LG Wing 5G review

GSMArena team, 12 October 2020.

Android 10 with LG UX on top

The LG Wing runs on Android 10, with the custom LG UX skin on top, much like its siblings, like the LG V60 and Velvet. LG UX is quite clean, as far as Android skins go, and has a certain polish level one would expect from a big brand manufacturer. The Wing, in particular, features a few notable exceptions to that general statement, though, but we'll get to that. In any case, we won't be giving an in-depth tour of the core parts of LG UX here, since that's not the interesting bit here. If you want more info on that front, hit-up our LG Velvet review.

LG Wing 5G review

Setting up the LG Wing for the first time is quite the involved experience. LG opted for an admittedly new incredibly guided approach and one of the lengthiest setups we have encountered.

Lengthy initial setup - LG Wing 5G review Lengthy initial setup - LG Wing 5G review Lengthy initial setup - LG Wing 5G review Lengthy initial setup - LG Wing 5G review
Lengthy initial setup - LG Wing 5G review Lengthy initial setup - LG Wing 5G review Lengthy initial setup - LG Wing 5G review Lengthy initial setup - LG Wing 5G review
Lengthy initial setup

We admit that getting some immediate info on the unique Swivel mode and the second screen was pretty convenient, though.

Second screen and Swivel mode guide - LG Wing 5G review Second screen and Swivel mode guide - LG Wing 5G review
Second screen and Swivel mode guide - LG Wing 5G review Second screen and Swivel mode guide - LG Wing 5G review
Second screen and Swivel mode guide

Most people will naturally opt for the under-display fingerprint unit as their primary unlock method on the Wing. Once the phone is in its open state, however, that reader ends up in an awkward place, to the right of the swiveled part. A pin or pattern is kind of a must on the Swing in these cases.

Unlock options - LG Wing 5G review Fingerprint unlock - LG Wing 5G review Fingerprint unlock - LG Wing 5G review Fingerprint unlock - LG Wing 5G review
Unlock options • Fingerprint unlock

Despite maintaining an impressively clean look on the surface, LG UX actually offers a fair bit of depth, especially when it comes to customization. Starting from the lock screen, you can swap clock styles, get a stylish weather animation going, and freely swap the two quick app shortcuts to anything you desire.

Lock screen - LG Wing 5G review Lock screen customization - LG Wing 5G review Lock screen customization - LG Wing 5G review Lock screen customization - LG Wing 5G review
Lock screen • Lock screen customization

Same goes for the Home screen. You can fine-tune things like swipe effects, icon shapes, swipe up and down gestures, and enable or disable the right-most Google feed.

Home screen options - LG Wing 5G review Home screen options - LG Wing 5G review Home screen options - LG Wing 5G review Home screen options - LG Wing 5G review Home screen options - LG Wing 5G review Home screen options - LG Wing 5G review
Home screen options

The Wing home screen experience can actually be set up in one of three distinct ways. The default mode skips a traditional app drawer, dumping everything on home screen panes, instead. If that is not to your liking, you can get the app drawer back and even choose whether to have a dedicated button for it or not. Lastly, there is EasyHome, which leaves just a few essentials on the home screen and locks many of the interactions and brings the system UI and font size up all at once. It is great for youngsters of less tech-savvy elders.

Home screen and app drawer variants - LG Wing 5G review Home screen and app drawer variants - LG Wing 5G review Home screen and app drawer variants - LG Wing 5G review
Home screen and app drawer variants

System navigation is equally customizable. Gesture controls are the default setting, but you can easily get the old-school trio of on-screen buttons back. Even better - you can choose on which side the back button should go, so you can go retro-Android with ease.

Navigation options - LG Wing 5G review Navigation options - LG Wing 5G review Navigation options - LG Wing 5G review
Navigation options

While we love this extra flexibility of LG UX, this level of freedom can often leave you with a somewhat odd mixture of slick, new and retro, traditional UI elements. Not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but worth pointing out. For example, the app drawer, folders, and recent apps switcher look rather traditional.

App drawer - LG Wing 5G review recent apps - LG Wing 5G review
App drawer • recent apps

In contrast, the notification shade and especially quick toggles area are very "trendy" with their transparent, "frosted" look.

