LG started its V-series in September 2015 as a lineup of high-end phones competing with the créme de la créme of the mobile industry, beginning with the LG V10. And save for its last 2 releases, the LG V30S ThinQ and LG V35 ThinQ, all other phones in this series have always been released in the latter half of the year, mostly September.

LG made an exception for the aforementioned phones for a sound reason: LG V30S ThinQ and LG V35 ThinQ were not new models, rather upgrades to the V30. They were released in March 2018 and June 2018, respectively.

LG’s plans for this year seem like a real break from the norm, however. The fifth brand-new model in the V-series, the LG V50 ThinQ, is being released 6 months before anticipated (in Spring), along with LG G8 ThinQ. This was first reported by Korean blog ETNews.

Apparently, the LG V50 ThinQ will be the company’s first 5G-enabled offering. That said, the most obvious reason that comes to mind for the early release date is that the company wants to own the first 5G phone ever released, something that should resonate well with recent reports about an LG-made 5G phone showing up at the MWC 2019.

If that happens, not only will LG benefit from the positive press that will be directed its way for setting a new benchmark, but also scoop up all the customers too eager to get their hands on 5G. Since the competition amongst all 5G phones arriving in 2019 – given their exorbitant prices and similar price ranges – is going to cut close, this seems like a wise step to take.

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