LG G4 Release Date, Specs, and Rumors; LG G3 Android L 5.0 Update Available for AT&T, T-Mobile

Jan 13, 2015 01:41 PM EST

LG's upcoming G4 has been confirmed to be in the works, and although the name may change before launch, the South Korean tech company reconizes the fact that it can't depend on LG G3 customers to automatically fall in love with it.

According to an interview with TrustedReviews at this year's CES conference, LG's Director of Corporate Communications Ken Hong assures current customers that the company is moving forward quickly. "I think we will [experiment with our high-end phones]. I think we have to," he said. "If you look at the specs only, there are other competitors with similar-spec phones. How do you stand out in that pile if you're not doing something different?"

He continued to explain more about the name, and how it may, or may not, still be called the G4 to stay in line with previous model names. "I don't think we are going to be able to sit back and expect people are just going to fawn over the G4, or whatever the name will be, just because they liked the G3," he explained. "I don't think it works that way any more. I don't think people are as loyal on the Android side as they are on the iOS side, so you really have to win every customer with your products."

The LG G3 has already been a big hit for LG as its 2014 flagship device, but CES also brought with it the announcement of the flexible LG G Flex 2 that has been proving a popular concept for LG fans. But according to recent reviews, the LG G Flex 2 will be more like the LG 3 than the original LG G Flex phone, which is a good thing.

"The original G Flex was more to show off LG's progress in the curved display market, and the device wasn't quite a top-tier phone aimed at all carriers," GottaBeMobile writes. "The screen was large at 5.7-inches but only 720p resolution, and it wasn't quite the premium device many were hoping for. This year though, the new G Flex 2 is very similar to the LG G3, only curved, and improved across the board in an attempt to take on the Galaxy S6 and anything else that arrives in 2015."

No further details have been given on the LG G3's successor, but tech site Phandroid says they expect the G4 to launch in the first half of 2015 and feature a stylus called the G Pen, similar to what Samsung is doing with the S-Pen on the Galaxy Note devices.

The G4 is expected to have between a 5.5-inch and a 5.9-inch HD display with 4K resolution. It's also speculated to have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 or even the 810 processor, 3 GB of RAM standard with 4 GB available on the high-end model that will also feature an upgraded 64 GB of storage. A 3,500 mAH battery is rumored to power everything, and it should come standard with the latest version of Android 5.0 Lollipop, which by the time it launches should be 5.1 or higher.

As for the LG G3's Android Lollipop status, Android Police is reporting that the ROM manual download is now available through CyanogenMod. This means that you can download the software manually, according to specific instructions, but you do stand the risk of bricking your phone if done improperly.

Right now, the current versions of the LG G3 that have supported builds for Android 5.0 Lollipop are the D855 unlocked international version, the D851 T-Mobile version, and the D850 AT&T version.