Recently I was watching a hands-on review of the OnePlus 6T by a popular You-Tuber who at the end recommended the LG G7 as a viable alternative to the 6T. This is got me thinking about the current state of LG phones, what they used to be and where the company is possibly headed.
I am not going to talk much about what LG phones used to be as I am sure you are all aware that the brand used to compete directly with Samsung at the flagship level and they were known for their exceptional camera performance. LG was one of the first major brands to utilize a wide- angle camera in it’s dual lens setup, which is the most practical use of the dual camera setup up until now.
“LG was one of the first major brands to utilize a wide- angle camera in it’s dual lens setup”
But let’s talk about where things started going wrong, no major android software updates and even without sufficient security patches, horrible bootloop issues and mother board failures of the LG G4. LG service centers were initially inconsistent in accepting warranty claims on affected devices, they out right refused to believe that their phones had manufacturing issues.
It took a class-action lawsuit in 2016 for LG to officially acknowledge these hardware defects and their customers had to suffer for a more than a year. I would like to share my own personal misery when I deiced to buy the the infamous LG V20. The V20 was initially released with a huge price tag of $830, but was LG able to justify that big price tag with it’s after-sales service?
“The unlocked V20 models which launched with Android 7.0 Nougat in 2016, are still on Android 7.0 Nougat up to now, in late 2018, more than 2 years later!”
After only 2 months of use my LG V20’s display started flickering heavily making the phone unusable in day to day life, when I went to an authorized LG service center they kept the phone for almost 6 weeks and one day I received a call where they explained to me that the display of my phone isn’t covered my warranty and so they are unable to help me. Even if I hadn’t ran into hardware failure, the unlocked V20 models which launched with Android 7.0 Nougat in 2016, are still on Android 7.0 Nougat up to now, in late 2018, more than 2 years later!
I am not going to continue flogging a dead horse, regardless of it’s past mistakes LG hasn’t taken any positive steps towards the right direction. The brand continues to charge insane price for it’s lackluster products, although the hardware issues that used to plague LG phones have been somewhat resolved, proper software support is still up in the air. Although LG continues to be on of the few rare brands who are still utilizing the 3.5mm headphone jack and a DAC, that alone is not enough to save this sinking ship.
Nealz Tech 