It must suck to be LG right now

After last year’s lackluster G5, I was really hoping LG would hit it out of the park this year. It’s one of the few brands that’s continued to cater to people who care about durability and power-user features. And for a while, I thought it might just succeed: I marveled at the miniscule bezels on the LG G6, allowing a huge screen to fit in a small body.

And then Samsung announced the S8

Don’t get me wrong: The G6 is probably LG’s best ever phone, with a metal and glass design, a great dual camera setup, and that stunning display. I still think it’ll sell much better than the G5. But the S8 took its most noteworthy feature – trimming the bezels to oblivion – and cranked it up a notch. Not only that, it also has more powerful specs, sports unique features in the form of Bixby and DeX, and looks way prettier to boot.

LG is partly to blame here. It took a gamble and decided to get a head start by releasing the G6 about a month before the S8, yet with leaks and rumors aplenty, I reckon most users simply waited to see what Samsung was unveiling anyway. I can’t imagine LG didn’t have an inkling Samsung was going to go a similar route with the display, and the company simply didn’t do enough to differentiate itself.

At least in past years, LG catered to the power user with features like a removable battery, but now LG is fully on the sealed-design bandwagon. Problem is, if it’s going to imitate the competition, it can’t just play catch-up – it has to try to leapfrog it in some areas too. With nary any differentiation, I can’t imagine many people walking into a store, holding the two devices side by side, and then walking out with the G6.

This isn’t to say the G6 doesn’t have genuine advantages over the competition. Consider durability: LG says the G6 is built to same military drop standard as the V20 – a phone I’ve dropped dozens of times and have somehow managed not to crack. It also has an incredibly versatile ultra-wide angle camera that replaces the need to shoot panorama photos.

That means that for my own personal use, I would likely choose a G6 over an S8. The V20 has been my daily driver since launch and I appreciate both the ultra wide angle camera and the ability to survive a few tumbles (I hate using cases).

And yet LG doesn’t seem to know how to sell its advantages. LG’s first TV ad says nothing about durability, and does a poor job of showing off the wide-angle camera’s versatility.

Comments

Internet providers in US say that they are not going to sell their consumers’ internet browsing history

Comcast Corp, Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc said Friday they would not sell customers’ individual internet browsing information, days after the US Congress approved legislation reversing Obama administration era internet privacy rules. The bill would repeal regulations adopted in October by the Federal Communications Commission under former President Barack Obama requiring internet service providers to do more to protect customers’ privacy than websites like Alphabet Inc’s Google or Facebook Inc . The easing of restrictions has sparked growing anger on social media sites. “We do not sell our broadband customers’ individual web browsing history. We did not do it before the FCC’s rules were adopted, and we have no plans to do so,” said Gerard Lewis, Comcast’s chief privacy officer. He added Comcast is revising its privacy policy to make more clear that “we do not sell our customers’ individual web browsing information to third parties.” Verizon does not sell person

The Galaxy S8's misplaced fingerprint scanner was probably a last-minute change

Ask anyone to tell you where a smartphone's fingerprint reader should be and, though the answers will vary, you'll never be told "off center, right next to the camera lens on the back." But lo and behold, that's exactly where Samsung plopped its fingerprint scanner on the new (and otherwise delightful) Galaxy S8. It's a perplexing decision if we consider it as a deliberate design choice, but reports ahead of the S8's launch, which now seem validated by the device itself, suggest that it was a last-minute alteration enforced by the slower-than-desired development of more ambitious technology. A March 13th report out of Korea lays it all out lucidly. Samsung, working in collaboration with Synaptics, had initially hoped to build the fingerprint sensing tech directly into the screen itself. "Samsung poured resources into Synaptics’ fledgling technology last year but the results were frustrating," an informed source is quoted as saying. "W

The Freedom 251 isn’t dead, it’s returned as the Freedom 420 4G feature phone for Rs 420(6.48$)

As we’re all aware by now, the Freedom 251 smartphone turned out to be a sham. The makers of the smartphone, resellers to be precise, were unable to follow through on their promise of delivering a smartphone at Rs 251 to the Indian public. Practically speaking, building such a smartphone was impossible to begin with. The bill of materials alone would place the cost of the device at over Rs 1,000 and despite claims of unnamed “partnerships” and tax breaks under the Make In India initiative, it would have been impossible to bring down the price of the smartphone and the plan fizzled out. Reality struck a harsh blow to the company and it’s offices have since been shut down. The original owners have also quietly disappeared and at least one has been arrested. It now appears that the company never gave up trying. We’ve learned that the company, now under new management, has taken a more realistic approach to the problem and have come up with yet another outrageous, but less lud

TechCruuse

Search This Blog