5 ways LG was ahead of the competition and how that didn't matter

LG has had a rough few years — despite being one of the top smartphone manufacturers, the company’s market share has been on the decline. And that’s not for a lack of trying — LG is one of these companies that constantly dabbles in new things, looking for that innovation that just might go viral.

In fact, LG has been ahead of the competition on a few occasions, even ahead of huge trend curves, yet it remained largely unnoticed. Here, we will explore how LG was ahead of the market over the past few generations of smartphones:

Ultra-wide cameras

Of course, this is the biggest one. LG’s phones have had ultra-wide cameras for some years now. First, the LG V10 introduced the dual selfie cam way back in 2015. We had one “regular” lens and one ultra-wide selfie camera for massive group shots. The next year, the LG G5 moved the ultra-wide-angle lens to the back, giving us the first action cam-like experience on a smartphone.

The feature received very little praise or notice. Now, in 2019, everyone seems to be super-interested in ultra-wide cameras. The craze is at such a high that the fact that Google launched the Pixel 4 with a telephoto lens instead of an ultra-wide-angle one is drawing negative criticism. Who would’ve guessed it? Well, LG did, some 3 years ago…

QHD resolution

The LG G3 was the world’s first mass-production, internationally-available smartphone with a QHD (1440 x 2560) screen. This was back in 2014 when everyone but Sony and Apple was pushing their pixel counts to the limit.

But to be fair, LG shot itself in the foot with the G3. It was in such a hurry to stick with the trend that the result was a rather dim display that was still a battery hog. To top it off, LG really wanted to make the G3’s screen look striking (a 1440 x 2560 resolution barely gives you visible results on a 5.5-inch display), so it added software sharpening to the image. Trained eyes quickly picked up on that and the G3’s screen, despite its dense resolution, was panned as "meh".

Stainless steel frames

Apple likes to make a big deal of how the iPhone X, iPhone XS, and now the iPhone 11 Pro have stainless steel frames going around them. And yes, they are sturdy and feel super nice in the hand. You know what else had stainless steel frames? The LG V10, back in 2015.

Too bad that this was coupled with a very flimsy, plastic-made back panel. That was in the era when removable phone batteries was still a thing and metal backs were kind of hard to pull off. Still, the result was a phone with premium materials on the sides, and a thin, bendy, rubber-feeling back.

And yet it didn't matter