LG looking to outsource its budget phones to cut costs

08 December 2020
LG's mobile division has been operating at a loss for over 22 consecutive quarters.

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RishiGuru, 12 Dec 2020Meizu existed long before Vivo, Oppo, OnePlus & Realme&... moreYou're right. Its not just a "plonk in a certain hardware and viola!"... Tuning is very important in audio. Yes I have been hearing about Meizu, but never know their audio capabilities.

Right now, the bigger challenge I'm facing is, how to get paid, original music in flac format... Can you suggest some online stores which let us download flac, or other lossless music? Specially those of Indian movies, and if possible, Euro and American 80's and 90's songs?

    Samath N8 808 owner, 11 Dec 2020That's some heavy setup you got there. Agree with you ... moreMeizu existed long before Vivo, Oppo, OnePlus & Realme's were even born. Actually these new companies poached many R&D stuff from Meizu to setup their own business. We both live in the same country and Meizu is almost non existent here. They sometimes come in to launch some low to mid-range models in India, but rarely their flagships.

    However during Aug, 2018 they launched their flagship Meizu 16th (just 16 is China). On Dec, same year the launched the phone in India at INR 40,000. Pricing was on OnePlus territory but with zero brand recognition. The units were directly imported in India never got sold. A year passed by and suddenly during Diwali sale of 2019, it was available briefly for INR 17,000 brand new in Amazon after discounts. I pounced and boy was I happy after using the phone.

    One of the main reasons why people buy Meizu phones are aesthetics. And the core design aesthetic of any Meizu phone is symmetrical design philosophy. However their phones are also known to be very compact and slim. To give you a reference Meizu 16th built quality and in hand feel is a notch higher than LG G8X. And on design aesthetics, pure symmetry Meizu will leave my G8X to dust.

    Meizu 16th to me is an example of audio done right on a smartphone. It uses an unknown WCD9341 audio chip from Qualcomm in the audiophile community. The chip is actually the flagship audio codec from Qualcomm and mates with their flagship 8XX processor lineup. Spec-wise the WCD9341 is right there with AKM AK4377A (in IQOO 3), so Meizu being a manufacturer from audio background knew WCD9341 potential and did the basics right. They provided WCD9341 ample power it needs to perform in its high performance mode with dedicated power supply (other manufacturers seldom do this as it requires more money to be spent on power supply circuit). Made a good circuit design to implement the WCD9341 and finally provided dedicated metal shielding to the chip and its circuits in the main PCB board. Voila, now have a Meizu 16th using an unknown WCD9341 audio chip with audio quality right up there with my Vivo X21UD having AKM AK4376A!!!

    Prior Meizu audio champs like MX4 Pro and Meizu 5 Pro was never available in our country, and Meizu have sadly shifted their focus from analog audio. It is all about the current TWS trend. Actually 16th was their last flagship to sport an audio jack. Meizu 16th is neutral sounding, it has a revealing kind of sound with a knack for detail retrieval. Sound more like LG V30+ rather than G8X.

    In the end the manufacturer is very important to me. Vivo, LG, Meizu have the audio background and know-how in terms of internal circuit design and audio tuning which provides a final sound signature worthy for appreciation. Not something like LeTv which came out of nowhere and produced a monster like Le Max smartphone with ESS based hifi audio chip and disappeared as quickly as they came. The sound of the Le Max, well was neither sweet or neutral to me and the audio part was just not done right for me. It takes years for a company to have the experience in audio tuning. Vivo for example was running an audio lab since 2010 even before they entered into smartphone business. That 10 years of experience just shines when you hear music through a Vivo NEX S or Vivo X50 Pro+.

      LG came out with really great phones last and this year, I look forward to their new premium flagships

        RishiGuru, 10 Dec 2020I am well stocked in phone side for next 8 years at-least. ... moreThat's some heavy setup you got there. Agree with you about dedicated DAC's now not so much needed. Its like gaming consoles in a way- enough processing power and memory for a lot of purposes, but still its single/limited purpose... a waste of money and power in a way.
        Thanks a lot for your input. Didn't knew about Meizu's audio being considerably good.

