rwandan Librem – American
  - deleted 6y ago
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  - fomine3 6y ago
    Docomo is a carrier and just selling devices made by OEM (like Huawei), so not a manufacturer. Panasonic is abandoned long ago. Kyocera, Fujitsu still making phones in Japan.
  - imiric 6y ago
    Thanks, but you've listed where those companies are headquartered, not where their devices are manufactured or where their main suppliers are located. I wasn't able to track down the country of origin for many of them, but at least Fairphone is open about it, and 75% of its components are manufactured in China[1]. Apple devices are still mostly produced in China, with some smaller scale operations in India[2]. I would like to see Fairphone levels of transparency from all manufacturers, but until then it's safe to assume that any electronics are partially sourced from countries with existing manufacturing facilities and cheap labor such as China. It's a cost cutting measure that makes it unfeasible to move production elsewhere, even for giants like Apple, and downright impossible for smaller companies. [1]: https://www.fairphone.com/en/impact/source-map-transparency/ https://www.fairphone.com/en/impact/source-map-transparency/ [2]: https://fortune.com/2019/06/13/apple-iphone-china-production/ https://fortune.com/2019/06/13/apple-iphone-china-production...
paxys 6y ago
That's unfortunate. The LG G series has consistently been among the best Android phones, especially for the price.
IG_Semmelweiss 6y ago
Proud owner of 3 LG V20s. What are my LG v20 alternatives now ?
AbuAssar 6y ago
LG G2 was my favorite phone of all time.
- VWWHFSfQ 6y ago
  Mine too! I freaking loved that phone.
Akashd7 6y ago
They Made Great phone , im still using a LG G7.Sad that they are shutting down. very few companies focused on Audiophile needs / DACs.
anoncow 6y ago
The recent LG Dual screen phones have been good. The wing phone was innovative as well. Sad to see them go.
pentae 6y ago
In another lifetime ago, back when I was much younger, had a lot more hair, and phones weren't very smart; the cell phone store I was working at had a customer come in with his LG flip phone. The users primary complaint was that it was shocking him on his face while using it plugged into the charger and on a call. After plugging the phone in we called it from the store phone and sure enough not long after answering the thing gave me a nice big zap on my hand. Never recommended LG phones after that.
wpm 6y ago
oh no! anyway…
JamesAdir 6y ago
From following other companies in the LG group it seems that the company is very slow to innovate compared to it's biggest rival Samsung. Comparing stock prices is almost surreal as Samsung grows in 10x multiplier over the last 10 years. LG will also be pushed out of the home electronics business as more manufacturers from Asia increase their output and capabilities. I think they will eventually become like Philips with focus only on B2B specific product lines like displays, batteries and EV components.
yyyk 6y ago
%$#@!. LG was an early innovator - their touchscreen model slightly predated the iPhone - the G2 was a classic phone, and they have very good headphone/audio tech, having decided to keep it rather than ditch it. Their modern phones are good and simple, alas, the company never recovered its image following the G3/G4 fiascos.
CodeGlitch 6y ago
So I guess this means I'm going to stop recieving security updates? Time to go phone shopping...
- summm 6y ago
  What? You did receive security updates from LG before? Really?
lk0nga 6y ago
> Sony phones too seem to be quite underappreciated. > The Xperia X line came with amazing built-in noise-cancellation, which only required a special purpose made $20 NC31E earphone with a 5-pole connector. > The performance of this combo to my surprise was amazing! It matched WH-1000XM4 and Bose QC20 in home-office environments. Not having to carry around yet another earphone that needs charging was radical. > Sadly, the whole line failed, and the feature was removed in the following series. > People think that "survival" is proof of aesthetic and functional superiority (we've seen this in all sorts of things - from programming languages/OSs to philosophies to races to religions). > It is not.
spiritplumber 6y ago
That's too bad because they make good, reliable phones that tend to be easy to root.
underwater 6y ago
The mobile phone ecosystem is sick, and I don't see it getting better. The fact that there is not a third choice is maddening. Even in the worst parts of the Microsoft era we had Apple as the underdog. Apple products had issues, but Apple die-hards at least could rest easy knowing that they were buying into a company who stood for something. In the mobile space the underdog is Google; a company who sees dealing with people as an unfortunately necessity on the way to get to gobbling up more data. I can't but feel that Android has sucked the oxygen of the space. I can't go out and buy a Tizen or Windows phone in large part because of Google's pathological Android licensing. Google force carriers to choose between their, supposedly open, ecosystem and shipping alternative OSes.
- Engineering-MD 6y ago
  >>“I can't go out and buy a Tizen or Windows phone in large part because of Google's pathological Android licensing. Google force carriers to choose between their, supposedly open, ecosystem and shipping alternative OSes.” I don’t understand how such a licence can be legal. Surely it is monopolistic practices? Yes, Apple exists at a consumer level, but at the level of phone manufacturers google has a monopoly on licensing mobile OS to manufacturers. This is abuse of their dominance to prevent competition from android forks.
  - mpol 6y ago
    Could the difficulty be around the duopoly? We mostly have laws about monopolies, there can be some push-back against monopolies, but with a duopoly everything "seems" right. I see so many discussions on the internet, also on HN, following the same ritual. Apple does something bad, and people say "Just choose something from the competition, like Google". Then Google does something bad and people say "Just choose something from the competition, like Apple". Even intelligent people get fooled by this.
    - lotsofpulp 6y ago
      Writing legislation is hard enough for a monopoly, it’s probably near impossible for a duopoly. Especially when the consumers want to use what everyone else is using and network effects come in play.
SuperFluffy 6y ago
Good. I swore to never get an LG phone again after my terrible customer service experience sending in my G4 for fixing their serial bootloop issue. Sent the phone in, took two weeks for it to get fixed, and then got lost on the way back to me. I then had to fight DHL to get some of my money back. Their customer service line threatened me with their legal department should I write about this online. All out great experience.
Kjeldahl 6y ago
LG had good phones. But while most other phones allowed some minor cracks in their glass, the earlier LGs did not. One minor crack and the touch UI would stop working (they fused the touch sensor to the glass or something). They insisted on this "feature" for longer than most competitors I believe, and for every customer that experienced it we would 1) Never by an LG again, and 2) Bitch about it to others. I'm sure this was a factor to their downfall as well.
tiagod 6y ago
I had an LG G3 and it heated up so much that the shell separated from the screen/body. It was literally painful to hold your hand in the middle of the screen with heavy apps open (like Snapchat at the time...) I sent it for warranty repair three times, and every time they "repaired" it instead of giving me a new one, and it would happen again. The fourth time it happened I just gave up.
IntelMiner 6y ago
I bought an LG Velvet 5G literally two weeks ago I am fuckin' livid. Especially since I can't unlock the bootloader on the fucking thing (apparently only Europe can, not Australia or the US)
tannhaeuser 6y ago
Wondering if the Android phone market can be still considered a Google-led mobile "ecosystem" when Samsung is the only big player left with competitors dropping out or struggling, and the big Chinese manufacturers being forced out. Not meant as a snark (owned HTC phones in their heyday and also Samsung S5 and S8); just wondering if Samsung shouldn't aim for a larger influence on Android or even fork, for better or worse.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- herbst 6y ago
  This appears to be an american centric view. In the rest of the world samsung is really far from the only big player. And i dont see the chinese flag ship sellers dropping at all either. Oppo is growing faster than an other phone company right now. Huawai is dominant for years now too.
  - jessriedel 6y ago
    Even when you look worldwide, Samsung has ~1/3 of the market, triple the market share of any other competitor. https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile https://www.appbrain.com/stats/top-manufacturers https://www.appbrain.com/stats/top-manufacturers
scrame 6y ago
good.
nicolimo86 6y ago
My last experience with LG was with the LG Nexus 5X. I loved it until it lasted. After 2 years of daily usage it stopped working completely while I was calling someone. The phone went black and it never woke up again. I had to trash it.
varispeed 6y ago
I remember announcement that Samsung pulls out of the laptop market, yet they still seem to be doing those. At the time I had a Samsung laptop which was an abomination.
mjgs 6y ago
I don’t know that much about mobile development aside from as a user, but I guess the disappearance of a manufacturer is somewhat similar to the disappearance of a web browser, but probably worse because you also loose all the hardware possibilities, and I always thought that LG had some interesting phone designs, especially the dual screen devices, a bit experimental, but it seemed though at some stage one of them would lead to something really novel.
LockAndLol 6y ago
I doubt they'll opensource anything even after exiting the market, which is unfortunate. Millions of devices will stop getting updates in a few years.
- summm 6y ago
  No difference to the situation before: LG never really bothered with updates or even security updates. That is also the main reason the G4 was my last LG phone... And I hope it was the reason they stopped making phones.
T3RMINATED 6y ago
Axios is a spam network.
danielEM 6y ago
Started a petition to open source LG phones: https://www.change.org/p/lg-electronics-lg-to-open-source-their-phones-as-they-are-shutting-down-production-for-good/ https://www.change.org/p/lg-electronics-lg-to-open-source-th... Sign it and share it if you want that too. Thanks!
Jemm 6y ago
Didn't help that LG made some truly horrible tablets. Hardware was OK but software was locked down garbage.
Crono 6y ago
Very sad. I found the perfect smartphone for me - the V20. It almost feels like a smartphone that happened by accident and will never return in its glorious form again. Dont know what else to use if it dies. Already have a spare Screen and its 4th Battery ready to be used. The second screen is just the perfect solution for having an allways on display without a real (and stupid) notch. I love this feature. Also knock to power on is super convenient. Battery is replacable. The Screen is super sharp. Its thin despite its very accessible inner parts. The amp and music quality is absolutely awesome. The camera is awesome as is the sound recording quality. The IR Blaster ist just super convenient. Also the FM-Radio is a very nice addition. The camera-app is just awesome and i have yet not managed to find something simmilar. Also i like the gallery app. And the sound recording app. Its also fast, has enough power still to this day. And the SD-Card Slot combined with the internal memory gives me 640GB Storage. Also Dual SIM is nice. Really it is such an awesome phone that im not sure how this phone happened in the first place. As each Smartphone does at least 2 things stupid or hase some dumb features no one asked for. Its allways the same with me - as soon as i find the absolute perfect hardware - its already legacy and nothing like it is buyable in the future ... The V20 is like the perfect tool. No stupid features only used for sales, no shortcuts, just a very nice package. Two things i would change: Cameras should never stick out and the volume buttons should be on the back like on the G4.
