We've seen several folding phones appear this year, but LG is taking a different approach with the LG G8X ThinQ, unveiled at IFA 2019: two separate displays connected with a hinge. The phone is based on the LG G8 ThinQ launched back in February.
The disadvantage of having two distinct screens rather than one folding display is that you can't really use apps across both screens at once. On the plus side, this kind of form factor is going to be a lot more durable than bending screens for the foreseeable future.
We actually saw LG use the same idea earlier this last year with the dual-screen accessory for the LG V50 ThinQ, but this seems to be a more fully realized version, with an improved hinge mechanism, a USB-C link (rather than pogo pins), and full 360-degree tilting.
That second screen is just that – a screen. There are no real guts in the secondary display, it's just there to give you more room for your home screen icons and apps. Both displays measure 6.4 inches corner to corner and run at a resolution of 2,340 x 1,080 pixels; and there's also a 2.1-inch screen around the back for notifications and the like.
You'll be able to get up both Twitter and Facebook (for example) side by side, without reducing both to a tiny window. The two screens might also be useful for watching videos on one screen while you're writing comments about them on another.
The LG G8X ThinQ is actually a separate phone in its own right, and you can buy it without the dual-screen add-on attached. It comes with the same Snapdragon 855 processor, 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD card) as the original LG G8 ThinQ.
The display is a little bigger than its predecessor, as we've mentioned, and the battery gets bumped up to a 4,000 mAh capacity one. Camera duties are handled by a dual-lens 12 MP + 13 MP model on the back, and a single-lens 32 MP model on the front. As usual with LG, audiophiles are well catered for, with a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC on board.
That makes the LG G8X ThinQ a decent Android smartphone in its own right, but it's the dual-screen capabilities that really set it apart. It remains to be seen whether other app developers tweak their apps to be used over two screens though – at the moment it's just LG's apps that can do the trick, so otherwise it's just two apps side by side.
Having said that, Android games with support for the Android controller API (which is a lot of them) can display controls on the second screen while you play on the first one, which sounds like it could be really helpful.
For now we don't know the details of availability and price, but LG says the phone and dual-screen accessory are both shipping in the fourth quarter of the year. The video below gives you an idea of what the two screens look like in action.
Source: LG
