LG Launches New Signature Edition Smartphone With Ceramic Back

LG Electronics has introduced a new special edition smartphone in its home country, South Korea. The phone will be the latest addition to its ThinQ-branded devices and it is arriving with a hefty price tag.

LG announced Sunday that it is now ready to sell its second super-premium smartphone, called the LG Signature Edition. The handset is set to hit store shelves on Aug. 20 after a two-week pre-order period, according to Yonhap.

Since this is going to be a special edition device, only 300 units will be sold overall. And sadly, all units will only be available in South Korea. LG didn’t say if it is going to launch the phone in other markets, but this is very unlikely to happen.

The LG Signature Edition is based on the V35 ThinQ, but the model’s Gorilla Glass 5 back has been replaced with a zirconium ceramic back. LG says the new material is resistant to abrasion and corrosion.

Apart from the ceramic back, the 2 million won or US$1,830 price tag of the handset covers exclusive warranty services provided by allocated staff. Users will also be offered the option to have their names engraved on their unit.

The LG Signature Edition will also come equipped with a 256 GB built-in memory. According to LG, this would be enough to accommodate a vast volume of high quality videos, photos and music files.

The device, which runs the Oreo operating system, will have support for LG Pay, the payment platform that LG created as an alternative to credit cards. It will also come bundled with earphones made by Bang & Olufsen that is said to have a market price of around 700,000 won or US$626.

The rest of the specs and features of the special edition device will be the same as what the V35 ThinQ is packing. Hence, consumers can expect a 6-inch P-OLED capacitive touchscreen with 1440 x 2880 screen resolution, 537 ppi pixel density and 18:9 aspect ratio. It will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor and will feature a dual-lens back camera and a single-lens selfie shooter.

The new LG Signature Edition is the successor to last year’s 2017 LG Signature Edition that was launched in December. The premium smartphone sold out, so LG is expecting the same kind of result this time around.