- ck425 6y ago
  How is the software though? I tried it years ago because of the audio quality and ended up going HTC 10 because the LG version of Android was horrendous. Less bloat than Samsung sure but still horrible
- WarOnPrivacy 6y ago
  I really miss my V20's 2nd screen and removable battery. I went with the V30 next because I needed the extra horsepower. I'm mostly happy - except for the headphone jack on top.
- CameronNemo 6y ago
  I also have a V20 and am quite satisfied. The replaceable battery, SD card slot, headphone jack, and LOS support make for a great overall package. I pray this device lives for many moons.
marcodiego 6y ago
Every company that leaves a business should be obliged by law to release detailed documentation, bootloader keys and dev kit/tools. There's no other way to guarantee that costumers can own the devices they paid for without this.
- JeremyBanks 6y ago
  Are customers entitled to that but only if they purchase a phone from a failing company? I've had Samsung drop support for one of my phones after ~no time, but they're doing fine.
  - marcodiego 6y ago
    Let the requirement be broader then!
flyinghamster 6y ago
Ugh, no followup to the Stylo 5, then. Got mine in 2019 shortly after it was released, and it's been rock-solid. Aside from the inevitable non-removable battery, I've had no complaints, and to be fair to the battery, I still get outstanding life from it. I really don't want a phone that's all-glass. I know it's trendy, but, hard pass for me. The aluminum frame and plastic back are things LG got very right with the Stylo 5. Please put enough of a bezel on it that I can actually grab it without triggering something inadvertently. And, yes, that 3.5 mm jack is important. Music-making apps are basically impossible to work with when your audio path includes Bluetooth delay.
- jmclnx 6y ago
  same here, I always liked the LG phones I have had. Very solid and works great. Sad to see this happening.
- gwbas1c 6y ago
  > And, yes, that 3.5 mm jack is important I thought the USB-C -> 3.5mm adaptors are just mechanical, or have no delay?
  - ck425 6y ago
    My understanding is that many USB-C adapters limit voltage, which screws over good headphones. Also from experience of using a DAC via USB-C everyday for many years, they're really really unreliable. 3.5mm on the other hand just works and is (was? ) ubiquitous.
  - CameronNemo 6y ago
    If they are mechanical, they are probably some special sauce not quite USB-C ports. USB is digital, TRS is analog. (Yes that means standardized adapters have to include a DAC). The delay should be minimal, though.
    - rrmm 6y ago
      There is a mode that's called "Audio Adapter Accessory Mode" that makes use of the USB 2.0 data lines and a few others as analog audio lines for the headphones.
twobitshifter 6y ago
I still have my Nexus 4 (LG manufactured) in a box somewhere. This was actually my first smartphone, and it turned out to be a great purchase. It was affordable, simple, and somewhat close to open. Rooting in place was as simple as could be, and with “Xposed” I was able to get features on my phone that wouldn’t be widespread on stock Android or iOS for many years. It’s hard to point to anything very wrong with that phone. It even had an Amoled always on display, which was ahead of its time. Reviewers thought that front and rear glass was an awful design decision, and they may have been right, but look where we are now?
- rchaud 6y ago
  The camera. It was shockingly bad. Otherwise, I agree. It was a pleasure flashing custom ROMs on to it, as you didn't need to go through the rigmarole required to get an an alternative bootloader running. There was a ton of development happening on XDA-developers then as well, so every week the distros would get better and more stable.
AbraKdabra 6y ago
My last phone was LG V20 which was a beast, but LG went the Motorola Atrix way and decided to fuck the customers and not update the phone, so now I'm happy with my Note 10 Plus receiving an update each month. Fuck LG and every company that decides to don't give a shit about their loyal customers.
coolg54321 6y ago
This is sad because LG was the one of the last 2 android phone makers with both headphone jack and SD card support in their "flagship" the other being Sony.
joana035 6y ago
I will really enjoy seen LG pushing some drivers code upstream. Postmarketos and the Linux community can benefit a lot from it.
WarOnPrivacy 6y ago
Lamentations here. G5, G6, V20, V30. Each buy followed a research period - primary qualifications were handset quality+specs, price and rootability. I didn't particularly care who the manufacturer was. LG kept winning out.
avelis 6y ago
So, many big phone makers tried to meet the smartphone transition and pulled out. It sucks. Palm LG Nokia RIM (BB) Microsoft Amazon Obi Worldphone I know BB still makes phones but it is no longer a dominant arm of their business.
- rchaud 6y ago
  BB's last phone was the Priv in 2015. All phones after that were built and sold by TCL, who licensed the Blackberry name. They weren't bad phones and the 2018 Key2 is actually something of a a cult favorite. But it's Blackberry in name only at this point.
foobaw 6y ago
LG should've gone out years ago. Hindsight is 20/20 but it just wasn't worth it after G6 in my opinion. Obviously, G4 was when they should've really stopped but that's much harder to predict.
dlevine 6y ago
I never had an LG smartphone, but I have many fond memories of my old LG VX4400 dumbphone that I had from 2003-2007. It was built like a tank, easily fit in my pocket, and the battery lasted for 4 or 5 days. Sure it didn't have a web browser and the only available apps were BREW, but I didn't really need any of that stuff at the time.
The_rationalist 6y ago
As a reminder the Iphone one wasn't actually the first full tactile, "wide" screen smartphone, it was the LG Prada. However the Iphone was still innovative, especially on the software side.
unethical_ban 6y ago
I can only think of a few reasons that LG couldn't make it, and none of them are enough to sink a brand: * Lack of updates * Occasionally non-flagship hardware * That Nexus issue many years ago Their UI is better than Samsung. They're less intrusive than samsung. Their flagships are usually pretty good and come at good discounts soon after release. I have an S21 now, and the number of bloatware samsung apps has me wanting to move back to Oneplus or even Apple, maybe. I only bought it because I wanted a flagship high-refresh phone under 6.5". I'll miss LG a bit, it isn't as if we need fewer competitors in the Android space. It's Chinese brands, Samsung, and Google now pretty much, no?
- VHRanger 6y ago
  > Their UI is better than Samsung. Is there any UI that is *worse* than samsung? They have ads in the menus now. And their UI layer adds significant touch latency.
  - mdoms 6y ago
    Oppo is much, much worse than Samsung ui.
- summm 6y ago
  The missing updates was enough to kill the brand for me.
- jessriedel 6y ago
  The Samsung boatware is outrageous, but LG's was also pretty bad. The reason I got an LG, which I've been mostly happy with, is that they offered an Android One certified model (the LG G7 One) that came with nearly stock Android. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_One
  - Marsymars 6y ago
    Sadly, the Android One program looks to be nearly dead. G7 One owner, don’t want a larger phone, so looks like the Pixel line is the only remaining option for my next phone.
ceedan 6y ago
Well that explains why I got my LG G8X ThinQ for 50% off, with a free dual screen case, $100 gift card rebate and a free 2 year warranty with proof of purchase. I got this phone just over a year ago. It's a great phone. Fantastic battery life, and it has a headphone jack. It's a shame - I felt a little weird getting an LG phone but I literally asked for "the best phone for the cheapest price" and LG/the dude at the Sprint store definitely delivered. I would have definitely considered an LG phone for my next purchase, but I'm hoping that won't be for another few years.
roguson 6y ago
They should improve their marketing campaign instead of getting out of the industry. I remember using my LG G4; it was the flagship phone of LG at that time. It was worth it, but the mainstream would instead choose between Apple and Samsung over other brands.
theonlybutlet 6y ago
LG phones were great before colour screens.
FiddlerClamp 6y ago
It's a pity they never got to release their rollable phone. I hope another OEM launches one (Samsung? Google? Apple?).
pb77 6y ago
I had LG G8 thinq and it made me get an iphone after it. My previous 2 phones were pure android motorolla phones. G8 thingq one was very bloated, i had to drag an app to the screen before i can bring it up. I cannot see list of apps and just run it. I have samsung tablet the ui seems to be ok, not too much bloat.
rickdeckard 6y ago
All weaknesses aside, I always liked LG for their adventurous attempts to challenge the market. There was a "dare product" every year, something noone has done so far but with the potential to push things forward in the industry. Unfortunately, the lack of sales (and marketing) caused those leaps to get smaller every year... They will be missed. In a world of ever-increasing smartphone conformity, they were the ones reliably rattling the cage by placing a screaming punk of a product just in the middle of the worldwide white-collar market...
krick 6y ago
Obviously, I am disappointed by that outcome: I've used several G-line phones and currently using V30 (I was slightly disappointed by it compared to G6, but it's still much better than anything else I could find). And, honestly, didn't consider switching, because despite how much I dislike LG phones, I hate all other phones I know much more. But what's more important, I very strongly suspect it's a wrong decision. Yes, they don't care about making me happy, they care about making money, and it's a fact, that their mobile division only loses money. And I do understand, that my phone preferences might be somewhat different from average, so I accept the hypothesis that these aren't "best for everyone". But either way, these are not bad phones. Especially if you skip the weirdest models like G5 (which I also skipped). In fact, their weirdest decisions always seemed like am attempt to answer the question "what are we doing wrong?". And it still seems obvious, that the only possible answer is marketing. Uber-popular samsung flagships never were really better than LG flagships (and for me they are actually worse), but the real and obvious difference were huge samsung billboards all across my city. And I honestly don't remember a single one by LG. Not to mention (obviously) sponsored reviews and posts on all meme-websites like 9gag every time Samsung made a new phone. No surprise they were selling better even at higher prices. And even today I saw a lot of "TIL: LG had a mobile division" posts. So if I am right, and the problem is their marketing, getting out of mobile business must mean that they didn't learn the lesson. And if so, what good should we expect from whatever new divisions they'll make?
Ambix 6y ago
Still using LG G4 :)

