LG’s next big phone will debut in Barcelona on February 26

LG bet it all on mods with the G5, but its "Friends" ecosystem hasn’t been a winner, and the company has not released additional modules to help build the range and entice usage. Rumors that the modular system will be dropped are already spreading. As a result, LG will really have to blow the competition out of the water with its next flagship phone, which we expect will be called the G6.

It looks like the LG G6 could be one of the smartest smartphones out there. So far, the Google Pixel and Pixel XL are the only phones with Google Assistant, Google’s new digital assistant. According to a report from Business Korea, however, the LG G6 could have it too — making the G6 the first non-Google-branded phone to get the new assistant.

The report says LG could even go a step further than that — the company could load the G6 with both Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa, making it only the second smartphone, behind the Huawei Mate 9, to feature Alexa. LG has integrated Alexa into some of its other products, such as the InstaView refrigerator, so a continued partnership would make sense.

The move could make the G6 somewhat of a battleground for Google and Amazon’s assistants, and it will be interesting to see how the two interact with each other, if at all.

Looking forward to a new smartphone from LG? Good, because prepare to get excited. The company will hold a special event on February 26 in Barcelona, Spain, where it’s likely to show the G6 smartphone. The gathering takes place the day before Mobile World Congress opens its doors in the city. The invitation includes the tagline, "See more, play more," which continues on from the "play more" theme introduced with the G5, and may play on the possible larger, higher resolution screen feature on the new phone.

LG bet it all on mods with the G5, but its "Friends" ecosystem hasn’t been a winner, and the company has not released additional modules to help build the range and entice usage. Rumors that the modular system will be dropped are already spreading. As a result, LG will really have to blow the competition out of the water with its next flagship phone, which we expect will be called the G6.

It looks like the LG G6 could be one of the smartest smartphones out there. So far, the Google Pixel and Pixel XL are the only phones with Google Assistant, Google’s new digital assistant. According to a report from Business Korea, however, the LG G6 could have it too — making the G6 the first non-Google-branded phone to get the new assistant.

The report says LG could even go a step further than that — the company could load the G6 with both Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa, making it only the second smartphone, behind the Huawei Mate 9, to feature Alexa. LG has integrated Alexa into some of its other products, such as the InstaView refrigerator, so a continued partnership would make sense.

The move could make the G6 somewhat of a battleground for Google and Amazon’s assistants, and it will be interesting to see how the two interact with each other, if at all.

Looking forward to a new smartphone from LG? Good, because prepare to get excited. The company will hold a special event on February 26 in Barcelona, Spain, where it’s likely to show the G6 smartphone. The gathering takes place the day before Mobile World Congress opens its doors in the city. The invitation includes the tagline, "See more, play more," which continues on from the "play more" theme introduced with the G5, and may play on the possible larger, higher resolution screen feature on the new phone.

It’s also spreading the word through LG social media accounts. On Twitter, LG posted a shorter version of the teaser video released earlier in January, where it asks members of the public to describe their ideal phone. The dream device is apparently water resistant, has a big screen, can be used with one hand, and has a great camera. LG closes the video telling us to imagine our wishes came true, then flashed a "February, 2017" date up on the screen.

The tweet, posted on January 18, says "Everything you want is on its way," which indicates the above wishlist of features will be part of the G6.

The LG G series has traditionally been released at Mobile World Congress, so it’s not a surprise the G6 will also arrive at the show. What could change, however, is the availability date after the device is launched. The G5 was first unveiled at MWC in February 2016, but it wasn’t until April that consumers could actually buy it. According to the South Korea-based ETNews the G6 could be made available a full month earlier than its predecessor.

Why the change in availability? Well, 2016 wasn’t exactly LG’s best year. The G5 largely failed to capture the imaginations of consumers, and while the LG V20 was a great device, it also didn’t sell like LG might have hoped. In the new year, LG wants to shake things up a little — which means beating out the competition by releasing flagships a little early.

LG has confirmed that the G6 will have a 5.7-inch Quad HD+ display, but what’s unique is the 18:9 aspect ratio — meaning the device is likely more elongated than typical devices with that aspect ratio. The 5.7-inch display will have a resolution of 2,880 x 1,440-pixels, and the company says the screen is impressively less than 1mm thick.
One of 2017’s smartphone trends will be the gradual elimination of the bezel, and LG says it has reduced the bezel on the top of the G6 by 20 percent, as well as 10 percent on the sides. The display, which is likely OLED, will be 10 percent more visible in daylight and will use up 30 percent less battery life.

So what will the to-be-released G6 end up looking like? Well, according to new reports, it could have a pretty familiar design. The most recent leak comes from @OnLeaks, and shows a 360-degree video of what the phone will end up looking like. The render falls in line with other leaks we’ve seen, and has a similar design to the G5, although slightly more refined. It also appears as though LG will do away with modularity in the G6, and it looks like the 3.5mm headphone jack will stick around in LG’s flagship, at least for now. The leaks also show what appear to be glossy finishes, following the new design trend set by Apple with the jet black version of the iPhone 7.

Android Authority has also managed to get its hands on what appears to be very early renders, showing that the phone will have an almost identical design to its predecessor, the LG G5. For example, it will have the same camera module placement, the same fingerprint sensor placement, and the same button placement, on the right of the device. There will be a few differences, however — the G6 is expected to slim down a little to 72.43mm, which is slightly thinner than the G5’s 73.9mm, although barely enough to notice a difference. And it’s expected to feature a curved, 2.5D LCD display.

Android Authority has updated its post to say that the renders are an extremely early design, so it’s possible (and even likely) that the final design will change before the release of the G6.

LG’s Friends range of modules for the G5 didn’t catch on, despite being an unusual feature with plenty of potential. This lack of success may mean LG drops the feature for the G6. Instead, it may add water resistance to the G6. Companies that supply waterproof adhesives are apparently bidding for the job of keeping the wet stuff out of the G6, according to ET News. Additionally, LG’s new teaser video which may refer to the G6 talks about water resistance as an often requested feature.

LG G5 FriendsSealing up the phone means not having removable sections for new modules or a replacement battery, another aspect that made the G5 standout from the competition. Previously, ET News reported that LG is not building modular components for the G6, and did not add them to the LG V20. The Japanese version of the V20, named the Isai Beat locally, included water resistance, but not the removable battery — two features that can’t work together.