Notification shade and quick toggles - LG Wing 5G review Notification shade and quick toggles - LG Wing 5G review Notification shade and quick toggles - LG Wing 5G review Notification shade and quick toggles - LG Wing 5G review
Notification shade and quick toggles

The volume control UI also looks modern and mostly follows in the same style. We particularly appreciate the availability of Google's fairly new automatic captions feature.

Volume controls - LG Wing 5G review Volume controls - LG Wing 5G review Volume controls - LG Wing 5G review
Volume controls

Then, abruptly switching gears once more, we find the always-on interface, which, while extraordinarily in-depth and customizable, has a few graphical options that can even go beyond merely looking retro, straight into tacky territory. Like having a colorful, drawn GIF animation there on loop.

Always-on display options - LG Wing 5G review Always-on display options - LG Wing 5G review Always-on display options - LG Wing 5G review Always-on display options - LG Wing 5G review
Always-on display options

Again, this is not just us needlessly criticizing the looks of the Wing's UI. That's a subjective thing. This overarching theme of mixing styles is just a bit hard to ignore once you get to LG's exclusive interfaces for the Swivel display.

Swivel mode, Swivel Home and the second display experience

Now we're getting into the exciting bits. When you open the LG Wing up, the main display switches over to a special interface LG calls Swivel Home. It is a rather simple carousel that, in our opinion, both looks and feels very retro.

LG Wing 5G review

The animations are slow, and you need a few swipes to actually get from app to app. An experience quite reminiscent of a bygone era when both the developers and UI designers did this on purpose to show off the fancy, "futuristic" 3D visualization their product is capable of. We'll stop ripping on Swivel Home and leave it at that, though.

Swivel Home - LG Wing 5G review
Swivel Home

In keeping with the separation paradigm between the primary and the secondary display on the Swing, you get a separate set of options for Swivel Home. Since it is nothing more than a fancy Home screen, you can still control the basics, like having an app drawer button or not, the swiping transition effect, and what the swipe up and swipe down gestures trigger. You can still bring-up the familiar notification and quick toggles shade.

Swivel Home settings - LG Wing 5G review Swivel Home settings - LG Wing 5G review Swivel Home settings - LG Wing 5G review
Swivel Home settings

Multi App Shortcuts is a powerful and quite self-explanatory feature. It allows you to create a shortcut for two apps - one will open on the main display, while the other on the secondary one. The interface itself allows you to swap positions around and is both potent and straight-forward.

Multi App Shortcuts - LG Wing 5G review Multi App Shortcuts - LG Wing 5G review Multi App Shortcuts - LG Wing 5G review
Multi App Shortcuts

Overall, it is clear that LG has put in a lot of effort in simplifying the operation of the two displays here. And, for the most part, has succeeded in the endeavor. You might have noticed that the Multi App Shortcut setup UI has some of the apps grayed-out, particularly for opening on the secondary display. This is by design. All apps, except those pre-approved by LG and known to work, are hidden from the secondary screen's UI.

Second display UI - LG Wing 5G review Second display UI - LG Wing 5G review Second display UI - LG Wing 5G review
Second display UI

To get any other apps to open on the small display, you have to specifically enable them in a whitelist. For most apps, this results in a prompt warning you that things might not scale properly. In our experience, that is rarely the case for apps. Game engines, with their particular touch input and scaling schemes, are definitely more problematic on average. Then again, we don't see the secondary display getting a lot of dedicated gaming action.

Second screen apps whitelist - LG Wing 5G review Second screen apps whitelist - LG Wing 5G review Second screen apps whitelist - LG Wing 5G review
Second screen apps whitelist

Frankly, most users are likely to have on the secondary display most often is the keyboard. Typing on the small panel requires a bit of a learning curve, but it does become easier and can eventually be a pleasant experience. Not to mention a lot less-obtrusive, since you can continue to enjoy whatever is on the main display entirely uninterrupted.

