Courageous concept, but is the LG Wing niche smartphone simply too expensive?

Manufacturers of Android smartphones used the advances in display technology in 2020 to experiment with new form factors and designs. While the Axon 20 that we just tested recently offers the first camera underneath the display without needing a notch or punch hole, another design is Samsung's Z series with the foldable OLED panels. With its Wing model, the Korean manufacturer LG takes a different path, experimenting with its own, unique smartphone design, using long-known hardware, however. 

LG is known for bringing innovative smartphone designs to the market. For example, there was the V10 with one of the first "second screens," Test LG V10 Smartphonewhich was positioned above the regular display, or the curved smartphones of the G-Flex series, or the LG G5, which offered a modular design.

Although the dual-display design of the LG Wing is supposed to improve multitasking operation by offering the user one display for typing and another display for running apps, the price point targeted by the Korean manufacturer for such an innovative and unproven design in combination with midrange hardware is set very high. 

It might have made sense to forgo components from the high-end segment, if LG had kept the price low, the way they did for the LG Velvet. But the price of the LG Wing is at the level of the best smartphones of the year. Even a Galaxy Z Fold 2 isn't much more expensive than the dual-display smartphone from LG.  

The concept of the considerably more affordable Velvet model with the corresponding dual-screen case cover probably made more sense here. The main question is whether app developers will take up the opportunity of the second display of an LG Wing, since LG's dual-screen concept hinges on the software. At this point, there are only few apps or games that are optimized for the second display, so that its additional value might turn out low for your favorite apps. 

On the other hand, if you value the multitasking qualities in a smartphone and are interested in a unique smartphone concept, you can get a detailed impression of the LG Wing in our extensive review on this LG smartphone.