The LG G6 is LG’s phone from 2017, seeing that the LG G7 ThinQ is this year’s flagship from LG. And yet, LG is adding the “ThinQ” rebranding to this year’s phones as well as last year’s. The LG G6 is now rebranded as the LG G6 ThinQ.
Some readers, and our staff, are seeing the Android 8.0 Oreo update on their respective phones now. If you have an LG G6, keep an eye out for a software update. It’s a good one and it makes an already solid phone even better.
SEE: The LG G6 one year later… a review
The LG G7 ThinQ rebranding is due to its AI camera features. Artificial intelligence is one of the top tech trends of the mobile smartphone market, and LG wants to market the growing tech trend. But the serious question here is: why would LG return to last year’s flagships to market this year’s tech trend? Last year is in the past; why not let sleeping dogs lie, especially if sales are a disappointment for the phone in question?
What’s new about the LG G6 ThinQ?
The LG G6 ThinQ is no different from the LG G6, though it includes LG’s new AI camera features. LG is updating the software with the new AI camera. Rebranding the old phone is the Korean OEM’s way of appealing to more budget-conscious customers who may not want to pay this year’s prices for LG flagships.
Perhaps LG is taking a page from Samsung’s playbook. Samsung renamed its Galaxy Note 6 to “Galaxy Note 7” to align the Galaxy Note series with its Galaxy S line in 2016. Samsung’s goal behind the number change was to prevent the assumption that the “Note 6” was inferior to the Galaxy S7. Unlike LG, though, Samsung didn’t add an unnecessary label, and it gave an updated number to devices in the same year. Samsung didn’t rebrand device names from previous years such as 2015.
With every new flagship release, the prices of earlier flagships fall. The LG G6 has already dropped to a sub-$400 price tag. Potential buyers may assume the LG G6 is inferior to the LG G7 ThinQ if the old product isn’t rebranded. Perhaps LG wants to revitalize an old product in the consumer consciousness that few remember. There are few noticeable differences between the LG G6 and LG G7 ThinQ aside from the G7’s notch, wider display, and smaller battery than its predecessor.
Outside of the new AI camera features LG is bringing to its current flagships, the LG G6 ThinQ is the same smartphone customers remember from last year: it features the same Snapdragon 821 SoC, the same 4GB of RAM, the same 18:9 aspect ratio, the same LCD screen, camera lenses, and so on.
The LG G6 ThinQ needs performance improvements
LG is spending money to rebrand the G6. And yet, former G6 owners would rather see LG spend money to fix Bluetooth issues, call quality issues, and even the phone’s bootloops. To place a moniker above performance is indicative that a company is headed in the wrong direction.
