Flashback: LG G5 tried to wow the crowd with its Magic Slot, but failed

12 March 2023
The LG G5 was a unique modular phone that featured the first ultra wide camera pointed backwards, yet consumers largely ignored it.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • nB%
  • 04 May 2023

Lg eventually ran past itself. If a Brand would release a device with this concept but improved design. I'd probably end up being a instant hit.

Matter of fact....
Dear framework, please collaborate or buy out fairphone.

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • nB%
    • 04 May 2023

    Kriegsherr, 16 Mar 2023totally in for the removable battery but in reality it wont... moreapairently the eu is cooking up a new bill for it to return

      Daemon Targaryen, 13 Mar 2023The real beauty of the LG G5 and V20 comes from offering re... moretotally in for the removable battery but in reality it wont happen.

        Pleh, 14 Mar 2023LG was too ahead of its time, and didnt have the marketing ... moreI agree 100%. I owned all of the flagship G series, and was heartbroken when they shut it down. Finally switched to Samsung

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          • Pleh
          • IbI
          • 14 Mar 2023

          LG was too ahead of its time, and didnt have the marketing budget that Samsung did to blow on marketing. They could honestly make a comeback today and kill it. Samsung phones today are dog...

            YUKI93, 14 Mar 2023Great to see fellow smarty people like you that still have ... moreThat's a phone I've always wondered about. Whenever I look at a product, I'm constantly thinking of ways to make it better, and naturally for me when I look at the LG wing I think it would a really flawless implementation if it had a faster processor and a headphone jack. For the time, the processor made sense, it was a product they didn't think many people would buy, and well it was certainly innovative, it wasn't something that was going to sell millions of units and make up for a low profit margin. By downgrading the processor they effectively gave the device a profit margin that was high enough to make the development and sale worth it, while also ensuring a price low enough that a good amount of people would buy it. The headphone jack may have also been for this purpose, I can't speak to the cost of implementing wired audio. However, I'm sure it would've been possible. A slightly smaller and therefore worse speaker in exchange for a headphone jack is a compromise I'd take any day.

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              • AnonD-731363
              • SH3
              • 14 Mar 2023

              Anonymous, 13 Mar 2023I don't see rollable phone as a useless gimmick as you... moreMan rollable, foldable, flippable as long as screen scratches on every kind of hit even by accident and dies is nothing just a gimmick.
              People who admited your answer will never understand.
              Just imagination using rolable, foldable or flippable phone in public transfer like bus full of people, full train for example ones in Tokyo.
              Said phones are non relevant.
              Maybe only for uber rich people who dont know what to do with money and rather feed their own ego than poor community around them.

                PhoneFreak45, 14 Mar 2023That is certainly the route I will take. I refuse to give m... moreGreat to see fellow smarty people like you that still have real common sense in 2023. People who pay more than $1,000 for a smartphone aren't going to spend more on wireless accessories and services. That's what I love about LG and Sony flagship phones since they still keep the 3.5mm audio jack and microSD card slot. Ngl, I'm still surprised to see Sony put the headphone jack back in 2020 after removing it for two years. They could have continued doing the latter and kept up with the rest of the field, but someone at Sony must have realized it was a mistake. While the LG Wing 5G does not have the 3.5mm audio jack, I can easily forgive it because of the built-in secondary camera for manual gimbal camera control, which is an absolute gem to experience.

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • sxs
                  • 14 Mar 2023

                  Imagine all the money spent on "magic slots"

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • gqb
                    • 14 Mar 2023

                    Minu, 14 Mar 2023Then please explain why the camera bump is the exact same a... moreI'm not seeing it. Actually, I see Nokia phones having bigger bump than Sony phones.

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • 5pI
                      • 14 Mar 2023

                      YUKI93, 13 Mar 2023That might explain Sony's high price tag since they do... moreNo. This is not the reason. The reason is simply that Japanese company tends to hire low skill freshgrad with sky high wage. They don't have mature developers. Everything is running in high cost even that is actually a simply task. They don't have the skill write a android UI, that's why only a copy paste of what android offically provided with. And they don't have that kind of skill to intergate computation photography software. Lack skill to implement proper heat sink for the CPU. The list never ends.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • YQx
                        • 14 Mar 2023

                        We miss LG phone features.
                        LG mobiles are the best in all high end phones.
                        Probably they should again start it.

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                          • Minu
                          • ter
                          • 14 Mar 2023

                          Anonymous, 13 Mar 2023Xperia is made at Sony factory in Thailand. There is no f... moreThen please explain why the camera bump is the exact same as in Nokia's phones

                            Anonymous, 12 Mar 2023I thought the little g5 software was actually quite ok for ... moreI'm honestly not surprised by that. Even I, as much as I love LG, have been influenced by the propaganda surrounding the devices made by them that I didn't use, unfortunately. Props to that phone, LG always tried to make reliable devices. Samsung may not have had as much trouble with things like boot loops and motherboard design flaws, but they also never really tryed to make phones that would last well outside their support period. An 8 year old Samsung is going to be in far worse condition than an 8 year old LG, I'd bet money on that.

                              YUKI93, 13 Mar 2023Since I still value the ever-relevant headphone jack and mi... moreThat is certainly the route I will take. I refuse to give money to companies without those features, both because the phone would be far less functional and also because I see it as an opportunity to vote with my wallet and vote for sanity.

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • xq5
                                • 13 Mar 2023

                                Anonymous, 13 Mar 2023Don't expect people to buy wireless earbuds when it pr... moreUnless you talk about serious in ear monitors cheap wired earphones have trash sound. On the other hand many tws earbuds sound really good. So don't believe to myths but believe to reality.

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                                  • exg5 user
                                  • gCY
                                  • 13 Mar 2023

                                  Ex G5 user H850 . I liked it but had so many issues and sold it after a few months. Issues mainly gps didnt work, battery would run dry in 2+ hrs and the worst it CORRUPTED ALL my DATA, both from sd card and external drive. I lost everything. The only thing good was the camera , and nice design. Thats it.

                                    The real beauty of the LG G5 and V20 comes from offering removable batteries. It's been 7 years since they came out and you can still buy batteries for them on eBay.

                                    I'm wondering if my PS Vita slim's battery gets worn out, how will I replace it? It's actually at 91% health since I did jailbreak it 2 months ago. At 91% health, that's amazing for a decade-old model I've owned for 6 years. My iPhone X was at 77% before selling it and it was hardly used from the original owner. Was still on iOS12 before I got it.

                                    I think back to the original Game Boy, Sega Game Gear, and Nomad. They're about 28 to 34-years-old and they still turn on thanks to double-A batteries. As bad as my LG G5's battery life is, I will have a peace of mind knowing I can turn it on after 30 years. Nokia 3310s still work after 20+ years. That removable battery can make devices lasts forever.

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • dSV
                                      • 13 Mar 2023

                                      Ugly looking phone

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                                        • mukhi
                                        • Kxb
                                        • 13 Mar 2023

                                        PhoneFreak45, 12 Mar 2023I've seen many comments regarding this claiming that L... moreIt WAS flawed. Bootloop followed by killing of microSD...I lost my entire data, are you kidding me? This happened in G4, and then I can see people are saying the same about G5. If LG wouldn't piss off so many customers like me, they would exist in the market today because LG had fantastic hardware.