OnePlus 8 too rich for your blood? The LG Velvet could be a tempting alternative
Filling the OnePlus void
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With theOnePlus 8proving to be quite a jump over previous OnePlus phones in terms of specs and price, it’s left a gap in the ‘strong specs at a mid-range price’ section of the market the company once occupied – and a new leak suggests that gap could be filled by the upcomingLGVelvet.
This information comes from Korean forum website ‘Meeco’ where a user posted a screenshot of a lineup of the phones, complete with many of the key specs.
It’s not clear who the leaker is, or where the information was sourced from, but there are some color variants on show here that we haven’t seen in LG’s own teases, and which look credible - although as with all leaks we’d recommend taking this one with a pinch of salt.
The leak suggests the LG Velvet will have the mid-range Snapdragon 765G chipset, which won’t return fast processing speeds like the top-end 865 in the OnePlus 8, although people who don’t need the fastest speeds would be unlikely to notice. It seems the phone is set to be a 5G device too.
The leak also suggests the chipset will be paired with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, which would a fairly standard setup for a mid-range device. According to the leak, there’s a 4,300mAh battery, which again would be a fairly standard spec.
Apparently the cameras will be a 48MP main snapper, joined by a 5MP depth sensor and a third, 8MP, camera, although it’s not clear if this has a telephoto, ultra-wide angle, macro or some other lens, while on the front there’s said to be a 16MP camera.
We’re expecting the phone to be priced squarely in mid-range territory – and possibly close to the £499 (about $640, AU$930) price of the OnePlus 7, which would make it a tempting option for fans of that phone who can’t quite stretch to the cost of the OnePlus 8.
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What is the LG Velvet?
The LG Velvet is reportedly a replacement for the plannedLG G9, which is said to have been scrapped (although it’s not clear why), and LG is banking on the new phone being a hit.Its recent devices haven’t been particularly successful, and if the Velvet proves to a popular affordable mid-range device - which leaks, including this latest one, suggest it may well be - it could herald a change in the brand’s fortunes.
We know thephone is landing on May 7,and TechRadar will bring you all the news when that happens, and we’ll be hoping to get our hands on the phone to review it, so stay tuned.
Tom Bedford was deputy phones editor on TechRadar until late 2022, having worked his way up from staff writer. Though he specialized in phones and tablets, he also took on other tech like electric scooters, smartwatches, fitness, mobile gaming and more. He is based in London, UK and now works for the entertainment site What To Watch.
He graduated in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working on TechRadar, he freelanced in tech, gaming and entertainment, and also spent many years working as a mixologist.
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