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LG has started rolling out the latest Android operating system—version 7.0 Nougat—to users of its 7-month-old LG G5 smartphones as the company works to bring new features and capabilities to the handsets.
LG is rolling out the Nougat operating system upgrades first to G5 owners in the company’s native South Korea before rolling them out to other countries, including the United States, in the future, LG said in a Nov. 8 announcement. The Nougat OS will replace Android 6.0 Marshmallow on the phones.
LG’s modular G5 smartphones debuted in February at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, and went on sale April 1 in the United States, according to an earlier eWEEK report.
The Nougat updates are expected to expand to G5 customers in the Americas, Asia and other markets in the weeks to come, according to LG. Most G5 users will receive notifications on their phones when the update is available.
Android Nougat incorporates a wide array of operating system improvements such as split-window multitasking, streamlined notifications and improved battery life. Searches can now be conducted inside user-installed apps as well as built-in apps using Nougat’s In Apps feature, while additional personalized settings and smarter notifications allow users to be more productive with less effort, according to LG.
“At LG, we know our customers want the best, most up-to-date mobile experience,” Kim Hyung-jung, senior vice president and head of LG Mobile’s research and development, said in a statement. “Getting software updates to our users faster than the competition is our way of demonstrating that LG is committed to supporting our products and customers to ensure they have a positive ownership experience.”
The LG G5 premium smartphone features an all-metal body, a 5.3-inch quad HD IPS display, a modular design, and line of attachments and accessories that bring virtual reality capabilities and more to users. The all-metal design of the LG G5 comes from input from customers who told the company that they wanted to see a device covered with metal rather than the leather-covered back of the previous LG G4 smartphone, according to an earlier eWEEK story.
The G5 features a Qualcomm 820 octa-core processor, 4GB of memory, 32GB of on-board storage and a microSD slot for expanded storage up to 200GB. The G5 continues the G4’s tradition of having a removable and replaceable battery. The G5 also has one SIM card slot, dual rear cameras—a 16-megapixel camera with a 78-degree field of view and an 8MP wide-angle camera with a 135-degree field of view—and an 8MP front-facing camera.
The phone’s attachable modular accessories include an LG 360 camera module that features two 180-degree cameras that can create 360-degree images, an audio Hi-Fi Plus attachment for improved sound capabilities for music and video audio, and an LG Cam Plus grip, which includes shutter and video camera buttons, a jog dial for video zoom and an embedded battery with another 1,100mAh of power for extended use.
In October, LG launched the V20 smartphone as its first handset that comes preloaded with Android 7.0 Nougat.
The V20 phone, which is priced at $829.99 from AT&T, is a 4G LTE handset that features a 5.7-inch quad HD IPS main touch-screen display (1,440-by-2,560 resolution) and a 2.05-inch always-on secondary display (160-by-1,040 resolution) for easily checking texts and other activities with a quick glance. Both displays are covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 for durability.
The LG V20 includes a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of memory, 64GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot for additional storage. The handset also includes a primary 16-MP rear-facing main camera, a 5-MP front-facing camera and a 3,200mAh removable battery. The phone is built to be durable, meeting military MIL-STD-810G standards for drops on concrete and other hard surfaces.