LG Says G7 ThinQ Speaker Will Be 10x Louder Than Other Phones

LG is on the verge of unveiling the LG G7 ThinQ, but it’s already starting to run out of things to reveal. In typical LG fashion, the company has begun dropping juicy tidbits about its upcoming phone, including the nature of the screen and now the speaker. According to LG, the LG G7 ThinQ will have a speaker 10 times louder than other smartphones.

LG calls this design a Boombox Speaker, employing terminology that many of today’s smartphone buyers may never have used. The LG G7 ThinQ should be able to output 6dB more sound with up to twice as much bass. LG’s calculations place that at 10 times the sound output of a typical smartphone, but it’s not clear what it considers to be “typical” in this scenario.

There’s not much detail on how the speaker works, but LG says it’s based on a “resonance chamber design” that allows the phone to pump out bigger sound than its small frame would lead you to believe. The image above suggests the chamber somehow uses the phone’s entire frame to boost the output. In addition, bass output is boosted even higher when you set the phone on a surface.

Loudness is all well and good, but LG didn’t have much to say about how good the phone sounds. Plenty of phones can output a lot of sound, but distortion tends to increase with volume. And what’s the goal of having a louder speaker? If you’re going to listen to music, why not use headphones or a Bluetooth speaker? It seems profoundly unlikely the LG G7 ThinQ will output enough sound for a pleasant listening experience. It might just be less terrible than other phones. And if the speaker is still bottom-facing, it will be too easy to block with your hand.

Even if LG’s new speaker design is genuinely impressive, is that going to be enough to make the LG G7 ThinQ a desirable phone when the Galaxy S9 and iPhone are more popular than ever?

If the leaks are accurate, the LG G7 ThinQ is a slightly better G6 with a screen notch. The ThinQ branding also indicates the G7 will have the AI camera features that debuted on the V30S earlier this year. That might not be enough to compete in 2018. LG has an event scheduled for May 2nd to unveil the LG G7 ThinQ. It’ll probably show on on carriers in the following weeks.

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