The LG G8 Goes on Sale April 11 in the US

Unlike in past years, it sounds like the G8 will be LG’s main flagship phone for the whole year. It announced the V50 alongside the G8 as its 5G carrier phone. The V-series used to be a more premium offering announced in the fall. The G8 is similar to last year’s G7 — it even looks very similar. It has a Snapdragon 855, 128GB of storage, and 6GB of RAM. However, there’s a 6.1-inch 1440p OLED panel instead of an LCD like on last year’s G-series phone. It will ship with Android Pie, too.

LG sees the G8’s camera setup as a potential differentiating factor. The rear sensors are unsurprising: a 12MP main and 16MP wide-angle. On the front, the G8 sports an 8MP RGB sensor and a time-of-flight sensor LG calls the Z Camera. That means the G8 can do secure 3D face unlock — most Android phones with face unlock are only using the camera, which is not secure enough to allow access to secure apps like Google Pay. The Z Camera also supports gesture control of the phone by identifying and tracking your hand movements. The early demos of this feature at MWC were interesting but buggy.

The G8 starts at $819.99 for the unlocked model, but carriers have already made adjustments. AT&T will offer monthly bill credits for anyone who buys the G8 on a 30-month payment plan with a service plan of $50 or more. The credits make the phone free, as long as you stay with AT&T the whole time. Sprint is offering a convoluted lease-to-own program that works out to $570 total, which is $270 off its initial sale price. Verizon is also going the service credit route for G8 buyers, offering $350 off in monthly credits for new lines of service with a G8 purchase.

T-Mobile is making its G8 deal much more straightforward. It’s knocking $200 off the full price, making the phone $620. You can also get $310 in trade-in credit for select phones like the OnePlus 6T and LG V30.

LG’s mobile division has been losing money for years, and the G8 doesn’t seem like the phone that will turn it around. Still, LG at least hs its 5G partnerships to focus on in the future.

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