With smartphones and touches screens a ubiquitous part of our existence, tech companies are now pushing to find what the next display pattern is. We have seen Samsung and Huawei invest heavily in making foldable screens that allow users to increase screen real estate, while Microsoft is focusing more on create dual-screen devices that can operate in unison with each other.
It appears LG is now coming up with a dual-screen device of its own, but one which will rely on a swivel device for its second screen, according to a new report from ETNews. The new phone, which is reportedly codenamed “Wing”. The device will feature a main 6.8-inch display alongside a smaller 4-inch screen with a 1:1 aspect ratio and is scheduled to arrive later this year, depending on manufacturing progress.
LG already has a dual-screen device on the market in the V60, where the second screen allows you to run a different app and use two apps at once. The idea behind this new concept though is for single apps to make us of both screens. The idea behind the second screen will be primarily to aid with multitasking, though the use-case can certainly be expanded over time. An example provided by the company, for instance, is that you can use the primary display to view a photo while leaving the second screen free to access editing controls.
This wouldn’t be the first swivel phone that LG has released. Over a decade ago it released several phones using this form-factor, including the LB1500 and LU1400. In addition to their rotating displays, the other major selling point of these “DMB phones” was that they had the hardware to receive digital TV broadcasts. The technology though was perhaps a little primitive and ahead of its time and perhaps didn’t catch on so well.
Beyond its swivelling screen, LG’s upcoming device is said to support 5G, will run on a Snapdragon 7-series processor, and will feature a triple-rear camera array with a 64-megapixel main sensor. It’s an interesting idea from LG and one which I’m not convinced will work, though if they can provide some good use-cases for it, perhaps they are onto something special here.
Last Updated: May 13, 2020