LG Wing 5G review

There are some essential specifics to note on how the LG Wing actually handles focus and its secondary display. The default behavior mostly has the two displays entirely separate, as their own "isolated" spaces. That allows certain things like opening two different apps on the two displays and using them concurrently. That, however, doesn't necessarily mean that both will be fully active at the same time. Due to the way Android works, you can expect something like a video stream to continue playing on one display, as you are interacting with the other one. However, an app simply left open on one display while interacting with the other might not get its UI updated until you switch focus to it. This is important to know, for things like messengers. Although those will still have their background notifications to potentially inform you when new content is available.

This focus-based logic also becomes apparent when you start capturing screenshots on the Wing. The last display that you interacted with will generally be the one that gets captured in the screengrab. This is also why you can't have the same app open on both displays simultaneously. Well, at least you can't do that with most third-party apps. That's because most apps are programmed to only have one active instance at a time.

LG Wing 5G review

There are notable exceptions to this behavior, though. And not just in proper dual-display apps and games, which we will talk about in a bit. The default LG keyboard, for instance, operates in such a manner that it leaves app focus on the main display, even though you may be typing on the secondary one.

This initially got us very excited about the possibility of using something like a third-party keyboard that mimics controller input on the second display, to control a game on the main one. LG notably lacks any such baked-in feature of its own. A real shame since pulling-off proper on-screen control mapping on the second screen could be a "killer app" for certain gaming use cases.

LG Wing 5G review

Long story short, whatever LG is doing with its default keyboard is sadly not a transferable behavior to third-party keyboards - normal or mimicking joystick input. Installing a different keyboard like Gboard entirely breaks this seamless experience of having uninterrupted content on the big display and a keyboard on the second one. The keyboard just crams itself in horizontal orientation onto the main display, just like it would on any normal phone.

LG Wing 5G review

LG has clearly thought of at least a few other interesting usage scenarios for the second display and included things like a virtual trackpad that spawns a mouse pointer on the main display and a temporary input lock for the secondary screen, called Grip lock.

Second screen quick toggles - LG Wing 5G review Grip lock - LG Wing 5G review
Second screen quick toggles • Grip lock

Proper second-screen experiences on the LG Wing

Proper terminology is still kind of scarce when discussing fancy new form factors and additional displays on smartphones. Yet, we need to make a clear distinction between simply having two separate apps or an app and its keyboard input on two different screens, as opposed to an app or game making use of two displays. That doesn't mean simply spanning its UI over said displays either, but rather actually taking into account the existence of a second display and using it in a specific and sensible manner.

LG Wing 5G review

The best analogy we can think of is to second-screen gaming, which is a thing, even if it never got amazingly popular. Notable examples include the Nintendo DS line of handheld consoles and later some games on the Nintendo Wii U. So, for the time being, we're dubbing these second-screen experiences.

The LG Wing has access to a limited set of these. Starting with its default apps, the Camera is probably the most prominent example, as featured in all of the promo materials. This is actually the only way to use the Wing's fancy and feature-rich gimbal video mode, as well as its dual-recording mode. We will discuss both in the camera section, but both simply have their controls placed on the second display, which the user is expected to grip, while the main display handles viewfinder functionality.

Second-screen mode in camera app - LG Wing 5G review Second-screen mode in camera app - LG Wing 5G review Second-screen mode in camera app - LG Wing 5G review
Second-screen mode in camera app - LG Wing 5G review Second-screen mode in camera app - LG Wing 5G review Second-screen mode in camera app - LG Wing 5G review
Second-screen mode in camera app

The Wing also allows you to do slow-mo and time-lapse shots in this particular mode, as well as access some camera settings. Oddly enough, though, there is no way to capture a photo with the main or selfie cameras in this setup.

The default Gallery app makes use of the second display both for quickly and conveniently scrubbing through albums or video playback controls, as well as to accommodate the entire photo editing interface.

Second-screen mode in gallery - LG Wing 5G review Second-screen mode in gallery - LG Wing 5G review Second-screen mode in gallery - LG Wing 5G review
Second-screen mode in gallery - LG Wing 5G review Second-screen mode in gallery - LG Wing 5G review
Second-screen mode in gallery

At first, that struck as a bit odd, since the image and the editor controls end up on the small display, making things a bit cramped. However, on the plus side, you get to instantly compare your edits to the original image, still displayed on the main screen. A surprisingly pleasant setup.

