New renders have appeared that show an early version of LG’s vision for the upcoming V30. Essentially a slider phone with a secondary touch display in place of the physical keyboard you might find on the BlackBerry Priv, it’s a pretty intriguing concept. Evan Blass, who shared the renders, was quick to note that the final design of the LG V30 may well have departed from these early concepts, but they do provide a tantalising glimpse into LG’s thinking.

The original LG V10 was a surprise hit, with its chunky design, secondary ticker display, dual front-facing cameras, DAC and amp setting it apart both visually and functionally from the rest of the pack. The follow-up V20 took a design departure from the original, falling largely in step behind the flagship LG G5 and switching the dual cameras to the back.

Weekend bonus: this is an old-ish mockup of Project Joan, a.k.a. the LG V30. Not clear if the project is still headed in this direction. [1] pic.twitter.com/k5jNJ7DyLz — Evan Blass (@evleaks) May 27, 2017

A complete change in the LG V30’s design therefore seems totally feasible. LG clearly hasn’t settled on a fixed approach for the V line and in general mixes up its designs on the regular – just look at the G series. In a saturated smartphone marketplace, a “gimmick” like a slider phone could go a long way toward standing out, for better or worse.

Personally, I have fond memories of slider phones generally and, despite its flaws, enjoyed the BlackBerry Priv immensely. That would make a V30 like this instantly appealing to someone like me. But the Priv failed to find much of an audience beyond the BlackBerry faithful and the V30 might suffer a similar fate if it follows the slider approach. Regarding the Priv’s failure to catch on, maybe it was BlackBerry, maybe it was the slider, maybe it was the combination of both, but a slider could be risky territory for LG.

Finally, several use-case scenarios for the second screen. [3] pic.twitter.com/ZKucMOScam — Evan Blass (@evleaks) May 27, 2017

On the other hand, the secondary touch display, with its numerous use cases as outlined in a follow up tweet from Blass, could endear it to a lot of phone buyers looking for something a little different from the metal and glass slabs we’ve grown increasingly accustomed to. There’s no denying this would attract a lot of attention in retail stores and on the street, and, if LG could nail the software, it could easily be very popular.

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What do you think? Would you buy a LG V30 if it looked like this? Do you think LG would get the software right? Or is this just another pointless gimmick with no real use value? Hit the comments and let us know what you think of this concept and what angle you think LG might ultimately take with the V30.