Yesterday was a busy day for LG. On the official side of things, the Life's Good crew officially announced a new extended warranty for its latest flagship phone, the G6. As you've probably seen by now, LG is extending the standard manufacturer's warranty to two years, up from the traditional one year here in the United States. For G6 owners that's got to be good news, especially since it's a free change, and owners just need to register their device to get it covered.
On the other side of the coin are unsubstantiated reports that LG is working hard on kicking things off a bit earlier for the G7 next year. Specifically, a report earlier today outlined that the manufacturer is planning on debuting the G7, next year's flagship, as early as January -- a full month ahead of when the G6, and even the G5, were presented to the world.
The report also says the G7 is going to have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor under the hood, which is an upgrade over the flagship Snapdragon 835 from this year, but otherwise there's little to go on as far as details are concerned. It wouldn't be too surprising to see LG going big with the top-tier processor of 2018, and they'd even be getting a jump on Samsung.
Getting the jump on Samsung, and other rivals, is apparently the gist of that aforementioned report. LG wants to be first in 2018.
Technically speaking, LG did beat Samsung to market this year with their respective flagship. The G6 launched before the Galaxy S8 (and Galaxy S8+), but that window was very, very short. And that apparently won't work for LG next year, so they want to make sure that they can get as much time to themselves as possible. Which certainly makes sense. Anyone that might be able to upgrade at the start of 2018 might go for the G7 if it's the only one that's new on the market.
Plus, LG is going to have plenty to show off with its next flagship, I'm sure. An even better camera, a new design maybe, an even better display that may even be an OLED panel, and more. There's definitely plenty to look forward to, and LG sees it as an important detail to be not only first on the scene, but also have breathing room before the next big thing arrives.
I understand the rationale, but I want to ask all of you the most obvious question: Will it matter? If LG does get the G7 out in January, and by that I mean actually on store shelves, that would probably give the company two full months on the market before Samsung gets around to launching the G9 or whatever they call it. Plus HTC is in there, too. The start of every year is busy, so can LG eke out a few more sales by being the only option for potential buyers? What do you think? Let me know!