What I find most sad about this is that LG appears to be the only manufacturer who makes phones with both wireless charging and a headphone jack. Somehow these features seem to contradict themselfs for other manufacturers. Wireless charging is seen as a premium feature, while headphone jack is seen as a budget feature. I unfortunately have gotten so used to both that I don't want to give them up. I love my wired headphones and my phone is pretty much always at 80% (Battery limiter) since it always charges when I'm at my desk. Right now I don't see a reason to upgrade my V30 but when that time comes I hope someone makes a similar phone (my biggest hope is Sony as they at least appear to be interested in headphones, now they just need to add wireless charging)

briankelly 6y ago
These, the higher quality DAC, and the lack of software bloat are killer features for me. I'm not looking forward to replacing my G7.
- sodality2 6y ago
  I just got a G7 as well and I love it. really don't want to replace it either.
3v1n0 6y ago
Agree, still typing with a V30 and rocking. Amazing pictures and nice and slim look, working with no problems for years now.
simfoo 6y ago
Samsung S10e has both. Best smartphone I ever owned (once you got rid of all the crapware using ADB).
- jessriedel 6y ago
  Are there any services that will strip off bloatware using ADB for you? Would be happy to pay $100 for it to just reliably work out of the box then spend a bunch of time reading forums and worrying that something will break.
  - kogepathic 6y ago
    Just pick and choose from the list of bloatware: https://github.com/khlam/debloat-samsung-android https://github.com/khlam/debloat-samsung-android
  - Mindwipe 6y ago
    Honestly you don't need to remove anything. You can just hold the icon and uninstall virtually anything nowadays. There may be a few megabytes of shim left behind but that doesn't really matter and will never affect your life.
  - simfoo 6y ago
    I have a list of packages that can be safely removed from modern Samsung phones (I'm not missing anything at least, updates still work). Email me at <my_profile_name>@imap.cc if you're interested
coolg54321 6y ago
> only manufacturer who makes phones with both wireless charging and a headphone jack May be the you should mention "flagship" because there are many android mid-rangers with both headphone jack and wireless charging, but this too is not true because sony's flagship xperia 1 mark 2 still have both headphone jack and wireless charging + sd card support that the others have abandoned.
fX0rObfoMN4 6y ago
You can use GSM Arena's Phone Finder tool to search for phones with specific feature sets. In this case released 2019 or newer, 3.5 mm jack, and wireless charging[0]. As of now there are 26 phones that match those criteria and 10 of them are from LG. Three are from Huawei which means they are basically useless outside of China. Looking at high end devices you are left with the 3 year old Samsung S10[+], the Motorola Edge+ from last year, and Sony's Xperia 1 II. Sony has an announcement on the 14th where they will likely announce the Xperia 1 III[1]. I would look forward to that to see if it retains the headphone jack. [0] https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2019&chk35mm=selected&chkWCharging=selected https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2019&chk35mm=... [1] https://www.techradar.com/news/sony-xperia-1-iii-gets-possible-launch-date https://www.techradar.com/news/sony-xperia-1-iii-gets-possib...
- drewzero1 6y ago
  I'm currently in the research phase of switching back to a smartphone and have been using GSM Arena a lot for comparing specs, but didn't realize their search tool could be used like that. This is exactly what I needed to see right now, thank you!
lwelyk 6y ago
Yeah, I unfortunately finally gave up the headphone jack. My phone broke and I couldn't find a good phone that had wireless charging, a headphone jack and a micro SD card slot. I went with the S20 FE since it had 2 of them. The budget galaxys seem have headphone and mcicro sd but not wireless charging. I almost bought an old S10 since that's the last galaxy with all three, but figured since it'd be losing update support soon I had better pick which feature to lose. I'm kind of regretting it already. I don't have portable bluetooth headphones right now, had to order some and I kept wanting headphones over the weekend since they haven't arrived yet. I was kind of leaning towards and LG, but everyone online was saying this was going to happen soon.
- mdhen 6y ago
  I recommend getting an es100 to pair with wired headphones
  - exikyut 6y ago
    Genuine question: isn't a "Bluetooth" "DAC" an oxymoron? The only way I can imagine I'm getting the quality level I'd expect for $100-$200 is if I were sending it uncompressed audio. Which Bluetooth definitely doesn't have the bitrate for.
- boring_twenties 6y ago
  I use a NextDrive SpectraX USB-C DAC/AMP with my Android phones, and am pretty satisfied. (I still demand and sometimes use the built-in headphone jack, mind you. The SpectraX obviously sounds better than that, though.)