YouTube, as well as a few other "player-style" apps we tried, like YouTube Music, Spotify, and Netflix, all spawn a similar and standard playback control UI on the second display. This is probably and quite cleverly an adapted interface variant for the notification player controls of said apps. The system works surprisingly well. Extra points for LG for coming-up with such a clever solution.

YouTube second-screen mode: main screen - LG Wing 5G review YouTube second-screen mode: second screen controls - LG Wing 5G review
YouTube second-screen mode: main screen • second screen controls

LG has even included a "collapse" button that hides the whole thing away to the side and lets you use the second display for other tasks, with the ability to quickly call the media controls back-up.

Speaking of clever standardized implementations, there is a Game tools UI baked into the Wing that operates in much the same way as the media controls one. On enabled games, you get access to some options on the second display while gaming. Once again, complete with a "collapse" or minimize button.

Game tools on second display - LG Wing 5G review Game tools on second display - LG Wing 5G review Game tools on second display - LG Wing 5G review
Game tools on second display - LG Wing 5G review Game tools on second display - LG Wing 5G review
Game tools on second display

Last and probably least, a few apps specifically support the additional display of the LG Wing. There are few and hard to search for online with any sort of certainty. Asphalt 9 is a title we can confirm as offering true second-screen gaming on the LG Wing. Particularly, you get your quick live map on the smaller display.

Asphalt 9 true second-screen gaming: main display - LG Wing 5G review Asphalt 9 true second-screen gaming: second display - LG Wing 5G review
Asphalt 9 true second-screen gaming: main display • second display

LG has also struck a few partnerships with app developers for showcase experiences. We had what we can only describe as mixed-success with these. Whale is a Chrome-based browser that offers the ability to click on a web video and have it play full-screen on the main display, while you continue browsing on the bottom one. It's a cool idea, but one that didn't work reliably with many popular websites and popular web video formats. Reddit was a no-go, and so was Imgur. In general, Whale seemed to not like WEBM or GIF formats. Or at least we didn't manage to get it working.

Whale app: main display - LG Wing 5G review Whale app: main display - LG Wing 5G review
Whale app: second display - LG Wing 5G review Whale app: second display - LG Wing 5G review Whale app: second display - LG Wing 5G review
Whale app: main display • main display • second display

YouTube worked reliably. But why would you use Whale for that instead of the YouTube app?

Tubi and Ficto are both free video streaming services with a slightly different focus. Tubi was not available in our region, and when we sideloaded it, it still failed to load content. From what we can gather, it seems to use the second display for searching and browsing. Probably playback controls too.

Tubi second-screen experience - LG Wing 5G review Tubi second-screen experience - LG Wing 5G review
Tubi second-screen experience

Ficto did work fine for us. It uses the second display for advertising content and for multimedia controls, including additional tabs for info on what you are watching and quick navigation between episodes.

Finally, there is Rave, which is a nifty app that allows you to host a room in which you stream content from several sources and have your friends join in to watch along and chat. We're not exactly sure of the legality of all of this. That's not the point, though, Rave uses the second display on the Wing to house said chat interface, which is a nice boost to the overall immersion of the experience, since you don't have to interrupt your content to discuss it.

Rave second-screen experience. - LG Wing 5G review Rave second-screen experience. - LG Wing 5G review Rave second-screen experience. - LG Wing 5G review
Rave second-screen experience. - LG Wing 5G review Rave second-screen experience. - LG Wing 5G review
Rave second-screen experience.

These showcase experiences were generally cool but only left is wanting more general utility out of the second display on the Wing. Don't get us wrong, there is plenty already there, and it works quite well. Especially considering the experimental nature of the product as a whole. Plus, some of the things we would have liked to have "non-hacky" solutions for, like having Twitch chat on the second display without installing a third-party Twitch chat client, or playing DOS games in an emulator with a desktop-style virtual keyboard on the second display are up to developers to implement, not LG.

LG Wing 5G review

That being said, LG has a responsibility to try and entice said developers to invest the extra work into such experiences. We doubt that the Wing, in particular, will manage to be a significant catalyst for second-screen in any meaningful way, but at least it is good to see some advancements are happening. Plus, with the proliferation of foldable displays and different form-factors going on in the industry, experiences like second-screen apps and gaming seem to have a bright future ahead of them.

