LG admits initial Snapdragon 810 issues, says they are fixed now

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BY Unknown 22:52 0

LG admits initial Snapdragon 810 issues, says they are fixed now

In another episode of the Snapdragon 810 saga we now witness LG's acknowledgement of issues faced with the chipset's "initial sample". The Korean company restates, however, that all problems have been resolved and the G Flex2 will get its timely release.

The information comes from a press conference held at LG headquarters on Q4 2014 financial matters. Unsurprisingly, questions were raised, regarding the chipset's problems with heat, and in light of recent developments, the company determined it best to come clean.

A legal battle between LG and Qualcomm over a reported dedicated Samsung version of the chipset was deemed out of the question. After the apparent loss of the Samsung Galaxy S6 as a vehicle for its top-of-the-line SoC, Qualcomm will be delighted to know that LG is still on board.

The future LG G4 model has also popped up in conversations at the press conference. Its launch schedule should remain unaffected by the Snapdragon affair, the company insists. On the matter of a possible metal body, a vague answer has been given, stating that it will be decided by market demand.

LG Mobile reports 16% increase in annual revenue in 2014

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BY Unknown 22:07 0

LG Mobile reports 16% increase in annual revenue in 2014

It's been a hectic several weeks for accountants the world over, and after Apple boasted record numbers, now LG's figures have been published. LG Mobile Communications Company reports a $14.26B annual revenue, a steady 16% increase on a yearly basis.

The rise is fueled in no small part by the North American market, where Q4 2014 marked a substantial 78% increase in units shipped compared to the same period in 2013.

Out of a total of 78.2M handsets sold globally, 59.1M were smartphones, a 24% increase. The smartphone sales are reported to be the reason for the boost in full-year consolidated revenue to $55.91B.

The figures of the mobile subsidiary are only average for the corporation as a whole. LG Home Entertainment Company (the one making HDTVs) is the top dog with a 31% percent increase in revenue to $18.35B.

More importantly, the combined net profit of the conglomerate has skyrocketed to $474.81M, a massive 125% increase over 2013 numbers. Operating profit has seen a notable 46% growth to $1.73B, as well.

Vodafone UK to offer the LG G Flex 2 starting March 19

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BY Unknown 20:33 0

Vodafone UK to offer the LG G Flex 2 starting March 19

The LG G Flex 2 is indeed heading to Vodafone in the UK, just like we heard it would earlier this month. What's more, this particular operator will even be the exclusive seller of the bendy handset for the first six weeks of availability.

Pre-orders for Vodafone's G Flex 2 are set to start at Carphone Warehouse on February 28. The phone will finally be in stock on March 19.

So there's still a lot of waiting left to do if you're in the UK and crave a G Flex 2. But at least the release details are now out. Carphone Warehouse has put up a special page for the device, where you can register your interest. If you do that, you'll apparently be contacted when you can order one.

The G Flex 2 was announced at CES as the successor to the original bendy handset from 2013. It has a 5.5-inch 1080p curved touchscreen, and it's powered by Qualcomm's latest and greatest, the Snapdragon 810 SoC - which sports an octa-core CPU in a big.LITTLE configuration. You have four Cortex-A57 cores clocked at 2 GHz, and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.5 GHz.

LG displays ends 2014 with record profit

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BY Unknown 20:03 0

LG displays ends 2014 with record profit

LG Display released its financial report for the fiscal 2014 highlighting a record operating profit of $1.245 billion. That’s 16.7% more than the year before and the largest increase the LG subsidiary saw in the last six years.

The reason for the boost is a strong increase in demand of LCD panels and partly because of the deal between LG Display and Apple for the production of iPhone screens. However, the company marked a decrease in sales by 2.1% in a filing to the South Korea Exchange.

Because of its stronger margins though, LG Display managed to increase its net profit by 119% compared to last year. As a result, it is proceeding to pay dividends to its shareholders for the first time in four years. The company will pay as much as $0.45 per share.

According to analysts, LG Display is likely to continue its good performance in the Q1 2015 as it supplies displays to Apple, HP, Dell Sony and a number of top-tier Chinese TV makers. Currently, the company’s focus is to boost sales of UHD displays for TVs.