shmerl 6y ago

That's surprising. They make one of the best devices. What else is there, Sony? I have no interest in Samsung in the least. I don't find it "incredibly competitive" when the number of decent options is approaching zero. I guess mass market junk approach pushes good options out.

qmarchi 6y ago

I can't really blame them. Ever since the LG G4, they haven't really been relevant, which is unfortunate. They have the capability to experiment outside of the box, like the Wing, but a business is a business. RIP LG Mobile.

bogwog 6y ago
I'm still amazed at how well the LG G3 holds up today (with custom roms). That era of LG phones was great. It's too bad that they started to concentrate all their efforts on coming up with the dumbest gimmicks possible (like that ridiculous second screen on the V20) Sometimes it seems like Apple owes much of its success to the bizarre fact that all their competitors are completely incompetent.
- xpressvideoz 6y ago
  I think you and the GP are disagreeing with each other. You are criticizing LG's gimmicky adventurous choices, which are the exact reasons why the GP liked LG.

enos_feedler 6y ago

Good move. Time to focus on other home products, especially the living room TV before they become relegated to panel supplier.

deleted 6y ago

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klondike_ 6y ago

What happened to the Android phone ecosystem? Android phones used to offer unique and useful features like removable batteries, headphone jacks, IR blasters, SD cards, etc. Now it seems that Samsung and Google are obsessed with copying whatever Apple does, even their controversial decisions like removing the headphone jack, even after making fun of Apple for doing it. No thanks, why would I buy a shittier iPhone with a worse OS? When my LG V20 bites the dust or becomes obsolete I don't know what I'll replace it with. I hope that the Linux phone ecosystem matures by then otherwise I might buy an iPhone.

michaelmrose 6y ago
My $170 new moto g7 power has a 5ah battery, a headphone jack, an sdcard slot, a 6 x 3 in screen, and no lock to any carrier. I wouldn't love a Linux phone but app support is going to be in need of help unless it can run android apps
- OkayPhysicist 6y ago
  Amen. Best phone I've had, because it flawlessly hits the only things I care about in a phone: Stock Android, an SD card slot for my music library, a screen big enough to read shit on, a biggass battery, and cheap enough that I don't feel too bad when I inevitably lose or break it.
deleted 6y ago
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scruffyherder 6y ago
I’ve been thinking of getting a pine phone. The concept sure looks interesting.
deleted 6y ago
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- toiletfuneral 6y ago
  Honest question, who are the people who need more chargers? Definitely being anecdotal but everyone in my circle is drowning in generations of random usb adaptors, myself included. I’ve been very supportive of removing wasteful redundancy but again, this is subjective

dmitrygr 6y ago

This is actually very very bad. Google's lack of focus/vision w.r.t Pixel all but guarantees that Samsung can eat up the whole high end android phone market. Samsung's desire to stuff so much garbage unto their phones that they are molasses-slow even with the fastest mobile SoCs available to them all but guarantees that for most users, android will remain a huge mess. As an android user, this saddens me.

enos_feedler 6y ago
I think it’s more likely we will see Microsoft and Google taking substantial share of the US Android market over the next 5+ years
- posguy 6y ago
  Isn't OnePlus starting to eat the share that LG, HTC & Motorola once served? They seem to be the only ones that reliably update their software, don't have horrendous hardware issues and consistently have good LineageOS support.
  - enos_feedler 6y ago
    I am sure they will. I just mean over time MS and Google will cut deep into this as well. Portable gaming and TV over 5g will be a bit part of their hardware lineup. This is longer term 5+ years thinking though
- martinald 6y ago
  Yes, I think a Microsoft Android phone could do extremely well. The Surface hardware is good. As someone else pointed out, the real problem with the Android ecosystem isn't so much the hardware imo it is the absolutely appalling software everyone but Google seems to ship (I definitely include Samsung in this). Microsoft could do a good job of this and has the $$$ to throw at marketing (plus could leverage the cloud streaming Xbox stuff).
  - enos_feedler 6y ago

initself 6y ago

Blackberry Key2 is still a normal phone with excellent normal phone qualities, including a normal physical keyboard.

Lorin 6y ago
Hoping the upcoming sequel is worth the wait, no longer produced by TCL, but OnwardMobility. Considering no product design folk are listed on their team page, I won't get my hopes up.

Exmoor 6y ago

I wish I could be more sad about this. LG lost a lot of trust during their bootloop era, around the time of the G4. They had some interesting ideas with their V series, but I just couldn't bring myself to trust them after my G4 died in less than 18 months.

Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
I have two nexus 4's with bootloop, Nexus6P faced bootloop too but that's because Qualcomm messed up S810,S808 so bad that it had physical core separation. Both LG & Google had to face settlements for it. There were reports of Pixel devices facing bootloops too. I've decided not to buy flagships until it's at least a year in the market. Btw, Nexus6P bootloop can be fixed in most devices by disabling the 4 Big. Cores and the phone can be used for less-demanding tasks with the 4 Little Cores. My Nexus6P has been resurrected this way[1]. [1] https://abishekmuthian.com/resurrecting-nexus-6p-from-bootloop-of-death/ https://abishekmuthian.com/resurrecting-nexus-6p-from-bootlo...
unclekev 6y ago
> after my G4 died in less than 18 months The whole G4 bootloop fiasco is why i'll never buy a LG phone again. Went through 4 G4's in 12 months because of it.
aidenn0 6y ago
I don't know what model of phone it was, but I had an LG phone lockup after a system update. I called support and they said it was out of warranty and I could send it in for repair at my cost. I never bought an LG phone after that. It's just not possible for a company to push out a software update that bricks your phone and refuse to fix it in a competitive market.

llaolleh 6y ago

They peaked at LG V20. Replaceable battery, useful 2nd screen, and kickass audio chip. An end of an era...

ekianjo 6y ago
I dont know about the LG G2 bit the V20 also has the same characteristics.
- llaolleh 6y ago
  Yeah I meant the V20. Apologies.

axaxs 6y ago

Can't say I blame them. Phones are really close to being commodities. Samsung and Apple have the top end on lockdown. Xiaomi will obliterate you on the low and mid range. So your only real option is to dump huge amounts of cash into top photo and app folks and try to fight with the big two.

