MWC 2019: LG G8 ThinQ launched with 3D ToF front camera, Hand ID and Air Motion gestures

modular G5 was possibly last LG phone high on crazy gimmicks – but its commercial failure sort of forced LG into rethinking its smartphone strategy. smartphones that followed G5 focused on getting basics right, and that’s all. But somewhere down line, LG was also losing its identity – to invate regardless of sales and profits. With new G8 ThinQ, launching at MWC 2019 on Sunday, LG is seemingly going back to its LG G5-ish weird ways.  

G8’s OLED screen doubles as an audio amplifier, as well as earpiece. And it has a 3D Time-of-Flight front camera (LG is calling it Z camera) that helps t only in fast and more secure face unlock and achieving greater depth of field effect in portrait selfies, it also lets you control G8 with palm of your hand. This includes two user cases – Hand ID and Air Motion gestures.  

A ToF system essentially calculates time it takes for an IR laser to bounce off subjects and return to device to create a more accurate 3D picture of environment. Only LG is using it in ways you and I never imagined, on G8. Hand ID, as name suggests, allows you to unlock G8 by holding your palm in front of phone’s Z camera – using vein maps that LG says will be hard to spoof from a security point of view. Air Motion gestures are a lot more diverse – once you get phone’s attention by waving at it in a particular way, you’ll be able to perform a range of tasks, from playing/pausing media to dismissing an incoming call.  

That’s right. In ory, LG G8 is a phone that you can control largely without even having to touch it - by combining Hand ID with Air Motion gestures. Of course, how two pan out in day to day us is something only time will tell, but whatever be case, it will take some time getting used to – even more so swapping modules.  

Aside from crazy stuff, rest of LG G8 is familiar. It looks exactly like G7 before it. G8 has a 6.1-inch 19.5:9 OLED display (over G7’s LCD) with a tch, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor with 6GB RAM and 128GB stor (expandable), a dual rear camera system consisting of one 12MP standard camera with 78-degree field of view and a secondary 16MP wide angle camera with 107-degree field of view, a primary 8MP front camera, and a 3,500mAh battery.  

G8 uses Crystal Sound OLED, a techlogy that LG also uses in some of its high-end TVs. Basically, whole display can vibrate to act as a speaker, and even though G8 comes with a mo speaker out, it will be able to channel stereo output thanks to LG’s OLED tech. LG is also promising improved clarity. 

LG’s BoomBox already amps audio coming from G7 and V40 by turning se phones into resonance chambers. Its crazy OLED tech will add to it some more, possibly entailing in louder sound. t to mention, LG’s signature quad DAC is sticking around as well, meaning yay points for good old headphone jack.     

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