4,000 lucky punters will test drive LG’s flagship smartphone the G4

8 Apr 2015

The LG G4 will have a leather back, with an impressive camera

South Korean electronics manufacturer LG has come up with quite a clever way to get its as-yet-unreleased flagship smartphone LG G4 out and about in the coming weeks.

A statement from the company said it is selecting 4,000 consumers across a select number of countries – starting in South Korea – to “test drive” the devices.

“Customers are our best fans and we think this would be an exciting and unique way to get our most important mobile product of the year close to the public,” said Juno Cho, president and CEO of LG.

“We’re putting the success of LG G4 in the hands of consumers before the launch because we believe they are the best judge of a great user experience, beyond just benchmarks and speed tests.”

If you are from any of the chosen areas – South Korea, Turkey, Indonesia, Singapore, the US, China, India, Brazil, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Mexico, Japan or Hong Kong – and you want in on this then take a look at your local LG web page and social media sites.

LG-G4-screen

The LG G4 features a 5.5-inch display, via LG

Snippets of information on the LG G4 have come out in the last while, with LG’s official media invite to the launch revealing what the back cover will look like.

It’s going to be leather-cased, with a pretty impressive f/1.8 aperture lens camera, markedly better than the LG G3’s already excellent f/2.4. The new device will have a 5.5-inch QuadHD display, with 2,560×1,440 resolution on it.

The interface is also due a detailed upgrade, as the LG UX 4.0 teaser shows. 1.0 was to help manage your day, 2.0 brought more convenience, 3.0 was “less hassle” and now LG UX 4.0 Is dubbed “simpler and easier”.

It’s going to be a far lighter running system, corralling loads of information like your personal health stats, planner and settings in something called “Smart Bulletin”.

It suggests activities to do based on your interests, so a user who enjoys a cycle may receive a notification that says, “The weather will be mostly sunny today. It’s the perfect weather to get out and go for a bike ride.”

The LG G4 gives loved ones unique ringtones, although that’s something you’ve been able to do on phones long before they became smart.

But never mind that, “See the great, feel the great, with LG G4,” is comfortably my favourite ever catchphrase.

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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