Top 5 Best Unique LG Smartphones

The time has come to say a grand farewell to LG, and we thought it would be both fun and fitting to look back at some of the best unique LG smartphones that have come out over the years.

If you’ve been isolating yourself from the internet or the news (or both) for the past few days, then you may not have heard that LG is officially shutting down its smartphone business. The company released its official statement yesterday. Come July 31, it expects the business to be fully shut down. It will then shift its resources to its other businesses.

So, LG phones are no more, or at least they will be in terms of new and upcoming devices. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t appreciate some of the best LG phones to come out to date. Because for all of LG’s profit losses over the years, it still had some wild and innovative designs.

Top 5 Best Unique LG Smartphones

LG has made a lot of phones over the years. But, there are a select handful of those devices worthy of being called the best. There are even fewer that are really unique. And it’s those wonderful oddities that are being highlighted here. So let’s dive in and check out LG’s weird and wonderful world of smartphone design choices.

LG Wing

Starting off with the most recent device, and probably LG’s most unique phone ever, there’s the LG Wing. In its normal state it just looks like a regular smartphone with a big display.

But it’s actually a lot more than that. You can swivel one of the screens and turn it sideways. Revealing another screen underneath. Allowing you to hold it like you would a gimbal when you’re shooting video with a smartphone or smaller camera.

In fact, the LG Wing even has a gimbal mode. Surprised? Don’t be. Because it makes perfect sense as LG has always had pretty decent cameras in its phones. And a gimbal mode just lends itself so well to a design like this.

One of the other cool things about the LG Wing was its ability to have an app open on each screen at the same time. Use your phone as a navigation display in the car but also as your music player? No problem. Swivel the Wing’s display and bring up both.

Navigation stays on one screen and music controls are on the other. This way you never have to flip back and forth between the two. Instead, you can see navigation directions the entire time and control music playback.

While the LG Wing wasn’t one of LG’s best smartphones in terms of sales, it was definitely a unique device. And LG deserves to be commended for trying something wild like this.

LG G Flex & LG G Flex 2

The LG G Flex was another one of LG’s devices that to some, seemed like a crazy hairbrained scheme. But the G Flex was actually quite a popular device that earned it a follow-up with the G Flex 2.

Both phones, with their signature curved body, were made with a flexible glass display and a flexible frame. These were flexible to the point that you could flatten the device out by applying pressure to the back of it, and it would go back to normal the moment you stopped.

And the device would be just fine afterwards. This was even one of the demonstrations LG would give you had you seen the device at the conventions where it was on display. The G Flex and G Flex 2 also carried LG’s back button design. Which saw the power button and the volume buttons placed on the back of the device. Just under the phone’s rear camera array.

These weren’t the first LG devices to do this but they weren’t the last either. And just like the rear fingerprint sensors on phones like Google’s Pixel lineup, the back buttons on the G Flex and G Flex 2 were easy to press since your pointer finger can naturally rest where those buttons were located.

Though a little less unique than the Wing, the G Flex line was still a bit different in its own way. It was also pretty comfortable to hold thanks to that subtle contour. The G Flex and G Flex 2 were some of the best smartphones LG made. They were widely popular, and for good reason.

LG G5

A seemingly normal smartphone from LG. With the familiar candy bar style that most phones carry. The LG G5 was anything but ordinary though and it was one of the best unique LG smartphones because of it.

This was LG’s attempt at a modular smartphone during that time where it seemed to be a weird craze to create a device with these features. Google was working on Project Ara which was gaining a lot of attention, and Motorola would go on to create the Moto Z line which ended up having modular accessories of its own.

With the LG G5, the modularity came in the form of swappable bottom sections of the device. You could pop the bottom part of the phone off and replace it with another that was almost the same, but it had some added capabilities. Like a Hi-Fi Plus designed by Bang & Olfusen. Yes that Bang & Olfusen. The same company making those $500 headphones for the Xbox.

LG even had a name for these accessories. Friends. Yes, LG was marketing this setup as the LG G5 and Friends. A bit strange. A bit unique. And 100% LG. Other modular friends accessories included a camera grip with a shutter button and zoom dial.

This sort of modularity didn’t take off for LG but it was an interesting approach to smartphones. And one that would help LG stand out for trying something that most manufacturers were probably afraid to try. Sadly, this device probably hurt LG more than it helped. But it was still a cool idea that, if executed better, could have been something more.

LG V10

The LG V10 might seem like a normal phone and for the most part, it was. But it had one unique feature that helped it stick out more than the others. The secondary display.

Now this isn’t like the secondary display you’ll find on the LG Wing. Rather it was a second display panel that was atop the main display of the phone. As you can see in the image above. With this second display, you could easily access shortcuts for apps you used the most, and it wouldn’t take up any of the original screen real estate.

It was a bit of a strange idea for a feature that these days, certainly wouldn’t do well. Due to the way most phones are designed and with the emphasis on bigger screens with slim bezels. For the time though, it was a feature that set the V10 apart and was actually kind of cool.

Sure it looks a bit weird with the camera array off to the side like that. But LG’s heart was in the right place here in thinking outside the box with another unique feature that it could add to its phones to differentiate itself from the competition.

Again, this is a feature that wouldn’t be popular enough to become one of the brand’s mainstays. But that didn’t make it any less fun to have when it was around.

LG V60 ThinQ

The LG V60 ThinQ earns its weird badge by way of its secondary screen attachment. This wasn’t part of the phone normally, but rather a case of sorts that had a screen on the inside when opened.

You simply slot the phone into the right side of the case and you now essentially have a phone with two screens. This could allow it to look and feel sort of like a Nintendo 3DS. Just without the physical buttons. It also served as a really decent option for those that needed multitasking capabilities.

And although this might be LG’s least weird phone design out of the ones we’ve picked, it was a neat way to have a phone with two screens when you wanted it. And the capability to remove the phone from the case when you didn’t want two screens made it versatile.

For better or for worse, LG had come up with a way to tackle the dual screen phone market. LG may no longer release gems like the ones listed here, but the company has made its mark on the smartphone world in ways few others have.