Report says the company is looking to cut costs

Mar 16, 2018 12:39 GMT  ·  By

While other companies, including Apple, are betting big on OLED screens, LG is planning to stick with LCD for the new-generation G7 flagship, mostly in an attempt to reduce costs, according to a new report.

This means the G7 is very likely to ship with LG Display’s MLCD+ panel, which the company itself praised for its 35 percent less power consumption than a standard LCD display, without any impact on brightness.

But going back to LCD comes at a time when the industry is moving to OLED, and the decision is even more surprising given that LG appeared to be one of the companies involved in this transition. The V30 model launched last year featured an OLED panel, and the G7 flagship coming this year was expected to do the same thing.

The previous model, LG G6, launched in March 2017 with a 5.7-inch LCD display and Gorilla Glass 3 protection and always-on capabilities.

Apple doing it too

The Korea Herald says LG’s mobile unit lost money for the 11th consecutive quarter in Q4 2017, despite the switch to OLED with the V30. Now the company is looking into ways to cut costs as much as possible and sticking with LCD is one way to do it, as such a panel is twice more affordable than OLED.

But according to the cited source, LG’s decision to invest more in LCD could be related to Apple, as the Cupertino-based firm itself recorded sales of its first OLED iPhone that are well below expectations. Apple, however, is planning to launch a new LCD iPhone in the fall, most likely at a more affordable price.

The LCD 2018 iPhone is expected to come with a 6.1-inch display and lack certain pricey technology like 3D Touch, though Face ID is very likely to be offered. This model will debut alongside other iPhones, including a direct successor to the iPhone X and a Plus-sized variant.