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We are here at the LG press conference at MWC.
And we've just seen the company take the wraps off two new phones, the V50 in my hands and the G8 with Roger.
The G8 ThinQ.
The G8 ThinQ.
Well let's start with the V 50 thin cube.
Roger what's exciting about this phone?
Obviously what's exciting is the headline.
It's the first 5G phone, it's coming to Sprint in the US first as well as a Korean telecom company.
But it's the first of 5G for LG.
For LG.
For LG.
The first 5G.
Yes.
That's a big deal, so we're gonna have faster data speeds, and all kinds of other cool things that 5G is gonna bring.
Does this at all excite you about this phone?
For the most part.
You're trying to get.
[CROSSTALK] There is one little surprise that they pulled out at the end that was this dual screen companion.
Basically a cover case that acts as a second screen or basically,
Like a second monitor, right?
Or a poor mans foldable phone.
I see.
Yeah, so it looks like a cover case, but it's a second screen and it works pretty well.
It pairs kinda wirelessly and you can sorta switch displays.
They work together just like a foldable phone would, but it's not foldable in its accessory.
Yeah, so we're seeing these some examples of actual dual screen, where you can see an Apple on screen and an app on another.
Also I think I remember seeing You can use it like a controller if you're gaming, you can have some of the controls in one.
Right.
To me, I play a lot of games on my phone, so I think that is kinda neat.
Yeah, yeah, definitely and unfortunately, I think it's only available in select markets.
For instance it may not be coming to the US which is a little bit disappointing because this is actually one of the more interesting parts of that phone.
Definitely yeah, and also problem is, it probably won't be going to the UK either, but we don't know about that.
So we'll have to wait I think for availability and of course pricing on a second screen for your phone.
But there are some other cool features in there, the camera has got this thing that it calls zed camera, is that right, or is that on the GA?
That's just the GA unfortunately.
So that one's-
That one's the normal camera.
This is the regular camera okay.
We have still got three camera's on the back, for like a wide angle.
Yeah it's a lot.
View and that stuff.
So, [UNKNOWN], why don't we move on to the G8 then?
Right.
So what's this going on?
The G8, this is sort of the main flagship for them.
This is the one that most carriers are gonna sell.
That one's the one you have to wait on.
But this is sort of the mass market phone, the latest for G series.
The biggest innovation here is this Z camera.
Zed camera, yeah.
No, no, no,
Z-Camera!
Yeah, but I'm English, so we're going with Zed-Camera.
I'm going with what they said on-stage, which was Z-Camera.
I heard zed.
[LAUGH].
So this is a Infineon-powered camera, the whole deal is this time-of-flight camera.
Of course, it tracks 3-D images, and basically, it's the answer to iPhone's Face ID.
Shots, it's like depth sensing.
Exactly, exactly.
Okay.
And so they're introducing the first camera that unlocks via palm and vein sensor.
It actually reads the vein as opposed to the fingerprint.
which they say is supposed to be more secure.
I can't unlock this phone because somebody else's vein is attached to it.
And so that's why it's still locked.
I haven't heard of vein unlocking before and I understand the [INAUDIBLE].
Veins in your hand are quite complex but surely there's, I think there's a lot that can interfere with that.
I mean if you've got, I don't know if you've got fatter hands like me like can it see as well?
If it's vein, does it have to be your hand or could it be your thigh or a I think they could do things, but they chose a sequel of a hand, because how many people are unlocking phones with a button?>> I mean i'm about to try, [LAUGH] I'm happy to be the first, so that's kind of interesting, but then using the phone cameras were with that depth, is also like a motion thing>> Exactly, there is this air motion controller, the idea, if you are unlocking your phone with your hand like this.
They're actually they put in gesture control you can actually do things like beyond unlock the phone, you could open certain apps, you can play YouTube you can even turn the volume up and down.
ttt turning an actual like an old school volume nob.
That's kind of interesting, but is it something that anyone's been really asking for?
Not really, I think it's a little bit on the gimmicky side, for sure.
Yeah.
And I tried this, it didn't work so well.
It was actually a pretty rought implementation.
Sure.
They say that this is gonna get improved for the next couple of weeks.
It's continually Getting updated so maybe it'll be ready for prime time but when I tried it was a really rough experience.
Yeah, yeah, it sounds very, very gimicky.
The only time I could really seeing this being used, and indeed this is what the demo on stage suggested, is if you're cooking and you've got food on your hands and you don't want to touch screen.
And the guy said, yeah, that And lots of other uses.
And I kinda want to grab him and say, give me one other use.
Give me one other time when you're gonna wanna use this, because I can't think of anything beyond cooking.
I guess if you're swimming, you come out of the pool I guess, and you don't wanna touch,
And you happen to of put your phone on the side.
That's what I do.
You get to your phone before you get to your towel?
When does, I don't know-
I don't know.
When that happens.
Maybe, I don't know, I'd be very interested to hear if anyone can think of any good reasons to have that beyond cooking.
But that doesn't really excite you then, does it?
And the camera thing doesn't really-
Yeah.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't seem particularly jazzed about this.
Look this is a bit of bad timing for LG, right.
They announce this phone and it's a nice phone.
It's got the latest specs.
It's got the Qualcomm, A55, six days of RAM.
It's a high end phone.
But it's coming at a time when companies are releasing foldable phones and thing that do all kinds of crazy.
Gimmicks or tricks, and so granted those phones are in the 2,000, $2,600 range [CROSSTALK]
More expensive.
Lot more expensive, this is not gonna be that.
It's gonna be more of a premium phone, but a stnard premium phone.
Yeah.
But it's just not that interesting.
Excluding the folding phones, which obviously are there from the show at the moment It's Waway's foldable phone, Samsung's foldable phone.
They're the things that really attracting the headlines.
But putting even against the Galaxy S10 Plus, Samsung's flagship, how do you think either of these phones compare?
I mean, it's gonna be tough.
I think it's the same problem that LG has year after years, they put up their phone a few weeks after or few days after Samsung does
The Samsung hardware is usually a better experience, and it's just hard to get anyone to notice the LG phone.
Like I said, a decent phone, but just, when it stacks up to the Samsung S10, it's tough.
Yeah, they fall into the background quite a lot.
Yeah.
And even on the way here as we were talking, I was saying, I don't think I've seen an LG G7 in the wild.
Yeah, these phones are on sale, but People don't really get that excited about them.
And I don't think LG is doing a lot to really generate a lot of enthusiasm for, not only its phones but the brand in general.
And Samsung is doing better things of that, Huawei is doing better things of that.
And to me at the moment I'm not really saying a lot of Reasons to be particularly excited about either of these phones right now.
But I think it's probably gonna come down to overall experience and the price-
Yes.
And that's something that we're gonna have to figure out in a few weeks.
Roger, anything else that you think that we need to say about these phones?
No I think we pretty much well covered it, I mean this is it.
Cool, if you're happy, I'm happy.
Of course, do let us know your thoughs about both these phones in the comments below.
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And of course keep your eye on CNET.com/NWC for all of our coverage of Mobile Congress 2019.
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