Performance and benchmarks

The LG Wing is powered by a Snapdragon 765G, which is sure to be a contentious point for many. It is technically an upper mid-range chipset instead of a proper flagship, like the Snapdragon 865. A valid argument can definitely be made for offering the best possible silicon available in a device like the Wing. However, we can think of at least a few arguably better arguments as to why the Snapdragon 765G is a perfect fit. Or rather, a Snapdragon 865 would be an unnecessary and potentially detrimental addition.

LG Wing 5G review

Cost concerns aside, the Snapdragon 865 is bigger and requires way more internal space. Both because of its external X55 modem and its higher thermal output, which mandates a beefier cooling solution. It is also more power-hungry—all of that without offering much else on top beyond raw processing power. Of course, there are valid arguments to be made on the opposite side of the debate. Overall, however, we think the Snapdragon 765G is a great and more practical fit, offering all of the important modern extras and features and more in tune with the goals set forth by the LG Explorer Project overall.

The LG Wing hence has a total of eight Krio 475 (custom ARM A76) CPU cores at its disposal - a prime one, going up to 2.4 GHz, a Gold one, at 2.2 GHz, and six Silver ones, with a frequency cap of 1.8 GHz. Those are the ones that are going to make good use of the 7nm manufacturing process for the sake of battery efficiency, as opposed to using it to benefit raw performance, like the Snapdragon 865 does. Graphics are handled by an Adreno 620 GPU, and there are 8GB of RAM inside the Wing. Our review unit, as tested, is the bigger 256GB storage variant.

We kick things off with some pure-CPU loads and GeekBench 5.1. We decided to throw in a wide selection of competing chipset offers, like the Snapdragon 720G, 730, 732G, and the flagship 865+ and the Huawei Kirin 990 5G. The latter two are there for perspective and because they are powering odd, trendy form-factor devices themselves. MediaTek is also well represented, with the G80, G90T, and the G95.

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
    950
  • Huawei Mate Xs
    751
  • vivo X50 Pro
    636
  • LG Wing 5G
    618
  • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
    616
  • OnePlus Nord
    610
  • LG Velvet
    586
  • Motorola Edge
    586
  • Oppo Reno4 Pro
    569
  • Poco X3 NFC
    568
  • Samsung Galaxy A71
    542
  • Realme 7
    536
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    493
  • Realme 6i
    388
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    347

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

  • Huawei Mate Xs
    2980
  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
    2715
  • OnePlus Nord
    1953
  • LG Wing 5G
    1952
  • vivo X50 Pro
    1937
  • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
    1927
  • LG Velvet
    1905
  • Motorola Edge
    1862
  • Oppo Reno4 Pro
    1781
  • Poco X3 NFC
    1777
  • Samsung Galaxy A71
    1733
  • Realme 7
    1681
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    1622
  • Realme 6i
    1349
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    1294

The first and most important thing to note here is that the Snapdragon 765G inside the LG Wing performs to spec and can keep up perfectly with other devices with the same chip - like OnePlus Nord and LG's own Velvet. The Wing doesn't get hot under load and does not thermal-throttle. Honestly, the raw performance numbers it puts out are quite competitive and plenty to run a smooth experience. That goes for the Snapdragon 765G in general.

AnTuTu 8 is a much more-compound benchmark that takes other hardware and its specs and performance into account for a better overall performance picture. We can see the same general trends once again - the LG Wing and its Snapdragon 765G holding their own perfectly well, outpacing most other competing mid-range offers.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
    564907
  • Huawei Mate Xs
    459274
  • vivo X50 Pro
    323736
  • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
    318117
  • LG Wing 5G
    315688
  • OnePlus Nord
    312794
  • LG Wing 5G (secondary display)
    309919
  • Motorola Edge
    305989
  • LG Velvet
    297372
  • Realme 7
    292828
  • Poco X3 NFC
    283750
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    279355
  • Samsung Galaxy A71
    263396
  • Oppo Reno4 Pro
    261359
  • Realme 6i
    202275
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    175363

