back to article LG’s modular G5 stunner shuns the Lego aesthetic

People want a cool product more than they want a bunch of Lego bricks in their pocket. That’s why Alphabet’s intriguing modular project, Project Ara has gone nowhere. But can LG’s expansion slot initiative fare better? Yesterday LG announced its first modular phone, the G5, with two expansion units on show. It’s worth a punt …

  1. Known Hero

    Personally I think LG missed the point on modular phones. The whole idea IMO was for individual modules was to allow you to add only what you needed, therefore saving battery and money.

    not add extra items to a already expensive phone.

    Doubt it's going to work, which is a pity as LG have been producing some very nice phones recently.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      LG have missed no point.

      Making a fully modular phone incurs structural weakness (so it would have to me made thicker and heavier, and is harder to waterproof), and it is also of limited appeal (cos really, most lower-mid to high end Android phone buyers will want a Snapdragon 8XX SoC, a good screen and a Sony camera sensor).

      So whilst buyers haven't bothered with modular phones, they already fix things to their phones, such as external microphones, DACs, IR cameras, joysticks, bigger sensor cameras, LIDAR, external batteries and keyboards. However, the power/IO sockets they plug into are not mechanically fit for holding an extra lump of gubbins. LG have addressed that issue.

      Whether the G5 will be bought in any numbers remains to be seen. Maybe by folk wanting a swappable battery.

  2. Tromos

    Sorry LG, the idea is doomed.

    The 1200 mAH additional battery power is a welcome and useful addition, but it begs the question as to why the larger amount of power isn't there in the first place. Also wouldn't it be cheaper to implement in the form of one battery rather than two? LG are on a loser here as it will only take some competitor to come up with a similar phone with these functions built in from the start and without the overhead of modular connectivity which can therefore win on price. I don't see anyone buying on the strength of future 'must have' modules as LG would already be pushing these if they could think of any. If some ideas were to come up next year, do you think LG would pursue them unless they had huge sales this year?

    1. Brenda McViking

      Re: Sorry LG, the idea is doomed.

      Well I'd go for it.

      Better grip and extra battery, together with dedicated camera button - why not? Agree that it is a niche product, but that'd be the whole point of this kind of modularity - if I'm going on Holidays, I'd take this attachment. Off to the office, I won't bother.

      Whether this works depends on who LG partner with (or better yet, make it open source and see what comes your way), but high quality DACs are wanted by the audiophile market, and you've got potentially many offerings for those who want something a bit different within their own niche.

      How about a FLIR attachment? night vision, an extender offering a USB hub? Much higher quality microphones, or a conference speaker set up. Laser measuring devices, LED projection equipment. If this was done properly then it could really be a full differentiator and actually really rather useful. There are plenty of things that could be used with the processing power of the phone which would add too much bulk by themselves (or their permanent inclusion would just provide too much of a power drain) but incorporated into an add-on like this and designed for temporary use could work rather well.

      We'll see. If Apple had come up with this then everyone would be praising their ingenious foresight. As it's LG, well, someone has to continue the innovation to let Apple "change the world" by including it in their products in 5 years time once the bugs are ironed out. and then sue you in 10 for "copying."

      1. Swarthy

        Re: Sorry LG, the idea is doomed.

        I see your FLIR attachment, and raise you a physical keyboard. Between that and the extra battery, I'd actually have a reason to upgrade my phone.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sorry LG, the idea is doomed.

      "The 1200 mAH additional battery power is a welcome and useful addition, but it begs the question as to why the larger amount of power isn't there in the first place."

      So you want a permanently attached large camera grip?

      The extra battery would be in the grip, obviously. Just like any other camera with a grip.

  3. djstardust

    Nice idea but .....

    It's bloody ugly. I don't like the shape of the device or the camera assembly on the rear.

    As much as I hate to say it, Samsung have got the design language of the S7 just right but it's a shame it's so expensive.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    it's all about the removable battery

    Alternately, they came up with a clever way to have a unibody and a replaceable battery, a sales driver. Then thought about what else they could do with it, hence the disappointing camera grip add on.

    The DAC will do nicely at separating HiFi fantasists from large wads of cash.

  5. Malcolm 1

    Forward compatibility?

    Although some of these add ons look vaguely promising, what's the chances of them continuing to be compatible with future handsets? It's going to be tough enough building up a market for 3rd party add ons for such a relatively niche player, even tougher if you have to redesign it again 12 months time for the G6,7,8 etc and convince people to buy it again when they inevitably upgrade.

  6. Lutin

    I was hoping that the camera module would be a camera with a big-ass sensor and big-ass lens.

    Would have been lovely to be able to attach and detach a camera module based on the occasion.