Scarbutt 6y ago
I wouldn't discard Huawei, they are on par with Samsung.
- VWWHFSfQ 6y ago
  Huawei is basically dead as a consumer brand after USA and EU went after them [0]. They've re-branded most of their consumer stuff as Xiaomi. [0] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chinese-telecommunications-conglomerate-huawei-and-subsidiaries-charged-racketeering https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chinese-telecommunications-co...
  - manojlds 6y ago
    Wait, what? Are you trying to say Xiaomi is rebranded subset of Huawei?
    - 411111111111111 6y ago
      I'm not the parent author but they're both state sponsored enterprise. I can't speak about wherever they're rebrands though, you'd have to take all their phones apart to figure that out.
      - rchaud 6y ago
        Shouldn't the government own the majority of the shares for it to be a state sponsored enterprise? Or does it just have to offer tax breaks and subsidies?

pookieinc 6y ago

Can someone enlighten me on why manufacturers who have experience with software, such as Microsoft, don’t create their own OS for their mobile phones? I recognize that it’s easier and faster to iterate to just use Android with some sprinkles on top, but even if it meant spending 4-5 years developing it, the potential market share is absolutely massive. I can see the first year or two would not be great since app developers would need to build their apps, but after that initial hurdle, then I’d imagine it wouldn’t be as bad. After that, it comes down to sales, marketing and mindshare adoption. To me regarding LG, I was never a fan of their phones, but less competition is always bad in my book. Edit: Yes I remember the Windows Phone and it’s failures, was thinking more of starting a newer OS these days rather than several years ago.

bawolff 6y ago
Microsoft has tried and failed multiple times.
eli 6y ago
Microsoft, of course, famously did create their own phone OS. It wasn’t bad either, but among other problems they were a little late to market and there were no apps for it. A real chicken and egg problem. Not worth the engineering effort to build an app for a tiny marketshare and no one wants a smartphone that can’t even hail an Uber.
- dtx1 6y ago
  Having developed for windows phone 8, 8.1 and 10 i can say with certainty that it was bad in a plethora of ways and microsoft's constant over promising and under delivering made it worse.
  - eli 6y ago
    Compared to competing OSes at the time? I don’t remember any being particularly fun. (But also I didn’t spend much time in the Windows Phone ecosystem) But I think you’re right that MS lost focus on developers on mobile. Ironic given "developers, developers, developers" was the literal mantra.

villgax 6y ago

Can manufacturers do a wedge like design with a thicker top & tapered bottom edge? That way there is no camera bump & the device sits flat on a desk & a bit raised towards you as well. Bonus camera points coz the lenses are along the same axis horizontally & closer to the centre of the device than in one corner, likewise for the front facing camera too, which could just be shoved into one corner without leaving a hole-punch or notch at all.

DenseComet 6y ago
The original Pixel had that exact design, although the later designs went in the opposite direction.
- eru 6y ago
  I don't remember them being wedge shaped?
tsjq 6y ago
That will be a beautiful and practical design
paxys 6y ago
Camera bumps are all cancelled out by cases anyways. What you are describing sounds uncomfortable to carry around in the pocket.
- villgax 6y ago
  Both are cuboidal & I don't think it would make any difference without the case in a pocket
Stratoscope 6y ago
I don't mind a camera bump if it is symmetric horizontally. But most of the ones I've seen have the bump on one corner, which ruins the use case you mentioned of setting the device flat on a desk or table. My Note 8 and a friend's Note 9 don't really have a camera bump at all, other than a barely raised ridge around the camera section. But unlike many other phones, this ridge is symmetric: it extends equally to the left and right. Even if this were a raised camera bump, it would still work for setting the phone on a table. The iPhone I got from work is quite different: it has a rather thick camera bump on one corner. So when it sits on a table, if I tap on the display the whole phone wobbles. That is very poor design, but now Samsung seems to have copied it! The newer Samsung phone have bumps in one corner just like the iPhone, so they would be just as annoying to use on a table. For the moment I am hanging on to the Note 8 for dear life, until I find a newer phone with a good camera and either no bump or a symmetric bump. Are there any high end phones like this any more? (Regarding a sibling comment about cases, that is one solution, but I don't use one and don't plan to.)

chrisco255 6y ago

Given LG's success in the TV biz with WebOS, I'm surprised they never made a port of the OS for their mobile line.

akvadrako 6y ago
WebOS is originally made for mobiles. Not enough people want an OS that doesn't have native support for Android or iOS apps. Even windows couldn't cut it.
- chrisco255 6y ago
  They do now. We have all became acutely aware of Google and Apple having too much power over the mobile ecosystem. Windows Phone 8+ didn't offer any differentiation other than UI design and they were charging for Windows mobile at first. Windows never got the critical mass of apps. It wasn't open source. Microsoft is just another tech giant. But if they piggy backed off the TV market success of WebOS they could have a truly open source alternative to Android that other organizations could have more influence over.
paxys 6y ago
Not sure if joking or not...
- chrisco255 6y ago
  Not at all. I realize WebOS started as a mobile project but I want to see it come full circle back to mobile.
  - paxys 6y ago
    That isn't going to happen. There is no room for another smartphone OS. Look at how much cash Microsoft threw at the problem, and they still couldn't succeed.
Der_Einzige 6y ago
People don't like their TVs because they have WebOS (which sucks big time btw), they like them because they make the best quality OLED panels for reasonable prices. The CX is a phenomenal TV or monitor replacement (in 45 inch configuration)

ohazi 6y ago

I never understood why Samsung phones were constantly receiving praise by tech reviewers while LG got crapped on. Samsung always wanted to do things their way -- different (shitty) UI, Samsung versions of all the core Google apps (but worse), reorganizing preferences for no reason, the stupid bottom button placement, non-remappable Bixby button, aggressively killing apps for power management and breaking widgets, etc. LG always seemed a lot closer to stock Android, and was good at staying out of your way. I had a Samsung Galaxy S4, then an LG G5, and now an LG V35. I hated the S4 and loved the G5 and V35. My fiance had an LG V20, and now has a Samsung Galaxy S20+ and feels similarly -- loved the V20, is super annoyed by stupid Samsung software quirks, even on this latest model. Do people actually like all those Samsung annoyances? Why is Samsung considered the flagship of flagships? Build quality beyond the V30 is basically identical.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
juliand 6y ago
I am a s10+ user and recently I ditched all the different google version of my phone apps. I decided to use samsung's version of the calculator, calendar, files and contacts apps. They seem solid enough for me and some of them present better integration with the Samsung ecosystem . Those apps are also integrated with different third party providers including google . I still despise bixby but I'm very satisfied with the rest of the phone.
- mindentropy 6y ago
  Google Keyboard is the worst. It is so laggy and there is no way to adjust the keyboard keys for fat finger people.
  - dotancohen 6y ago
    Recommend another keyboard that will let me switch quickly between the five languages that I have installed, supports swipe in all those languages, has cursor navigation, and does not promote the use of emojis in conversation, has rich set of characters including diacritic marks for Hebrew and Arabic. If it pops up my selected text as an autocomplete selection that would be nice too. I would be willing to pay for such a keyboard. Alas the free Google keyboard does all that. For me, the only feature missing is language selection when attaching a hardware bluetooth keyboard. I have to switch to the default Samsung keyboard to be able to switch languages from the hardware keyboard.

xpressvideoz 6y ago

I've appreciated LG's adventurous moves. The one I liked the most was LG Optimus 3D, which provided a naked-eye 3D display similar to that of Nintendo 3DS. The most recent LG Wing, I was hopeful. But LG also left a bad taste in my mouth. The last LG phone I used, Nexus 5X, died all of a sudden, but after months of despair, I could revive it using a freaking hair dryer.[1] Yeah, some of you who are well versed to soldering may not be surprised by this, but the fact that such a huge company makes such a minor mistake completely turned me down. My reaction might be irrational, but after the incident I could not get close to newer LG phones anymore. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Nexus6P/comments/66wsvq/this_might_sound_absurd_but_i_just_fixed_my_nexus/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Nexus6P/comments/66wsvq/this_might_...

