LG’s new flagship smartphone isn’t set to launch until later this month in Barcelona, but that hasn’t stopped the internet from ruining LG’s surprise. We’ve already seen something that might be a press photo, and a report late last month detailed all the specs.
But now, we’ve got the rumormill holy grail: several different photos of a prototype that looks a lot like the rumors, thanks to Droid Life.
The photos show a clearly unfinished device that doesn’t even seem to have a battery. But that doesn’t stop us from finding a few critical details from what we can see. First off, it looks like the rumored bezel-free display is here: there doesn’t seem to be much extra space around the edge of the screen, and even the bottom bezel with the LG logo has been bared back to the bare minimum.
No-bezel displays have already highlighted themselves as one of 2017’s smartphone design trends, which is no bad thing. By removing excess material around the screen, manufacturers are able to put a much bigger screen into the same sized body, which is why the G6 is said to have a 5.7-inch screen, but be barely any bigger than 5-inch smartphones that are currently on the market.
On the backside of the phone, you can see dual cameras and a fingerprint sensor, which lines up perfectly with rumors. It also makes sense — there’s no space for a fingerprint sensor on the front side, and a dual-camera system is table stakes for a flagship smartphone these days.
Most notably, this prototype virtually confirms that the LG G6 will be doing away with the removable battery and add-on modules of the G5. Last year’s G5 was one of the few phones to buck the general design trend, thanks to a weird removable battery and the ability to add modules. It was an interesting approach to phone design, but also a rather catastrophic flop that cost LG millions. So, for the 2017 flagship G6, LG is doubling down on a boring, utilitarian smartphone for the masses.