          Samath N8 808 owner, 10 Dec 2020Exactly. Apart from few online sales in which they provided... moreI am well stocked in phone side for next 8 years at-least. I have a pair of Vivo NEX S, a pair of LG V30+, a LG G8X. They all provides stellar analogue audio quality. Also some old phones like Vivo X5Max, Lenovo Vibe X3 which acts like DAP while being more versatile than DAPs.

          And yes I forgot to mention about my Meizu 16th with the best implementation of Qualcomm's flagship audio chip WCD9341. Redmi raved about their K20 Pro audio quality with WCD9340, but in my ears the 16th in A/B comparisons was better. Mainly because of Meizu's expertise in the field of audio which provides a definitively superlative sound signature and better tuning.

          DAPs are gone from my life. These players does not make sense anymore as smartphones with good audio is an all around powerful device which does everything for you on the go.

          If Vivo & LG shifts their audio focus, for critical in-house listening sessions I will go for a good headphone DAC connected to PC with digital out.

            RishiGuru, 09 Dec 2020I am inline with your views. LG V40, during the Mar, 2020 s... moreExactly. Apart from few online sales in which they provided good deals no doubt, their market presence is very weak.
            Even in offline stores, they're just absent.

            They need to up their game. And why wouldn't they reply to a customer service mail is out of my understanding. It takes 2 minutes of 1 employee to respond. All I got was an autoreply, that's it.
            And you're right about the battery cycles. Thankfully, with all Google stuff disabled and moderate usage, I'm pulling to around 2.5 days of usage... Best I did was 3 days 6 hours, from 100-10%.

            Just wanted your opinion. What would you take for audio quality if not LG? Will you shift to standalone players? Because now I have the same question on my mind, although for me its 5 years away, if everything goes well (I got a 2014 Redmi 2 Prime before this, I use them long).

              • j
              • jo seph
              • IW@
              • 10 Dec 2020

              i like lg. my 3 years old lg v30 still kicking.

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • nYE
                • 10 Dec 2020

                Samath N8 808 owner, 09 Dec 2020Exactly. But I genuinely believe LG and Sony are not pro... moreThat Velvet you talk about is (ironically) the 5G less budget model.

                Even if I wanted to I can't buy it because LG only sells the regular Velvet here.

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • mcB
                  • 09 Dec 2020

                  I liked the light design, bright flash and screen, snooze worked even when turned off. VS now heavy phones.

                    • G
                    • Galtran
                    • LQr
                    • 09 Dec 2020

                    This is simple to solve! If LG decides to work only with Qualcomm chips, they will surely recover their sales! I don't know why they insist on using these old MediaTek chips. (I know they are cheap, but they also tend to devalue the company's image). Snapdragon 460, 662 and 690 5G are the best choices for the segment.

                      LG should stop cutting corners and do the following : Reduce the prices of their low end and midrange smartphones, provide better specs such as high refresh rate,faster charging,better cameras,.e.t.c. for their budget phones and also provide quick major android update to all their phones for 2 years.

                        Samath N8 808 owner, 09 Dec 2020Exactly. But I genuinely believe LG and Sony are not pro... moreI am inline with your views. LG V40, during the Mar, 2020 sale in Flipkart was available for INR 21,500. I never saw the V40 after that. However V40 has a big issue which is battery life. So instead in the same sale I got the LG V30+ for INR 11,700.

                        V30 & V40 had the same battery capacity but V30 had much better battery endurance. It was not because V40 is worse than V30 but because LG wanted to improve on display quality and tried to come one step closer to what Samsung offered. In doing so it sacrificed battery life and the hardware display driver IC of V40's OLED panel had un-usual power draw even on standby. A fact that to some extend was put forward by AnandTech. LG since had rectified this issue for their next gen of flagships like G8, V50 & V50S/G8X.

                        With all this in mind and with time, multiple charge discharge cycles, battery capacity will degrade. So what is good for a day now may not be so 2 years later. Hence I opted for V30+ with a eye for G8X. Now I have a G8X too. This maybe my last LG for some time as the famous QuadDAC is now gone under new management and their focus have shifted from audio to design.

