LG continues to experiment with alternative designs to enhance our mobile experience, and the latest is the highly unusual LG Wing smartphone. Like the G8X ThinQ Dual Screen and the V60 ThinQ Dual Screen it has two screens, just not in quite the way you expect. At first glance it looks similar to the LG Velvet, until you press a button and the screen rotates 90 degrees into landscape orientation, and reveals another screen underneath. It’s more madness from the company that brought you the modular LG G5, and a television that magnetically sticks to your wall.
You’re probably asking why. It’s all about increasing screen real estate without resorting to a full foldable design, and in turn increasing multitasking opportunities. We usually think of multiple windows when talking about multitasking, but the LG Wing’s innovative screen system means apps and controls can live on the secondary screen and not interrupt the main view. This way you can reply to messages while watching video, use game controls and not cover the action, or view maps with music controls or search running, too. What’s more, you can use the phone in any orientation.
It sounds really different, but whether it works in practice is another thing. LG has adopted Android’s multitasking system to make it more accessible, and has thought about ways to make this unusual design more useful. For example, the camera array has a 12-megapixel, f/2.2 aperture landscape orientation ultra-wide sensor specifically designed for use when the screen is rotated and you’re holding it more naturally in portrait. It joins another 13-megapixel, f/1.9 aperture ultra-wide sensor and a main 64-megapixel, f/1.8 aperture sensor in standard orientation.
An interesting gimbal mode separates the camera from many others. Using the 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, it steadies video recordings in the same way you expect from a moderately priced standalone smartphone gimbal, and supports pan, tilt, and follow functions. The controls are designed to be used with one hand. The selfie camera is hidden inside a pop-up module, and the sensor has 32 megapixels.
What else? The main screen is a 6.8-inch OLED and rotates to reveal the second 3.9-inch OLED screen hidden underneath. Like the LG Velvet the Wing uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G processor plus it comes with 5G connectivity, 8GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of storage space. It has an in-display fingerprint sensor, a 4,000mAh battery, and a microSD card slot.
Concerned about durability? LG says it has tested the rotating screen’s hinge to 200,000 rotations, which means it should easily cope with several years of constant use, while the selfie camera’s pop-up motor has been tested to 60,000 motions. However, with all these motorized parts, the LG Wing does not have water resistance and is a bit of a heavy beast. It weighs 276 grams, which is even more than the monstrous 240 gram Asus ROG Phone 3, and the same as the Samsung Galaxy Fold.
The LG Wing will come to the U.S. soon and cost around $1,000, and while an exact release date has not been confirmed, we do know it will be sold through carriers rather than unlocked.
