[Poll results out] Now may be the best time to buy a flagship LG smartphone

New updates are being added to the bottom of the story…

Original story (from April 18, 2021) follows:

You probably heard it already. Not long ago, LG closed shop after years of struggling against the likes of Samsung and Apple for a place at the helm of global smartphone charts.

Keen followers would have seen this coming from as early as a couple or so years ago. In fact, there had been rumors that LG would shut down its mobile division much earlier.

And now that it’s done, there is a huge gap left behind, especially for those in the U.S. where LG was the second most dominant Android player behind Samsung.

Sure, no denying that OnePlus may be the soul successor to the LG throne in North America. The company has some decent phones available unlocked and through carriers, the latest OnePlus 9 Pro included.

However, it might still be too early to write off LG’s recent offerings, among them the swiveling LG Wing, the LG Velvet and its 2020 flagship, the LG V60 ThinQ.

But why? You may ask, especially given the kind of reputation LG had built leading up to its closure. Well, read on.

LG phones have rarely been criticized for their hardware. LG always built solid phones with top-of-the-range performance specs and even some audacious features like Air Motion gestures (LG G8) and modularity (LG G5).

It’s with the software update patterns that smartphone buyers were always at loggerheads with LG. Clean and smooth, no denying; however, LG was renowned for its slow nature of rolling out updates.

Also, the company often left many in the dark over the length of software support devices would get, something that caused friction owing to the small fortunes consumers had invested in these gizmos.

But after bidding adieu to the smartphone business, LG has finally committed to provide up to 3 major Android OS updates for some of its flagship devices.

The LG Wing, LG Velvet 4G/5G, and LG V60 ThinQ are all guaranteed OS updates up to Android 13. Previous-gen flagships like LG G8 and V50 ThinQ, on the other hand, will stop at Android 12.

With this move, LG is now among the handful of Android vendors with a known software update policy as well as support for up to 3 versions of Android OS updates.

This is all we ever wanted, LG, but unfortunately, you guys had other ideas — ideas that sent an entire mobile division into oblivion.

According to a 2019-2020 cell phone depreciation report by brand, LG phones, alongside Google and Motorola, lose value at an alarming rate.

LG is the second worst on this front, with its smartphone models dropping their year on year value by about 57%. This means you are likely to buy an LG phone at nearly half its launch price a year later.

And indeed, a quick look at current prices of various LG flagship smartphone units from the recent past adds more weight to this report.

The LG V60 ThinQ released in the U.S. in early 2020 priced at about $800 or $900 depending on where you bought it. Today, T-Mobile has it going for $650, with the price unchanged on Verizon and AT&T.

The Magenta carrier alongside AT&T have also massively discounted the LG Velvet 5G. The device came in valued at $600, but you can have it for half the price on the latter and $400 on the former.

If interested in the newer LG Wing, you’ll be pleased to learn that T-Mobile is currently listing it at $600, down from the U.S. launch price of $1,000. AT&T and Verizon subscribers may want to hold back for now.

The same story resonates across the planet over in India, where the LG Wing now goes for a mere INR 30,000, down from the launch price of INR 80,000.

The LG Velvet’s price, however, remains unchanged at INR 36,990, but history tells us this won’t hold for long.

Older models like the LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen, for instance, can now be had for a massively discounted price of INR 24,990, down from INR 70,000.

I can go on and on by further including select midrange phones in these examples, but the story remains mostly the same across the board.

And the fact that LG is committed to provide software support for these devices for the next two or so years coupled with the ever-depreciating prices perhaps make it the perfect timing to buy an LG flagship smartphone.

Of course, there will always be some reservations related to hardware issues. But as noted earlier, LG phones rarely have outrageous hardware defects, so there’s probably little to worry about.

That said, we’d like to hear from you. Would you buy an LG smartphone at this point in time? Share your thoughts in the comments section or cast a vote on the Twitter poll below.

Note: Poll results will be updated after a week.

And our readers have spoken. Out of those who casted the vote, 40% believe yes with the current discounted prices and a promise of 3 Android OS updates, they would buy an LG flagship smartphone now, while 43.3% say they won’t. 16.7% say they’d consider buying.

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