phone 36 – lg wing

7th phone for 2021. as if 6 is too few. but if i exclude loan collaterals, then this is the 1st phone i bought this year. not that there will be a second one, but lemme have another excuse to acquire more. ha!

this is the 3rd lg phone that i have on my collection. and i was reminded by my own rants i wrote on my lg g4 review. xperia and lg phones are my go to brands when i am looking for phones to use and keep. this is because both satisfy my requirement for keeping a phone – usability and novelty. and lg wing seemed to maxed out the novelty part. i was also amazed at how the use cases were presented when this device was unveiled. i really watched the unveiling of this phone and the hype did not go down for a couple of months. even when lg announced their exit on mobile industry, i still want the phone, thinking that when lg decides to abandon the support, novelty still holds – as long as the swivel mechanism holds, that is. compared to dual screen, i think this phone is more suited to pairing related apps, than multitasking. it does not give you the freedom to detach, like on dual screen, instead you swivel the main display back.

being a phone released in 2020, i expected a good battery performance. i was not disappointed. fully charged for an hour and 57 minutes, it almost surpassed my sony xperia 1 ii, just 2 minutes longer. and ye, anything near 2 hours or less of charging is ideal to me. battery life does not disappoint as well. lasting for 2 days and 36 minutes, it is one of my phones having long battery life. an hour of charging every morning will not bother you of low battery. this test does not include the usage of the smaller display, so the screen on time results to 10 hours and 36 minutes.

battery score card

lg wing has single down firing loudspeaker, minimizing immersive audio experience when using it without audio accessories. likewise, it is not that loud. wireless audio is great on this phone. however, in the name of novelty, 3.5mm audio port was sacrificed. that left me using the usb type c port for wired audio. weird that the usb type c to 3.5mm port dongle from my xz2 compact is not recognized by the phone. instead, i have to use the usb type c earphone that came with the wing. audio experience is just decent, not as good as the v50s with quad dac. even my older xperias were better by default. if not for the software tweaks on the audio, i will not recommend this phone for audio needs.

another compromise i have to make is accepting its rounded edge display. good thing, this phone has no notch nor punched holes that would interrupt web browsing experience. the rounded edge is not that pronounced as well, distortion is less, but it is there. and when there are some light sources around, i am slightly annoyed by the reflections it makes on the sides. website texts and images are good enough, that is, if you have not experienced using 4k display. colors are good, quite warmer than xperia 1 ii. at some point, images look punchier.

gaming was also considered when designing this phone. there is an app that takes care of gaming options. no complaints on the performance. the display is at 60hz, just to point out. but i am satisfied. so far, i have no phone with a high refresh rate.

three camera modules take care of the photo shoots and video recording. before testing the battery, i already had a chance to play with the gimbal mode. i was impressed by its stabilization. i must say, it is way better than xperia 1 ii in stabilisation. the resulting photos and videos are great. colors seemed to be near the actual colors i see, just a bit warmer. which might be because of the display calibration, since it is warmer than the xperia 1 ii and i have not transferred the footage to my less accurate laptop. ha! camera user interface is also very similar to v50s, so i was at home in no time, unlike my experience on xperia 1 ii which needs some learnings to do.

video playback is good. but again, my personal issue on rounded display is noticeable here. i find the videos being distorted on the extreme top and bottom (while holding the phone in landscape). the only aspect ratio that looks great on the phone is 21:9. somehow, i get the idea why some manufacturers never go 21:9 aspect ratio except xperia. that is, only for those having rounded displays and without any display cutout. the single loudspeaker also is not ideal for video playback. or, perhaps i was spoiled by sony xperia devices since xperia z3, with stereo front firing loudspeakers. so, for this phone, a bluetooth audio device or the included type c earphone is ideal for video playback. if you get passed that, experience is great.

i am liking this phone day after day. pricing also went down significantly, making it easy to recommend for those looking for novelty. so, if you are one, go get it. this might not be used as a main phone though, given that there are a lot of moving parts needing utmost care, like the swivel mechanism and pop up selfie camera – include the rounded display. likewise, you should be okay with how it works out of the box since i doubt lg would support this device despite claiming that they will do support it and push software updates. despite lg pulling the plug, i am still hoping that one day they will come back and do what they do best – innovating on form factor that has surprisingly good functionality (curved as g flex, productivity proposition as dual screen, customizability as g5), aside from their audio prowess and camera expertise. or, at least, another brand takes its place, somehow. zte for the underdisplay camera, though i am not really a fan of it. asus for a dac almost or on par to lg quad dac. vivo and sony for the camera hardware and circuitries. so, there is still hope that innovation will prosper. now, if only people will support such and real technology fans are heard more than the “average user” reviewers who are seemed to be paid by less innovative companies, then the future is bright. average user, you say. there are some techtubers out there with an “m” on their screen names. should i name them?