LG to sell new flagship G4 phone starting April 29
Aimed initially at consumers in South Korea, the new phone will offer them a free screen replacement for the first year and a free 64GB memory card if they buy it by May 31.
Correction, 4:35 a.m. PT April 21: The launch date of the phone has been fixed. It will go on sale on April 29 in South Korea.
LG's new G4 phone will reach consumers on April 29 -- at least those in South Korea, the company told CNET.
LG touted the new phone and a special promotion via a Korean blog posted on Monday. The blog didn't reveal when the phone will hit retailers in other countries. LG told CNET that other markets will announce their respective rollout dates after April 28, the same date the company will hold a launch event for the new phone.
Last year, LG kicked off its G3 initially in South Korea and then later introduced it to other regions.
To entice customers, LG is offering a couple of freebies. Buyers of the G4 will get a free screen replacement. If your screen breaks within the first year of ownership, LG will replace it at no charge. Further, buyers will get a free 64GB microSD card. However, both freebies are good only for consumers in South Korea, LG told CNET. Both promotions end May 31.
LG is counting on the G4 to continue and expand upon the strides made by the G3.
In a mobile landscape dominated by Apple and Samsung, LG fared relatively well with the G3 , which launched last year. The company saw its highest ever market share in North America during 2014's third quarter. Over the same period, LG took fourth place in worldwide mobile phone sales with a share of 4.2 percent, according to a report from Gartner. However, looking solely at smartphone sales, LG trailed Chinese vendors such as Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo. So the company still has work to do.
LG hasn't spilled too many details about the G4. But the new blog post touts the phone's "DSLR camera performance" with a 16-megapixel rear camera with an f/1.8 aperture and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. Reports say that the G4 will sport a 5.5-inch screen with a Quad-HD (2,560x1,440-pixel) LCD display and that the new screen will be 30 percent brighter than conventional QHD LCD displays. Purportedly powered by a 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 or 808 processor, the phone will come with 16GB or 32GB of internal storage and a more responsive touchscreen.
The company is scheduled to unveil the G4 on April 28 and April 29 at events in six cities: New York, London, Paris, Istanbul, Singapore and Seoul.