LG announces its LG UX 9.0 (Android 10) update schedule

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For a variety of reasons, LG has never been able to compete on an equal turf against its chief domestic rival in the smartphone market: Samsung. In both hardware and software, LG’s phones have rarely been able to overshadow Samsung’s devices. Over the past few years, LG Electronics has seen its market share decline. Its mobile division has been a loss-making venture, and although the company has had flashes of brilliance in its hardware, it hasn’t been able to catch up with either Samsung or China-based rivals. In terms of software, the story isn’t much better. LG now has a reputation of being one of the slowest device makers to roll out new Android version updates to its device portfolio. In April 2018, it opened a Global Software Upgrade Center to roll out updates for more devices and in a more timely fashion, but progress on this front has been slow. Now, LG Italia has released the update roll out schedule of Android 10-based LG UX 9.0 for most major LG phones that were launched in the last two years. Since it was released by LG Italia, it should apply to most of Europe.

LG’s Android 10 update story was slow to get off the ground. Android 10 was released in September, and LG got an Android 10 preview up and running for the LG G8 ThinQ and the LG V50 ThinQ two months later in November for South Korean variants. In December, the South Korean LG G8 ThinQ began receiving its stable Android 10 update, and the same was rolled out a month later to the South Korean and Sprint variants of the LG V50 ThinQ. This week, it was discovered that Android 10-based LG UX 9.0—the latest version of LG’s custom user interface on top of Android—has a desktop mode feature, similar to Samsung’s DeX and Huawei’s Easy Projection. The desktop mode feature requires a USB Type-C to HDMI cable, and it seems to work similarly to Samsung DeX. Up until now, LG hasn’t rolled out the Android 10-based LG UX 9.0 update for European/global variants of its flagship phones.

LG Italia has stated that the Android 10 update will be available for nine phones. The roll out schedule shows that the first device to get the Android 10 update will be the LG V50 ThinQ, which will get it in February. In Q2 2020, the update will roll out for the LG G8X ThinQ. In Q3 2020, the LG G7 ThinQ, the LG G8S ThinQ, and the LG V40 ThinQ. Finally, the LG K50S, LG K40S, LG K50, and LG Q60 (LG’s mid-range phones that were launched in early 2019) will get Android 10 in the last quarter of 2020. It’s worth noting that Android 11 will be released before that time frame.

It’s good to see LG releasing an official Android 10 update roll-out schedule. It should be noted, however, that the company hasn’t been one of the quicker vendors to roll out Android 10 to its phones, and it’s unknown when this will change. We advise LG to step up its software update roll-out efforts to compete against established vendors such as the likes of Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi in the future.

Source: LG Italia | Via: PiunikaWeb