What was the last exciting LG phone? [Poll]

Ben Schoon | Apr 5 2021 - 7:15 am PT

It’s over. LG announced last night that it will be pulling out of the global smartphone market in the next few months. In a way, it’s sad to see, but it also comes as no surprise, given the downward trajectory we’ve seen from LG for the past several years. On that note, do you even remember the last time you were excited for an LG phone?

For me, the last time I was really excited to try a new LG smartphone was last year with the LG Velvet. Leading up to its launch, I was hoping to see the Velvet help reverse the mistakes LG was making, even if it was only in simple ways. My time with the honestly pretty great LG V60 in the months prior only increased my excitement. In the end, though, the Velvet fell a little bit flat.

Looking back a few years, I remember being incredibly excited for new devices from LG. After buying a Galaxy Nexus for my first smartphone, the LG G2 is what ended up being my second, and after just a few months of using that device I was full-on with the LG G3 hype. The new screen, the good-looking hardware, and the revamped LG software led to the longest review I’d ever produced at the time (albeit a slightly cringey one, looking back at it six years later).

Based on some of the reactions I’ve seen online since LG confirmed its closure, I’m not alone in having fond memories of LG’s “golden age.” The LG G4 especially seems to have been a highlight for many, and it’s easy to understand why. That phone tried something different with a leather backplate, and a curved display and body, and it helped pioneer some clever camera features like a complete manual mode. I’ll never forget testing out the G4 on a family trip and being fascinated by its manual mode. Five years later, those shots hold up, too.

The G4 set the mold for a lot of LG’s future efforts, too. It tried some new, and even five years later, crazy ideas. The LG G5 was the first smartphone to adopt an ultrawide camera, a feature that’s essentially a requirement on any device sold in 2021. With the LG G8X, the company also brought its dual-display ambitions to the forefront, something that stuck around through the Velvet, V50, and V60. And there’s the Wing, a truly wild form factor that turned heads just because it was so out of the ordinary.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are the phones that failed. LG V30 was a solid device, but fell in the wake of widespread bootlooping issues on LG G3, G4, and others, as well as the lack of confidence that stemmed from the LG G5, a phone with modular components that LG made a big deal about, but then essentially abandoned. The G6 was a victim of those same concerns. G7? That was the debut of the “ThinQ” moniker, but that device flopped simply due to LG’s lack of support and marketing. The phone was basically abandoned after Android Pie, and in my anecdotal experience, had some big issues even trying to get that update on some units. That pattern continues today. I ended up praising the G8 ThinQ for some well-done features, but walked away with the usual conclusion: good phone, but it won’t get updates, and Samsung does all of those features better. The LG V-series had a following, but it fared just as poorly as the G-series through it all.

That’s all in the past now, though. LG is set to cease essentially all of its efforts in the smartphone market at the end of July. But looking back, which LG smartphone, if any, had you been excited to try out? Vote in the poll below, and in the comments, let us know what your experience has been with LG over the years.