Only four months ago, the LG Rollable was the star of the show at LG's CES keynote. Now, it's apparently been consigned to the bargain bin after LG shut down its phone business last month.
Consumers will probably never get their hands on the eye-catching Rollable or the Velvet 2 Pro, but it seems LG employees in South Korea can scoop them up at a serious discount.
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According to Twitter tipster FrontTron, as first reported by GSMArena, around 3,000 units of the Velvet 2 Pro were up for grabs for around $170 each. That’s about an 80 percent discount from the $880-$970 price range LG apparently had in mind before shutting down its phone business. Details about pricing and quantity for the LG Rollable haven't emerged.
The phones reportedly have a hardware warranty of six months (which could be extended to 24 months) or while parts last. For obvious reasons, they won't receive software updates. Employees were able to buy a maximum of two handsets on the condition that they wouldn't resell them, but collectors will probably try to snap up the phones from LG workers anyway.
The Velvet 2 Pro (aka LG Rainbow) has a similar design to the original LG Velvet and it comes in three colors: black, bronze and ivory. The smartphone has pressure-sensitive volume and power buttons, along with a punch-hole notch and a vertical array of three cameras, according to FrontTron. The tipster said the Velvet 2 Pro has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, a 6.8-inch Full HD+ OLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, 8GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage and a 4500mAh battery. Those are impressive specs for a phone that apparently costs less than a Nintendo Switch Lite.
FrontTron said "lots of LG employees" are looking to get their hands on a Velvet 2 Pro and that sales have been delayed because of high levels of interest. Given the massive discount and the solid specs, the resale restrictions and lack of software updates are probably worth the trade off. The Velvet 2 Pro will be a collector's item as well, since it's very likely the last smartphone LG will ever make. It’s unfortunate that the LG Rollable or LG Velvet never got a chance to be considered on our best foldable phones or best Android phones list.
