Wanted to be part of the dual-screen foldable life but have been driven away by the extremely stiff price tags? LG might have just put the cat among the pigeons by making its G8X smartphone available for as low as Rs 19,999 (~$273) on Flipkart from October 16.
The price is frankly unbelievable if you consider what is on board. The LG G8X ThinQ, to give it its complete name, was launched at IFA 2019 and was one of the stars of the show. At a time when most brands were going for a foldable display, LG came up with its own take on the foldable, which was quite like no other.
A foldable with a difference!
So, the LG G8X ThinQ actually is in its basic form a “regular” phone with a 6.4-inch Full HD+ OLED display. You can use it like a normal, sleek Android flagship – it has an in-display fingerprint scanner, waterdrop notch, and narrow bezels. Where LG put a spin on matters was in giving you an additional display, in the form of an add-on – a cover with another 6.4-inch OLED full HD+ display of its own which can be attached to the main phone. When the cover is attached, you get a phone that can fold out into two displays. Depending on the apps being used, you can either fold out the phone fully and use it as one big display (even though there is a clear dividing line in the middle), or use one of the displays as a keyboard or a gamepad, or as simply another screen to run another application. In short, it kind of functions a bit like the other foldables, like the Galaxy Z Fold, but uses two screens when opened instead of one. When you fold the device, the cover also has a small external display to show the time and notifications. What makes the G8X ThinQ special is the fact that you can simply put away the cover and use the main phone as a single phone too, so you do not get burdened by the need to carry a large device all the time (just keep the cover in your bag and take it out when the need for more display real estate hits you).
Some heavy-duty hardware
There is some seriously good hardware onboard too. The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, which is now a year older, but is still considered a flagship-level chip, has 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage, which can be expanded using a memory card. It has dual cameras at the back – a 12-megapixel main sensor with OIS and a 13-megapixel ultrawide sensor. There is also a 32-megapixel front-facing selfie camera (which hasn’t had great reviews). There are all other flagship trimmings too – IP68 water and dust resistance rating, stereo speakers, 4G, Wi-Fi, even a 3.5 mm audio jack, and a 4000 mAh battery and support for fast charging, Mind you, we are not too sure how long that battery will be able to power two displays – the display in the cover has no battery or cameras of its own (even though it does have a drop notch) and charges off the USB Type-C port of the main phone). The phone was released with Android Pie, and we do not know whether the unit has been updated to Android 10.
“Very limited time” offer, though!
It had been released in India at a price of Rs 49,999. And its price had actually been bumped up a little following a sales tax increase in India, and the phone is at the time of writing listed at Rs 54,990 on the LG India site. At Rs 19,999, the LG G8X ThinQ is one of those staggeringly good deals, almost bordering on the “too good to be true’ – for that kind of price, you are more likely to be looking at a good mid-segment device rather than a dual-screen, semi-foldable one. All of which makes it pretty much a “get it if you can” deal for anyone with the bucks and the inclination. Honestly, given them specs, we would consider the phone worth buying even without the duplicate screen cover. With it, it becomes kinda sorta irresistible. [Update: We are told that there will be enough stocks for the sale. How much exactly? We don’t know that.] LG has said that the offer is available for a “very limited time” from October 16 on Flipkart. We are so expecting a “gone in so many seconds” sales line on the product page on that day. For, this is simply one of those really crazy deals. This deal is not one to Thinq about for geeks with the money, but for just grabbing. This is not your routine flagship at a routine price! Buy LG G8X on Flipkart
