LG decided to announce a new addition to its Q series of mid-range phones today in South Korea, even though it’s also making big announcements this week at CES 2019. As it turns out, the new LG Q9 smartphone has some pretty old hardware and software inside and a fairly high price to boot.

The successor to the LG Q8, the LG Q9 (via PhoneArena) has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, first released in 2016, inside. It also ships with Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box. This decision shows that even though Android 9 Pie has been available for several months, phone makers still want to stick with launching handsets with older software.

The LG Q9 does have some good features such as a large 6.1-inch 3,120 x 1,440 display and some excellent audio additions. Just like its flagship-level siblings, the LG Q9 will feature a Boombox speaker, a Hi-Fi Quad DAC system, and DTS:X stereo support. Editor's Pick Best 5 LG phones you can buy right now (April 2020) LG has had its share of ups and downs in the smartphone business, but LG phones shouldn't be overlooked. The Korean manufacturer has never shied away from taking chances, even if not all of them …

The handset also has an IP68 water and resistance rating, which means that it should survive in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes. It also has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. However, the LG Q9 only has one 16MP rear camera, an 8MP front-facing selfie camera, and a pretty small 3,000mAh battery.

The LG Q9 will go on sale in South Korea later in January in Carmine Red, New Aurora Black, and New Moroccan Blue colors for 499,400 won, or about $445. That’s pretty expensive for a phone that has some very old hardware and software. There’s no word on when it might come to other markets.