LG K40 Android Pie update hits European units, T-Mobile model gets improved phone usability & functionality

LG was at the MWC 2019 this year with a bunch of new phones and among them was the LG K40 that aims to bring AI photography to some of the most affordable smartphones available today.

Although far from the most exciting smartphone announced at the annual tech event, the LG K40 is a great phone for those into budget handsets that pack just about enough tech for their day-to-day use.

The K40 followed the midrange Stylo 5 and premium G8 ThinQ and V50 ThinQ into the U.S. market in July 2019 priced at a lowly $180. For this amount, the K40 offers a 5.7-inch LCD screen with an HD+ resolution owing to the 18:9 aspect ratio.

On the inside, the K40 is powered by an 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 SoC that is okay for less-intensive tasks. It is mated to 2GB RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. To keep it going, the K40 has a 3000mAh battery unit.

Other little additions include a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, a dedicated Google Assistant button, shock resistance, 3D surround sound, and so on.

But despite arriving in February 2019, the LG K40 comes running Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box even with the newer and much better Android Pie having been around since August 2018. Perhaps this was LG’s way of denying the device an update to the latest Android 10.

On the brighter side, a new LG K40 software update is now rolling out with the newer Android 9 Pie as the base OS. The firmware has been spotted in Europe arriving on model LMX420EM (aka LM-X420EM) sold through Vodafone in Spain, Hungary, and Italy.

Apparently, the LG K40 Android Pie update is limited (at least for now) for regions with the suffix VDS (Spain), VDH (Hungary) or VDI (Italy). In the U.S., the unlocked K40 variant sold has model number LMX420QN and so far, we don’t know if and when it will receive Pie.

What we do know, though, is that the LG K40 sold through Metro by T-Mobile (LMX420MM) is now receiving a minor maintenance software update arriving as version X420MM10k. According to the changelog, the update improves phone usability and functionality.

It’s likely this same update will also be pushed to the U.S. unlocked LG K40 variant, but we can’t be certain about that especially since the two have different base OS. The T-Mo variant runs Pie out of the box while the European and U.S. unlocked models have Oreo preinstalled.

Since the two LG K40 software updates are airborne, it will take some time before all units receive their respective OTA download notification. You can either wait for the OTA to arrive or try your luck via the LG Bridge.

NOTE: For more LG-related coverage, check out this section. You may also stay tuned to our Android Pie and Android 10 sections for more related coverage.

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