LG to mass produce truly flexible OLED panels in July

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BY Unknown 20:01 0

LG to mass produce truly flexible OLED panels in July

Smartphone manufacturers have always experimented with new ways of achieving exciting form-factors and design statements in their devices, but one thing has mostly remained the same – the flat panes screen. We have grown so accustomed to the standard flat surface that the constant strive has been to make it bigger and more lifelike.

This seems to be finally changing with an ever-increasing push towards curved display technology. Naturally smartphones are among the first adopters and LG is at the forefront of innovation when it comes to curved technology. After the LG G Flex 2 was unveiled at CES 2015 in became abundantly clear that the Korean manufacturer intends to further develop bendable display technology and is investing in its future.

And while the P-OLED panel in the G Flex 2 is mighty impressive, LG will not be stopping there and a new reports hint toward ongoing development of a truly flexible screen and even early units already available. This is achieved by a whole new plastic OLED technology that LG claims is better than current curved screens in every possible way.

The way LG Chem plans to revolutionize bending displays is through a new manufacturing technology. The current generation bendable OLED panels, like the one inside the G Flex 2 feature a thin glass substrate. This allows for a certain level of flexibility, but limits the bending radius to 75mm. Next generation displays will be created using plastic for a more than double decrease in the bending radius, set at about 30mm. What this means in plain terms is that the new panel can be bent like a 60mm wide roll.

Plastic also brings improved resistance against shattering and durability and the new formula adds up to stronger displays that can be bent in far more interesting shapes than the simple parabolic units we have today. But there is a lot more to the new technology than simply replacing glass with plastic. LG was struggling with a lot of performance issues in the new panels, which were only recently dealt with thanks to improved encapsulation and barrier technology.

The highly-bendable P-OLED units have 75lm brightness, 60lm/W efficiency, 3,000k color temperature and CRI over 85, which is adequate by today’s standards. LG has announced that panels are already available for testing and engineering purposes and can be purchased for $450. Mass production is set for July 2015, which is not that far away.

The Korean tech giant even goes beyond in its roadmap and predicts that bendable smartphones could start appearing this year, while rollable and foldable displays could be integrated in actual devices in 2017!

LG denies rumors, will not sue Qualcomm

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BY Unknown 02:31 0

LG denies rumors, will not sue Qualcomm

The Snapdragon 810 has become an endless source of controversy in the smartphone world over the past few months. The purported overheating issues of the chipset lead to an exchange of reports stating that Samsung will abandon the problematic piece of silicon, Qualcomm allegedly responding with a modified version of the SoC for Samsung's use.

This dedicated release in turn fueled rumors, claiming that LG may sue Qualcomm over the matter. LG, however, has been quick to dissipate those rumors - the Korean company reached to us with the following statement.

"Rumors regarding LG taking legal action against Qualcomm are unfounded and a complete fabrication of the facts. Given the source of this rumor, we're surprised it's being taken seriously at all."

As unequivocal as it gets, LG's wording should hopefully put an end to the rumor and confirm the excellent relationship between the two companies.

LG has already announced its curved phablet offering, the G Flex2, featuring the said chipset. The company has denied experiencing any issues with the hardware in the smartphone, which is expected to hit its home market any day now.

LG's Ice Cream Smart flip smartphone now officially launched in Korea

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BY Unknown 14:32 0

LG's Ice Cream Smart flip smartphone now officially launched in Korea

LG took the wraps off the Ice Cream Smart flip smartphone in Korea. The casually characterful handset is the second flip phone from the Korean manufacturer after the LG Wine Smart that debuted in September last year.

In terms of specs, LG Ice Cream Smart packs Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with 1.2GHz quad-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of expandable memory. The device’s display is a 3.5” unit with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels.
                                   

An 8MP main camera, VGA front-facing snapper, and full connectivity suite that includes LTE and DMB-TV round up the highlights in the device’s specs. LG Ice Cream Smart boots Android 4.4 KitKat.

Physical measures of the smartphone are 118.6 × 59.4 × 16.9mm. A removable 1,700mAh battery powers the device.

Don’t expect to see the LG Ice Cream Smart outside of Korea. The handset will clearly be aimed at younger users in its motherland.