LG shows off the design of its Velvet smartphone and confirms it has the Snapdragon 765

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LG’s smartphone business struggled in 2019, so the company is hoping to turn things around this year with an “offensive pricing policy” for “mass-premium and mass-tier 5G products.” While the LG V60 ThinQ (our review) is definitely less expensive than its direct competitors, it’s likely not what LG meant when they were talking about their new “offensive pricing policy.” Instead, it’s believed that the new “LG Velvet,” the first smartphone in the Velvet line that’s expected to replace the LG G line, will be the standard-bearer for LG’s revitalized smartphone business. LG teased the design of the Velvet through sketches they published last week, but now the company has published a teaser video that shows off the phone in its entirety.

Today, LG published a video titled “LG Velvet – Design” over on its Korean YouTube channel. The video showcases the upcoming smartphone with its “3D Arc Design” and “Raindrop” camera module. The three cameras and LED flash are arranged vertically in descending order by size on the left side of the rear. Each camera is separated from one another rather than contained in a traditional rectangular camera bump; LG says this design is intended to evoke the image of a falling raindrop. The 3D Arc Design on the LG Velvet, meanwhile, refers to the symmetrically curved display and back cover edges.

Through the rest of the images shown off in the teaser video, we can see that the LG Velvet will have a 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom and dual stereo speakers (one bottom-firing and one in the top bezel). There seem to be 3 sets of buttons: a power button on the right, volume up and down buttons on the left, and a dedicated Assistant button on the left below the volume buttons. The SIM card tray is placed on the top of the frame while the USB Type-C port is located at its traditional place on the bottom.

Finally, we can see that the LG Velvet has a U-shaped notch cutout and comes in 3 colors: Aurora White, Aurora Grey, and Aurora Green. LG calls the material finish its “Velvet Touch” that delivers a “Stunning Sunset” shimmering effect under particular lighting angles.

The last few images show Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765 logo in the bottom left-hand corner, indicating that the LG Velvet will be powered by Qualcomm’s latest upper mid-range processor. Unlike the flagship Snapdragon 865, the Snapdragon 765 has not been featured in that many different smartphone models, so it should be interesting to see a mass-market phone with this processor. The inclusion of this processor suggests the Velvet be cheaper than most premium flagship smartphones on the market today, but we won’t know the exact pricing until LG unveils the phone sometime next month.

Earlier rumors suggest the LG Velvet will have a 48MP main camera, a 4,000mAh battery, and support LG’s Dual Screen attachment. The screen size will supposedly be between 6.7 to 6.9-inches diagonally, making this a rather large smartphone. We also expect this phone to support 5G network connectivity given Snapdragon 765’s integrated Snapdragon X52 modem is 5G-capable. We’ll know more next month hopefully.