The Wing is no slouch in GPU performance either. The Adreno 620 is a capable chip. While nowhere near the raw performance of something like the Adreno 650 or even the older-flagship Adreno 640, in real-world terms, it has plenty of "oomph" to drive even the more demanding Android games. Remember, synthetic loads are nowhere near representative to real-world ones. Actual modern games are well optimized.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
    128
  • Huawei Mate Xs
    115
  • Samsung Galaxy Fold
    101
  • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
    55
  • OnePlus Nord
    55
  • LG Wing 5G
    54
  • Realme 7
    54
  • LG Wing 5G (secondary display)
    53
  • vivo X50 Pro
    51
  • Motorola Edge
    50
  • LG Velvet
    49
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    48
  • Poco X3 NFC
    44
  • Oppo Reno4 Pro
    42
  • Samsung Galaxy A71
    41
  • Realme 6i
    24
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    16

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
    84
  • Samsung Galaxy Fold
    59
  • Huawei Mate Xs
    59
  • LG Wing 5G (secondary display)
    58
  • OnePlus Nord
    50
  • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
    48
  • Motorola Edge
    48
  • LG Wing 5G
    45
  • vivo X50 Pro
    45
  • LG Velvet
    43
  • Realme 6i
    43
  • Realme 7
    42
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    40
  • Samsung Galaxy A71
    37
  • Oppo Reno4 Pro
    36
  • Poco X3 NFC
    33
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    15

Of course, out of nothing more than morbid curiosity, we just had to run all of the tests on the secondary display, as well. Quite expectedly, its lower resolution, especially when combined with the odd aspect ratio, forcing every on-screen 16:9 aspect test to take up just a fraction of the actual screen, resulted in noticeably higher on-screen numbers. Hardly relevant in any way, since nobody is realistically going to game on the small display.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
    91
  • Samsung Galaxy Fold
    71
  • Huawei Mate Xs
    66
  • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
    38
  • OnePlus Nord
    38
  • LG Wing 5G
    37
  • LG Wing 5G (secondary display)
    37
  • vivo X50 Pro
    36
  • Motorola Edge
    34
  • Realme 7
    34
  • LG Velvet
    33
  • Poco X3 NFC
    33
  • Oppo Reno4 Pro
    31
  • Samsung Galaxy A71
    30
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    29
  • Realme 6i
    16
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    10

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Huawei Mate Xs
    54
  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
    53
  • Samsung Galaxy Fold
    52
  • LG Wing 5G (secondary display)
    51
  • OnePlus Nord
    34
  • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
    32
  • Motorola Edge
    32
  • LG Wing 5G
    31
  • vivo X50 Pro
    31
  • Realme 6i
    31
  • LG Velvet
    29
  • Realme 7
    28
  • Poco X3 NFC
    27
  • Samsung Galaxy A71
    27
  • Oppo Reno4 Pro
    26
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    24
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    8.9

Speaking of the secondary display, however, there are certain titles that can already make use of both panels at the same time for a proper dual-screen gaming experience. Unfortunately, tracking such titles down is tough and often frustrating, since support is not guaranteed and often shifts. We can confirm that as of writing this review Asphalt 9 makes use of the second display to show a track map. Shadowgun War Games and Shadowgun Legends, however, both of which used to work fine with the TwinView dock on the ROG Phone 3 were not supported by the LG Wing.

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
    55
  • Samsung Galaxy Fold
    42
  • Huawei Mate Xs
    36
  • LG Wing 5G
    21
  • LG Wing 5G (secondary display)
    21
  • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
    21
  • OnePlus Nord
    21
  • vivo X50 Pro
    20
  • Realme 7
    20
  • LG Velvet
    19
  • Motorola Edge
    19
  • Poco X3 NFC
    19
  • Oppo Reno4 Pro
    18
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    18
  • Samsung Galaxy A71
    17
  • Realme 6i
    9.4
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    6.6

