LG's New Budget Phones Offer G8 Looks For Less

If big, splashy and expensive phone releases aren’t your thing, LG just released a few new options for you.

Credit: LG

(Image credit: LG)


The Korean smartphone maker just took the lid off of the LG Q60, LG K50 and LG K40, three mid-level and budget phones that will debut at next week’s Mobile World Congress (Feb. 25-28) likely alongside the more powerful LG G8 ThinQ and 5G-capable LG V50 ThinQ.

The Q60 is the most premium of the three new phones and carries a tear drop-style front notch that’s smaller than what leaked renders have shown the G8 will feature. The Q60 has a 6.3-inch screen (presumably LCD, not OLED), a mid-range 2.0 GHz Octa-Core processor, 3GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and a 3,500mAh battery. On its front, there’s a 13MP selfie camera, and on its back, it has three camera lenses — a 16MP standard, a 5MP wide-angle and a 2MP depth sensor to help with portrait-style pictures.

All three of LG’s new mid-level and budget phones will run the AI camera system from the G and V series that can detect certain subjects it’s shooting and automatically modify settings accordingly. And, in other AI accommodations, these Q and K phones will also have a dedicated button on their sides that can call up the Google Assistant.

The K50 features the same screen with front notch as the Q60, as well as the same processor, same RAM and same battery as the Q60. But it drops down to the 32GB of storage and loses the wide-angle lens on its back.

The K40 has a smaller 5.7-inch display that opts for no notch, resulting in a shorter 18:9 screen ratio and large bezels below and above it. Specs on the inside are the most modest of LG’s three new phones: A 2.0 GHz Octa-Core processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and a 3,000mAh battery. The rear camera is a solo 16MP standard lens, and the front selfie camera drops to an 8MP (though it does add a flash).

LG hasn’t announced the prices of these phones yet. For some context, last year’s budget LG K30 launched in the US at $179, and the mid-level Q7 Plus launched internationally starting at around $450.

LG could have more info on pricing and availability of these phones — along with its new G8 and V50 handsets — at its MWC press event on Feb. 24.

Daniel Bean is a freelance writer with years of experience whose articles have appeared in Tom's Guide. He has previously worked for LinkedIn, Yahoo News, and the Observer, as well as TripleByte, Circa, Inverse, CBS, and ABC. Currently, he is full-time content lead for Mixpanel's blog, The Signal, writing about innovators and analytics.