djmips 6y ago
If it was a car you would have just taken it to the local repair shop and hopefully it's an affordable repair but phones don't have that and so when they die, and they all do, it's quite harrowing (unless you are super rich).
- vbezhenar 6y ago
  You definitely can repair your phone. There are repair masters who can replace chips on the board. This is common in Kazakhstan and Russia at least.
  - offtop5 6y ago
    >Kazakhstan What's the typical income in this country, in America if you're talking about a $700 phone, and you make $70,000 a year it's not completely unreasonable to replace it every year. But if you're making $15,000 a year, spending $30 to repair your $700 phone makes much more sense.
    - vbezhenar 6y ago
      Average salary is $6,000 a year. But those numbers are according to the official statistics and I don't think those are true because of huge gray economy sector. I think that it's more like $3,000-$4,000 a year for most people (but those numbers are after all taxes, we usually don't pay taxes from our salaries, our employer takes care of that). I agree that's one of the reasons that repair is more common. Very few people would darn torn socks, because those are cheap enough just to buy them.

perryizgr8 6y ago

The mobile phone market is no longer rational. That is why we are seeing such weird things happen like LG exiting. I blame apple. There are basically three markets nowadays. 1. Ultra luxurious $1000+ phones. These phones are bought purely based on brand name. As a result they generally have a smaller set of features and put the users through some amount of pain. For example, the latest iphone does not have headphone jack, does not come with a charger, does not have expandable memory, does not have a fingerprint sensor, has outdated 5 year old-looking screens with a huge notch, etc. You cannot compete in this category with good, technically sound products. People will pay $1200 for a brick with an apple logo on it, but not for a genuinely advanced phone packed with features, just because it ain't from apple. 2. Mid tier phones. These phones are bought based on a mixture of features and brand value. It is possible to compete here because the customers are making some sort of logical decisions. That is the reason Oneplus is able to gain significant share here. But these also have started falling into the trap of removing features and making users suffer a bit for the brand. 3. Cheap commodity phones. These are extremely cheap, the software is barely acceptable and the hardware is decent. Once again, it is difficult to compete here because these customers will buy the absolute cheapest phone there is with the set of features they want. They will entirely disregard any software polish, any brand association, anything that requires attention to detail. As a result, chinese manufacturers are absolutely killing it in this space. So the only place for LG to fit here is the 2nd one. This is a downgrade from earlier when they used to be in the flagship game, before apple fucked it up. I guess they are not able or ready to adapt to the new reality of the market. Sony did the same. I respect the decision on some level.

Zardoz84 6y ago

And I Discovered that BQ get out of business like some months ago. Sadly... They make really good phones for a good price.

supernova87a 6y ago

Maybe it's a statement about how difficult it is to be profitable in the industry, and how much support/development effort it takes to keep up. If this is true, I might suggest that people who wonder "can't we just make our own open source phone" inject some realism into their estimates about how much work is needed to make an alternative that people actually want to use.

justicezyx 6y ago
> can't we just make our own open source phone This seems have nothing to do with LG's move. On the contrary, what drives LG to leave smart phone also enables the open source smartphone: the lowering of manufacturing puts more emphasis on software reconfigurability to the targeted audience of open source smartphone. LG cannot sustain because they don't have a strong software product to make their smartphone profitable. And open source smartphone is about open source anyway. It should not be compared to mass market products anyway.

VWWHFSfQ 6y ago

At this point there are basically no non-Chinese mobile phone makers aside from Samsung and Apple. And even those devices are still manufactured in China, right?

Server6 6y ago
Here's a list: Apple – American Samsung Mobile – South Korean Nokia Mobile – Finnish Google Pixel – American Sony Mobile – Japanese LG – South Korean BLU Products – American Lava – Indian Sharp – Japanese Fairphone – Dutch Philips Mobile – Dutch Yotaphone – Russian BQ – Spanish Acer – Taiwanese Asus – Taiwanese HTC – Taiwanese Essential Products – American Cherry Mobile – Philippino DoCoMo – Japanese Panasonic Mobile – Japanese. Afrione – Nigerian Mara Phone – Rwandan Librem – American
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- fomine3 6y ago
  Docomo is a carrier and just selling devices made by OEM (like Huawei), so not a manufacturer. Panasonic is abandoned long ago. Kyocera, Fujitsu still making phones in Japan.
- imiric 6y ago
  Thanks, but you've listed where those companies are headquartered, not where their devices are manufactured or where their main suppliers are located. I wasn't able to track down the country of origin for many of them, but at least Fairphone is open about it, and 75% of its components are manufactured in China[1]. Apple devices are still mostly produced in China, with some smaller scale operations in India[2]. I would like to see Fairphone levels of transparency from all manufacturers, but until then it's safe to assume that any electronics are partially sourced from countries with existing manufacturing facilities and cheap labor such as China. It's a cost cutting measure that makes it unfeasible to move production elsewhere, even for giants like Apple, and downright impossible for smaller companies. [1]: https://www.fairphone.com/en/impact/source-map-transparency/ https://www.fairphone.com/en/impact/source-map-transparency/ [2]: https://fortune.com/2019/06/13/apple-iphone-china-production/ https://fortune.com/2019/06/13/apple-iphone-china-production...

paxys 6y ago

That's unfortunate. The LG G series has consistently been among the best Android phones, especially for the price.

IG_Semmelweiss 6y ago

Proud owner of 3 LG V20s. What are my LG v20 alternatives now ?

AbuAssar 6y ago

LG G2 was my favorite phone of all time.

VWWHFSfQ 6y ago
Mine too! I freaking loved that phone.

Akashd7 6y ago

They Made Great phone , im still using a LG G7.Sad that they are shutting down. very few companies focused on Audiophile needs / DACs.

anoncow 6y ago

The recent LG Dual screen phones have been good. The wing phone was innovative as well. Sad to see them go.

pentae 6y ago

In another lifetime ago, back when I was much younger, had a lot more hair, and phones weren't very smart; the cell phone store I was working at had a customer come in with his LG flip phone. The users primary complaint was that it was shocking him on his face while using it plugged into the charger and on a call. After plugging the phone in we called it from the store phone and sure enough not long after answering the thing gave me a nice big zap on my hand. Never recommended LG phones after that.

wpm 6y ago

oh no! anyway…

JamesAdir 6y ago

From following other companies in the LG group it seems that the company is very slow to innovate compared to it's biggest rival Samsung. Comparing stock prices is almost surreal as Samsung grows in 10x multiplier over the last 10 years. LG will also be pushed out of the home electronics business as more manufacturers from Asia increase their output and capabilities. I think they will eventually become like Philips with focus only on B2B specific product lines like displays, batteries and EV components.

yyyk 6y ago

%$#@!. LG was an early innovator - their touchscreen model slightly predated the iPhone - the G2 was a classic phone, and they have very good headphone/audio tech, having decided to keep it rather than ditch it. Their modern phones are good and simple, alas, the company never recovered its image following the G3/G4 fiascos.

CodeGlitch 6y ago

So I guess this means I'm going to stop recieving security updates? Time to go phone shopping...

summm 6y ago
What? You did receive security updates from LG before? Really?

lk0nga 6y ago

> Sony phones too seem to be quite underappreciated. > The Xperia X line came with amazing built-in noise-cancellation, which only required a special purpose made $20 NC31E earphone with a 5-pole connector. > The performance of this combo to my surprise was amazing! It matched WH-1000XM4 and Bose QC20 in home-office environments. Not having to carry around yet another earphone that needs charging was radical. > Sadly, the whole line failed, and the feature was removed in the following series. > People think that "survival" is proof of aesthetic and functional superiority (we've seen this in all sorts of things - from programming languages/OSs to philosophies to races to religions). > It is not.

spiritplumber 6y ago

That's too bad because they make good, reliable phones that tend to be easy to root.

underwater 6y ago

The mobile phone ecosystem is sick, and I don't see it getting better. The fact that there is not a third choice is maddening. Even in the worst parts of the Microsoft era we had Apple as the underdog. Apple products had issues, but Apple die-hards at least could rest easy knowing that they were buying into a company who stood for something. In the mobile space the underdog is Google; a company who sees dealing with people as an unfortunately necessity on the way to get to gobbling up more data. I can't but feel that Android has sucked the oxygen of the space. I can't go out and buy a Tizen or Windows phone in large part because of Google's pathological Android licensing. Google force carriers to choose between their, supposedly open, ecosystem and shipping alternative OSes.