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
    33
  • Samsung Galaxy Fold
    32
  • LG Wing 5G (secondary display)
    31
  • Huawei Mate Xs
    30
  • OnePlus Nord
    19
  • Motorola Edge
    18
  • LG Wing 5G
    17
  • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
    17
  • vivo X50 Pro
    17
  • Realme 6i
    17
  • Realme 7
    17
  • LG Velvet
    16
  • Poco X3 NFC
    16
  • Oppo Reno4 Pro
    15
  • Samsung Galaxy A71
    15
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    14
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    5.6

On top of that, LG did not think to include any convenient native way to map on-screen controls from the main display on to virtual buttons on the secondary display, which just seems like a massive missed opportunity. There are some things you can try to pull-off with custom keyboard implementations of controllers, but those rarely tend to work either, since clicking the secondary display, generally makes it the active one and pauses the app on the main one. Unless you are using apps that are specifically designed not to do so. We'll discuss that in more depth in the software section, but it mostly boils down to a frustratingly-limited second display gaming experience.

Anyway, rounding off the GPU tests, we were happy to see that the secondary display had no issues with alternative renderers, like Vulkan. As evidenced by the converging numbers.

Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
    22
  • LG Wing 5G (secondary display)
    21
  • Huawei Mate Xs
    16
  • OnePlus Nord
    13
  • LG Wing 5G
    12
  • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
    12
  • Motorola Edge
    12
  • LG Velvet
    11
  • Poco X3 NFC
    11
  • Realme 7
    11
  • Oppo Reno4 Pro
    10
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    9.4
  • Samsung Galaxy A71
    9.3
  • Realme 6i
    9.3
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    5.6

Aztek OpenGL ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Huawei Mate Xs
    23
  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
    22
  • LG Wing 5G (secondary display)
    20
  • OnePlus Nord
    13
  • LG Wing 5G
    12
  • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
    12
  • Motorola Edge
    12
  • Realme 7
    12
  • LG Velvet
    11
  • Poco X3 NFC
    11
  • Realme 6i
    11
  • Oppo Reno4 Pro
    10
  • Samsung Galaxy A71
    10
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    10
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    5.6

That is to say, beyond the clear practical issues with trying to actually play a 16:9 game on a small part of the already small secondary display. That's actually a good practical note to make, most games we tried to force to run on there were happy to oblige but, with just a few exceptions, seemed to render in a more traditional horizontal aspect - 16:9 or perhaps, in some cases, a bit wider. That being said, depending on how controls are implemented in any given game, you can end up with totally unusable or misaligned input. To put it simply - the second display is not meant to accommodate games, other than actually supported dual-screen titles.

3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
    7035
  • Huawei Mate Xs
    5759
  • Samsung Galaxy Fold
    5510
  • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
    3294
  • OnePlus Nord
    3285
  • LG Wing 5G
    3273
  • vivo X50 Pro
    3214
  • LG Wing 5G (secondary display)
    3190
  • Motorola Edge
    3004
  • LG Velvet
    2987
  • Realme 7
    2709
  • Poco X3 NFC
    2689
  • Oppo Reno4 Pro
    2512
  • Samsung Galaxy A71
    2464
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    2363
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    1574
  • Realme 6i
    1363

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
    5879
  • Samsung Galaxy Fold
    4856
  • Huawei Mate Xs
    4362
  • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
    3080
  • OnePlus Nord
    3067
  • LG Wing 5G
    3066
  • LG Wing 5G (secondary display)
    3028
  • vivo X50 Pro
    2983
  • Motorola Edge
    2801
  • Realme 7
    2772
  • LG Velvet
    2758
  • Poco X3 NFC
    2495
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    2447
  • Oppo Reno4 Pro
    2377
  • Samsung Galaxy A71
    2253
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    1554
  • Realme 6i
    1347

Second-display usability concerns and dual-screen game shortage aside, we have no complaints about the actual performance of the LG Wing. The Snapdragon 765G suits it well, runs nice and cool and is utilized to its full potential.

Reader comments

  • Agrt
  • 07 Sep 2024
  • 6c1

The only???

Easily. I use my Wing as my sole mobile vlogging gear, and it never disappoints. Also, the swivel screen still turns more heads than any foldable phone.

  • Huck
  • 11 Mar 2024
  • 0GS

Lol. Company doesnt shut down. Lg is the only oled screen manufacterer in the world and they are globally the king of display solutions.