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Digitimes Research: LG focuses on mid-range/entry-level smartphones and smartwatches at MWC 2015

Kristina Shih, DIGITIMES Research, Barcelona 0

Unlike Samsung Electronics and High Tech Computer (HTC) that unveiled their newest flagship smartphones at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015 in Barcelona, Spain, LG Electronics focused its exhibition on four new mid-range and entry-level models: the LG Magna, Spirit, Leon and Joy, and smartwatches: the LG Watch Urbane and Urbane LTE.

Over the past couple of years, LG achieved good sales of its flagship smartphones by releasing them at a timeframe different than when its competitors released theirs; therefore, LG adopted the same strategy for the show in Spain and instead of flagship products, it decided to showcase its lower-end products and new smartwatches.

To avoid directly competing against other top-tier vendors' flagship products, the only high-end smartphone LG showed was its G Flex 2, which had already made its debut at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early 2015.

In addition to avoiding competition, LG's flagship smartphones have always adopted Qualcomm's solutions, and its G Flex 2 already uses the chip supplier's highest-end processor, the Snapdragon 810, making it difficult for LG to unveil any other flagship products with even higher performance, Digitimes Research analyzed.

LG's showcase of four new smartphones showed that the vendor continues to strengthen its mid-range and entry-level product lineups with them all supporting both 3G and LTE.

The LG Magna has the best specifications out of the four, followed by the LG Spirit, Leon and Joy. The LG Joy is only equipped with Android 4.4 KitKat, while the other three are all Android 5.0 Lollipop-ready.

The LG Spirit is already available in South Korea, priced at about US$160. With that as the standard, the LG Leon and Joy are expected to feature even better price/performance ratios.