Engineering-MD 6y ago
>>“I can't go out and buy a Tizen or Windows phone in large part because of Google's pathological Android licensing. Google force carriers to choose between their, supposedly open, ecosystem and shipping alternative OSes.” I don’t understand how such a licence can be legal. Surely it is monopolistic practices? Yes, Apple exists at a consumer level, but at the level of phone manufacturers google has a monopoly on licensing mobile OS to manufacturers. This is abuse of their dominance to prevent competition from android forks.
- mpol 6y ago
  Could the difficulty be around the duopoly? We mostly have laws about monopolies, there can be some push-back against monopolies, but with a duopoly everything "seems" right. I see so many discussions on the internet, also on HN, following the same ritual. Apple does something bad, and people say "Just choose something from the competition, like Google". Then Google does something bad and people say "Just choose something from the competition, like Apple". Even intelligent people get fooled by this.
  - lotsofpulp 6y ago
    Writing legislation is hard enough for a monopoly, it’s probably near impossible for a duopoly. Especially when the consumers want to use what everyone else is using and network effects come in play.

SuperFluffy 6y ago

Good. I swore to never get an LG phone again after my terrible customer service experience sending in my G4 for fixing their serial bootloop issue. Sent the phone in, took two weeks for it to get fixed, and then got lost on the way back to me. I then had to fight DHL to get some of my money back. Their customer service line threatened me with their legal department should I write about this online. All out great experience.

Kjeldahl 6y ago

LG had good phones. But while most other phones allowed some minor cracks in their glass, the earlier LGs did not. One minor crack and the touch UI would stop working (they fused the touch sensor to the glass or something). They insisted on this "feature" for longer than most competitors I believe, and for every customer that experienced it we would 1) Never by an LG again, and 2) Bitch about it to others. I'm sure this was a factor to their downfall as well.

tiagod 6y ago

I had an LG G3 and it heated up so much that the shell separated from the screen/body. It was literally painful to hold your hand in the middle of the screen with heavy apps open (like Snapchat at the time...) I sent it for warranty repair three times, and every time they "repaired" it instead of giving me a new one, and it would happen again. The fourth time it happened I just gave up.

IntelMiner 6y ago

I bought an LG Velvet 5G literally two weeks ago I am fuckin' livid. Especially since I can't unlock the bootloader on the fucking thing (apparently only Europe can, not Australia or the US)

tannhaeuser 6y ago

Wondering if the Android phone market can be still considered a Google-led mobile "ecosystem" when Samsung is the only big player left with competitors dropping out or struggling, and the big Chinese manufacturers being forced out. Not meant as a snark (owned HTC phones in their heyday and also Samsung S5 and S8); just wondering if Samsung shouldn't aim for a larger influence on Android or even fork, for better or worse.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
herbst 6y ago
This appears to be an american centric view. In the rest of the world samsung is really far from the only big player. And i dont see the chinese flag ship sellers dropping at all either. Oppo is growing faster than an other phone company right now. Huawai is dominant for years now too.
- jessriedel 6y ago
  Even when you look worldwide, Samsung has ~1/3 of the market, triple the market share of any other competitor. https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile https://www.appbrain.com/stats/top-manufacturers https://www.appbrain.com/stats/top-manufacturers

scrame 6y ago

good.

nicolimo86 6y ago

My last experience with LG was with the LG Nexus 5X. I loved it until it lasted. After 2 years of daily usage it stopped working completely while I was calling someone. The phone went black and it never woke up again. I had to trash it.

varispeed 6y ago

I remember announcement that Samsung pulls out of the laptop market, yet they still seem to be doing those. At the time I had a Samsung laptop which was an abomination.

mjgs 6y ago

I don’t know that much about mobile development aside from as a user, but I guess the disappearance of a manufacturer is somewhat similar to the disappearance of a web browser, but probably worse because you also loose all the hardware possibilities, and I always thought that LG had some interesting phone designs, especially the dual screen devices, a bit experimental, but it seemed though at some stage one of them would lead to something really novel.

LockAndLol 6y ago

I doubt they'll opensource anything even after exiting the market, which is unfortunate. Millions of devices will stop getting updates in a few years.

summm 6y ago
No difference to the situation before: LG never really bothered with updates or even security updates. That is also the main reason the G4 was my last LG phone... And I hope it was the reason they stopped making phones.

T3RMINATED 6y ago

Axios is a spam network.

danielEM 6y ago

Started a petition to open source LG phones: https://www.change.org/p/lg-electronics-lg-to-open-source-their-phones-as-they-are-shutting-down-production-for-good/ https://www.change.org/p/lg-electronics-lg-to-open-source-th... Sign it and share it if you want that too. Thanks!

Jemm 6y ago

Didn't help that LG made some truly horrible tablets. Hardware was OK but software was locked down garbage.

Crono 6y ago

Very sad. I found the perfect smartphone for me - the V20. It almost feels like a smartphone that happened by accident and will never return in its glorious form again. Dont know what else to use if it dies. Already have a spare Screen and its 4th Battery ready to be used. The second screen is just the perfect solution for having an allways on display without a real (and stupid) notch. I love this feature. Also knock to power on is super convenient. Battery is replacable. The Screen is super sharp. Its thin despite its very accessible inner parts. The amp and music quality is absolutely awesome. The camera is awesome as is the sound recording quality. The IR Blaster ist just super convenient. Also the FM-Radio is a very nice addition. The camera-app is just awesome and i have yet not managed to find something simmilar. Also i like the gallery app. And the sound recording app. Its also fast, has enough power still to this day. And the SD-Card Slot combined with the internal memory gives me 640GB Storage. Also Dual SIM is nice. Really it is such an awesome phone that im not sure how this phone happened in the first place. As each Smartphone does at least 2 things stupid or hase some dumb features no one asked for. Its allways the same with me - as soon as i find the absolute perfect hardware - its already legacy and nothing like it is buyable in the future ... The V20 is like the perfect tool. No stupid features only used for sales, no shortcuts, just a very nice package. Two things i would change: Cameras should never stick out and the volume buttons should be on the back like on the G4.

ck425 6y ago
How is the software though? I tried it years ago because of the audio quality and ended up going HTC 10 because the LG version of Android was horrendous. Less bloat than Samsung sure but still horrible
WarOnPrivacy 6y ago
I really miss my V20's 2nd screen and removable battery. I went with the V30 next because I needed the extra horsepower. I'm mostly happy - except for the headphone jack on top.
CameronNemo 6y ago
I also have a V20 and am quite satisfied. The replaceable battery, SD card slot, headphone jack, and LOS support make for a great overall package. I pray this device lives for many moons.

marcodiego 6y ago

Every company that leaves a business should be obliged by law to release detailed documentation, bootloader keys and dev kit/tools. There's no other way to guarantee that costumers can own the devices they paid for without this.