  7. Seajay#

    USB

    We already have a way of expanding the capabilities of phones, USB. With the massive advantage of a non-proprietory connector.

    Who wants an expensive LG 1200 mAH battery pack and camera button when a generic battery pack with 10x the capacity and a shutter release either wired to the 3.5mm jack or wireless over bluetooth can all be had for about a tenner each?

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: USB

      You'd be dealing with two lumps connected by a cable - not very ergonomic.

  8. adnim
    Meh

    cost aside...

    It's a phone not HiFi separates... Audiophile phone? Becoming totally absorbed in music whilst walking amongst traffic is hardly a wise move. Can I root it and be in control of the device without invalidating the warranty? Still hugging my 1st Gen Moto G (Cyanogen) and my Audiolab/Cambridge Acoustics kit.

  9. Boothy

    Standard, standard, standard

    Quote: "an alliance of vendors who can agree to standardise on an expansion slot"

    This * ∞

    Without an agreed standard, by at least a good chunk of the major players, it's not going to last long.

    It also needs to be free to use, preferable an fully open standard, that then gets adopted as an ISO standard, that any phone or peripheral producer can use.

    Although personally, I don't think this should be classed as a modular phone, it's a phone with an expansion port.

    1. Paul Shirley

      Re: Standard, standard, standard

      I would guess the physical design here rules out a useful open standard simply because it would require every compatible phone to have the same dimensions and remove a major differentiator between brands and individual phones in their ranges. The grip looks ugly enough on a phone it's designed to fit, imagine one it doesn't physical match.

  10. Fraggle850

    On balance I suspect it will fail to gain traction

    But I do like the idea of being able to add a second battery. I also like the idea of being able to add in varied functionality.

  11. IR

    A lot of things you can add to your phone are already around and connecting via bluetooth. Keyboards, camera operators, joysticks. I'm not sure if there are any non-niche functions that aren't already implemented in third-party devices that will still work with whatever your next phone is.

  12. IvoryT

    Does the B&O DAC include coaxial digital out? We audiophiles could then use the phone to feed our own external DACs. There would be a market for that.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      >Does the B&O DAC include coaxial digital out?

      No, it is a DAC, the clue is in the name.

      What B&O do have a reputation for is Class D amplifiers ('IcePower'), so you'll have a reasonable DAC and amp combo for driving a variety of headphones. If you want your own DAC, you'd just use USB Audio, or a Chromecast Audio which has an optical out.

  13. goldcd

    To agree with others - wtf?

    Never owned an LG phone, but they were always in the running for my next one. They just seemed to have lost the plot here (piss-poor "we can do VR too" and "that looks like a Ricoh 360 camera" being the most evident parts of their recent announcements).

    I can *almost* see the benefit of having a family of add-ons - until it appears you have to rip your battery out of the phone to use them.. I loathe Samsung (after their piss-poor handling of a faulty S3), but did like their approach of a few flavours of the same phone depending on if you wanted something useful (zoom camera) or flashy (edge screen) over the basic flagship.

    What would interest me is something along the lines of the new fairphone (https://www.fairphone.com/phone/) - but backed by a big-name (OS updates and hardware updates for the next 5 years guaranteed etc)

    Just to go back to LG and their insanity. I do care about how music sounds of my phone. My ear-buds cost about as much as a flagship - and there is no-f'in way I'll buy the G5 whilst they're gunning to sell me an add-on, that'll noticeably improve the sound. Just put the decent DAC in your phone in the first place and I might have bought it - moment you sell this as an add-on, I'm assuming you hobbled the phone to make this add-on have any purpose. Oh, and you chose B&O as your 'brand partner' - fucking Beats-for-Audi-drivers.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: To agree with others - wtf?

      >Never owned an LG phone

      >Just put the decent DAC in your phone in the first place and I might have bought it

      LG did just that in the G2, yet you didn't buy it. So, what was your point again?

      LG also contributed 24bit 192Khz libraries to the AOSP.

      The B&O module is more about the B&O Class D amp for driving headphones than it is about the DAC per se. B&O do make good Class D amps.

      Oh well, glad you feel you can have an opinion, though.

  14. bep

    Maybe yes

    I can see myself getting this. I take a lot more photos on holiday which is when you'd use this. I also have plenty of videos of my feet and the inside of my pockets so the dedicated video button plus the additional battery make sense to me. It all depends on the total price, of course. It's also important that the phone's camera is pretty good, not much point otherwise.

  15. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

    Radios

    My phone upgrades have been because the radio was obsolete. Having the right bands for every place you travel becomes important as telcos upgrade old 2G and 3G towers to LTE.

  16. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

    Stunner?

    Guess some people are easily stunned...

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