Spending less on a phone means you won’t necessarily have to sacrifice features, as LG’s mid-range 2020 K series reveals.
Mobile World Congress may not be on this month, but that won’t stop manufacturers from announcing new phones, and that starts with LG.
One of the first companies to depart MWC before its cancellation, LG has kicked off the first of the announcements this year, talking up the mid-range in the next iteration of the K-series, a phone range meant for people who don’t necessarily want to spend as much. While flagship phones that cost over a thousand are typically where all the high-end tech goes, LG’s mid-range looks to provide a decent amount of tech for lower budgets, too, with several cameras and support for mobile payment technologies, too.
As such, the LG 2020 K-series phones may arrive in three models, though Australia is yet to see confirmation on any of the models at present time, and thus may only see one or two, and not necessarily all three.
However the three LG K-series phones for 2020 sport similar features and 6.5 inch screens, with two models — the LG K41S and K51S — getting an HD+ 6.5 inch, while the more premium of the three — the LG K61 — gets a Full HD variant.
All three sport 4000mAh batteries, though, so the batteries are sizeable, as are the connections, which LGH says includes 4G LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, Type C connectivity, and Near-Field Communication, meaning they all support mobile payments through Google Pay. In fact, they all also reportedly sport military standard resistance, meaning they should survive more than a chance encounter with water, thanks to the MIL-STD 810G rating.
Where they differ is on processor, memory, and storage, as well as the selection and positioning of cameras.
For instance, while they all get eight-core processors, LG hasn’t quite confirmed which process goes inside, and the LG K41S gets a lower performing model than the K51 and K61. Likewise the memory and storage, with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage for the LG K41S, 3GB RAM and 64GB storage for the LG K51S, and 4GB RAM with either 64 or 128GB storage for the LG K61.
Then there are the cameras, and all three models get four cameras, albeit in different ways.
The most budget of the devices, the LG K41S will see a 13 megapixel standard camera, as well as a 5 megapixel super wide, 2 megapixel macro, and 2 megapixel depth for background defocused portrait images, plus a centred 8 megapixel selfie camera.
One step up in LG K51S sees LG move that selfie camera to a 13 megapixel in the top left “hole punch” style, while upping the rear camera slightly to a 32 megapixel standard, alongside the 5 megapixel super wide, 2 megapixel macro, and 2 megapixel depth.
And finally in the LG K61, there’s a larger assortment, with a 48 megapixel rear camera, an 8 megapixel super wide, that 2 megapixel macro, and a 5 megapixel depth sensor, plus a 16 megapixel hole punch selfie camera.
“The key value propositions of LG’s K series are advanced technologies and competitive pricing,” said LG’s Chang Ma, Senior Vice President of the Product Strategy Group.
“We believe the K series will be the most competitive smartphones in its category offering features consumers really appreciate.”
There’s no word directly from LG in Australia as to which model we’ll receive, but LG’s K series arrived in the LG K50 last year, so we might just see something in the months to come.