JeremyBanks 6y ago
Are customers entitled to that but only if they purchase a phone from a failing company? I've had Samsung drop support for one of my phones after ~no time, but they're doing fine.
- marcodiego 6y ago
  Let the requirement be broader then!

flyinghamster 6y ago

Ugh, no followup to the Stylo 5, then. Got mine in 2019 shortly after it was released, and it's been rock-solid. Aside from the inevitable non-removable battery, I've had no complaints, and to be fair to the battery, I still get outstanding life from it. I really don't want a phone that's all-glass. I know it's trendy, but, hard pass for me. The aluminum frame and plastic back are things LG got very right with the Stylo 5. Please put enough of a bezel on it that I can actually grab it without triggering something inadvertently. And, yes, that 3.5 mm jack is important. Music-making apps are basically impossible to work with when your audio path includes Bluetooth delay.

jmclnx 6y ago
same here, I always liked the LG phones I have had. Very solid and works great. Sad to see this happening.
gwbas1c 6y ago
> And, yes, that 3.5 mm jack is important I thought the USB-C -> 3.5mm adaptors are just mechanical, or have no delay?
- ck425 6y ago
  My understanding is that many USB-C adapters limit voltage, which screws over good headphones. Also from experience of using a DAC via USB-C everyday for many years, they're really really unreliable. 3.5mm on the other hand just works and is (was? ) ubiquitous.
- CameronNemo 6y ago
  If they are mechanical, they are probably some special sauce not quite USB-C ports. USB is digital, TRS is analog. (Yes that means standardized adapters have to include a DAC). The delay should be minimal, though.
  - rrmm 6y ago
    There is a mode that's called "Audio Adapter Accessory Mode" that makes use of the USB 2.0 data lines and a few others as analog audio lines for the headphones.

twobitshifter 6y ago

I still have my Nexus 4 (LG manufactured) in a box somewhere. This was actually my first smartphone, and it turned out to be a great purchase. It was affordable, simple, and somewhat close to open. Rooting in place was as simple as could be, and with “Xposed” I was able to get features on my phone that wouldn’t be widespread on stock Android or iOS for many years. It’s hard to point to anything very wrong with that phone. It even had an Amoled always on display, which was ahead of its time. Reviewers thought that front and rear glass was an awful design decision, and they may have been right, but look where we are now?

rchaud 6y ago
The camera. It was shockingly bad. Otherwise, I agree. It was a pleasure flashing custom ROMs on to it, as you didn't need to go through the rigmarole required to get an an alternative bootloader running. There was a ton of development happening on XDA-developers then as well, so every week the distros would get better and more stable.

AbraKdabra 6y ago

My last phone was LG V20 which was a beast, but LG went the Motorola Atrix way and decided to fuck the customers and not update the phone, so now I'm happy with my Note 10 Plus receiving an update each month. Fuck LG and every company that decides to don't give a shit about their loyal customers.

coolg54321 6y ago

This is sad because LG was the one of the last 2 android phone makers with both headphone jack and SD card support in their "flagship" the other being Sony.

joana035 6y ago

I will really enjoy seen LG pushing some drivers code upstream. Postmarketos and the Linux community can benefit a lot from it.

WarOnPrivacy 6y ago

Lamentations here. G5, G6, V20, V30. Each buy followed a research period - primary qualifications were handset quality+specs, price and rootability. I didn't particularly care who the manufacturer was. LG kept winning out.

avelis 6y ago

So, many big phone makers tried to meet the smartphone transition and pulled out. It sucks. Palm LG Nokia RIM (BB) Microsoft Amazon Obi Worldphone I know BB still makes phones but it is no longer a dominant arm of their business.

rchaud 6y ago
BB's last phone was the Priv in 2015. All phones after that were built and sold by TCL, who licensed the Blackberry name. They weren't bad phones and the 2018 Key2 is actually something of a a cult favorite. But it's Blackberry in name only at this point.

foobaw 6y ago

LG should've gone out years ago. Hindsight is 20/20 but it just wasn't worth it after G6 in my opinion. Obviously, G4 was when they should've really stopped but that's much harder to predict.

dlevine 6y ago

I never had an LG smartphone, but I have many fond memories of my old LG VX4400 dumbphone that I had from 2003-2007. It was built like a tank, easily fit in my pocket, and the battery lasted for 4 or 5 days. Sure it didn't have a web browser and the only available apps were BREW, but I didn't really need any of that stuff at the time.

The_rationalist 6y ago

As a reminder the Iphone one wasn't actually the first full tactile, "wide" screen smartphone, it was the LG Prada. However the Iphone was still innovative, especially on the software side.

unethical_ban 6y ago

I can only think of a few reasons that LG couldn't make it, and none of them are enough to sink a brand: * Lack of updates * Occasionally non-flagship hardware * That Nexus issue many years ago Their UI is better than Samsung. They're less intrusive than samsung. Their flagships are usually pretty good and come at good discounts soon after release. I have an S21 now, and the number of bloatware samsung apps has me wanting to move back to Oneplus or even Apple, maybe. I only bought it because I wanted a flagship high-refresh phone under 6.5". I'll miss LG a bit, it isn't as if we need fewer competitors in the Android space. It's Chinese brands, Samsung, and Google now pretty much, no?

VHRanger 6y ago
> Their UI is better than Samsung. Is there any UI that is *worse* than samsung? They have ads in the menus now. And their UI layer adds significant touch latency.
- mdoms 6y ago
  Oppo is much, much worse than Samsung ui.
summm 6y ago
The missing updates was enough to kill the brand for me.
jessriedel 6y ago
The Samsung boatware is outrageous, but LG's was also pretty bad. The reason I got an LG, which I've been mostly happy with, is that they offered an Android One certified model (the LG G7 One) that came with nearly stock Android. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_One
- Marsymars 6y ago
  Sadly, the Android One program looks to be nearly dead. G7 One owner, don’t want a larger phone, so looks like the Pixel line is the only remaining option for my next phone.

ceedan 6y ago

Well that explains why I got my LG G8X ThinQ for 50% off, with a free dual screen case, $100 gift card rebate and a free 2 year warranty with proof of purchase. I got this phone just over a year ago. It's a great phone. Fantastic battery life, and it has a headphone jack. It's a shame - I felt a little weird getting an LG phone but I literally asked for "the best phone for the cheapest price" and LG/the dude at the Sprint store definitely delivered. I would have definitely considered an LG phone for my next purchase, but I'm hoping that won't be for another few years.

roguson 6y ago

They should improve their marketing campaign instead of getting out of the industry. I remember using my LG G4; it was the flagship phone of LG at that time. It was worth it, but the mainstream would instead choose between Apple and Samsung over other brands.

theonlybutlet 6y ago

LG phones were great before colour screens.

FiddlerClamp 6y ago

It's a pity they never got to release their rollable phone. I hope another OEM launches one (Samsung? Google? Apple?).

pb77 6y ago

I had LG G8 thinq and it made me get an iphone after it. My previous 2 phones were pure android motorolla phones. G8 thingq one was very bloated, i had to drag an app to the screen before i can bring it up. I cannot see list of apps and just run it. I have samsung tablet the ui seems to be ok, not too much bloat.

rickdeckard 6y ago

All weaknesses aside, I always liked LG for their adventurous attempts to challenge the market. There was a "dare product" every year, something noone has done so far but with the potential to push things forward in the industry. Unfortunately, the lack of sales (and marketing) caused those leaps to get smaller every year... They will be missed. In a world of ever-increasing smartphone conformity, they were the ones reliably rattling the cage by placing a screaming punk of a product just in the middle of the worldwide white-collar market...

krick 6y ago

Obviously, I am disappointed by that outcome: I've used several G-line phones and currently using V30 (I was slightly disappointed by it compared to G6, but it's still much better than anything else I could find). And, honestly, didn't consider switching, because despite how much I dislike LG phones, I hate all other phones I know much more. But what's more important, I very strongly suspect it's a wrong decision. Yes, they don't care about making me happy, they care about making money, and it's a fact, that their mobile division only loses money. And I do understand, that my phone preferences might be somewhat different from average, so I accept the hypothesis that these aren't "best for everyone". But either way, these are not bad phones. Especially if you skip the weirdest models like G5 (which I also skipped). In fact, their weirdest decisions always seemed like am attempt to answer the question "what are we doing wrong?". And it still seems obvious, that the only possible answer is marketing. Uber-popular samsung flagships never were really better than LG flagships (and for me they are actually worse), but the real and obvious difference were huge samsung billboards all across my city. And I honestly don't remember a single one by LG. Not to mention (obviously) sponsored reviews and posts on all meme-websites like 9gag every time Samsung made a new phone. No surprise they were selling better even at higher prices. And even today I saw a lot of "TIL: LG had a mobile division" posts. So if I am right, and the problem is their marketing, getting out of mobile business must mean that they didn't learn the lesson. And if so, what good should we expect from whatever new divisions they'll make?

Ambix 6y ago

Still using LG G4 :)