If you thought that foldable phones like the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 were the hottest thing in smartphones right now, LG would like a word. A new report has revealed the Korean company is working on a new form of smartphone that contains a rotating display.
Korean site ETNews (via AndroidCentral) broke the news, providing the image you can see above. The phone is said to have the codename Wing and will be available to purchase later this year.
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The main rotating display is on the LG Wing is a 6.8-inch panel, the same size as the LG Velvet, the company's recently released phone that focuses on design over specs. However, when the display is spun 90 degrees, it reveals a square 4-inch secondary touch display for the user to then interact with. The report claims the phone can be used horizontally or vertically in this state, with the secondary display either sticking out from the bottom or the side of the main display.
While phones with other mechanisms like pop-up cameras or sliders are much heavier than standard handsets, they can offer increased practicality. An example given of how this could be useful for the Wing is in photo editing. The image you're working on will be displayed on the main screen, while your editing options appear on the lower secondary display. Alternatively, one screen can be used to watch a video while you search for something else on the other.
Like the Velvet, the Wing is said to use a Snapdragon 765 chipset, which isn't as powerful as the 865 we see in premium flagship phones like the Samsung Galaxy S20 or OnePlus 8, but should still do a good job of running most applications. The 765 is a 5G-enabled chipset, which points to the Wing being compatible with sub-6GHz 5G networks.
This phone is also said to include a 64MP main camera sensor, which would be larger than the 48MP sensor in the Velvet. We don't know what other cameras are included on the Wing, but the report claims it's a triple camera array, which the Velvet rounded out with an 8MP ultrawide sensor and a 5MP depth sensor. The Velvet also has a 16MP front camera in a water drop notch, which we'd guess will appear on this new phone, too.
Foldable phones, which offer big screens in relatively small footprints, are certainly tempting. But whether they're open or closed, foldables still act like a normal phone or tablet. This LG design, assuming it's accurate and does eventually go on sale, offers a fresh kind of user experience that could be very handy for certain kinds of customers.