                          YUKI93, 09 Dec 2020Agree with your point. Because of that Quad DAC feature, I ... moreNerds and overclock junkies need to understand human ears are analogue, hence for analogue audio reproduction wired audio provides best possible audio fidelity. No Bluetooth audio at zillion bit rate can make up for it. Period.

                          This the reason why the best and most expensive headphones in the world are wired ones. LG flagships in general have an excellent ESS ES9218P (QuadDAC) implementation with a great inbuilt DAC and 2 Vrms amplifier. When QuadDAC gets paired with a good wired headphone via audio jack, it can take you to a level of audio nirvana which just isn't possible with Bluetooth audio.

                            IpsDisplay, 08 Dec 2020This is possibly the most outdated/ out of touch comment I&... moreLG are definitely innovative. Unfortunately they are starved of cash. LG Mobiles have only survived till now as the mother (LG Electronics) is taking care of its sick child. If not it would have perished like HTC long before.

                            Their elite R&D team in Korea under new management is fully focused on experimental & eye catching ideas as this is what is required to turn consumer heads. They now have to do something different as for the previous 3 years they were churning out solid flagships with a very industrial look (boring for most, but not for me) but had to luck.

                              AnonD-864404, 08 Dec 2020LG's phones are always HIGH priced -_- If you can wait, you can get it for an absolute steal. LG phones, especially the flagship, always tend to depreciate in a short time. I myself only pay for my V50 with DualScreen case for $400, which is about 2.5x or 3x less than its original price when it was launched in February 2019. I could have spent that same money for an Apple iPhone SE (2020) or OnePlus Nord or even save $50 and get a Google Pixel 4a, but the LG's feature-per-value appeal is second to none and I definitely don't regret that.

                                RishiGuru, 09 Dec 2020I do love LG smartphones. But only the LG flagships that ge... moreAgree with your point. Because of that Quad DAC feature, I waved goodbye to wireless Bluetooth audio and didn't miss them at all. I don't care about styling as all I care about is day-to-day usability and the LG with its DualScreen case definitely delivers it big time.

                                  YUKI93, 08 Dec 2020I do. I even sold off my Samsung Galaxy Fold that I got for... moreI do love LG smartphones. But only the LG flagships that gets created by the same R&D team of their V & G series phones. I am not interested about the rest of their phones as they have never appealed to me. The other reason of loving LG as a music lover is their famous implementation of QuadDAC, sticking to audio jack & memory expansion capability. In other words LG flagships are boring and unique in some aspects and I like that.

                                    MLAVRA, 08 Dec 2020It is about pricing, inovation, quality assurance and marke... moreNot doing well for 22nd straight quarter has hurt LG's marketing budget big time. Marketing is the most important tool in today's business. Tech savvy people like us may easily identify the best phone for a certain price-point. But for the rest 90% of world population the company image and marketing makes final decision choices. This is where Samsung & Apple are the kings.

                                    LG targets US over Europe as they do not have the marketing budget, due to poor financial results for years. In US, carriers do majority of the marketing and LG does not have to invest any. In Asia, like India LG plays in volume some time selling their flagship phones at dirt cheap prices.

                                    I have a pair of spanking new LG V30+'s for $156 each. Recently I bought a brand new LG G8X with Dual Screen Case slapped for just $245. These are insane low prices such
                                    flagship grade phones. LG India later confirmed they did a business of around $50 million in first 12 hours of the sale and sold some 150 hundred thousand units in that 12 hours time frame only. So they are playing in bulk here with zero marketing.

                                      ..It's high time y'all came back in East African market..You will do better..

                                        • R
                                        • Rick
                                        • Ybb
                                        • 09 Dec 2020

                                        I know how lg phones work. I cannot afford pricey phones. But take a look at what you write. Unfortunately iPhone and Samsung do have problems as well. And lg is just fine underwater. Don't become advocates at what you don't get. Let people have a share of the day when you've got lg phones running around to keep. Don't bury my phone. I need it. Life's good and that's a fact.

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