LG Velvet is the bold new name of the company's next 5G smartphone
Who’s ready to see the iPhone 17 duke it out with the Galaxy S80 and Huawei P90 Pro for supremacy in the high-end smartphone space of 2025? There’s no denying the branding of today’s premium handsets is a little… all over the place, but while the aforementioned names may well become a commercial reality in just a few years, one device that’s unlikely to ever see daylight is the LG G12X ThinQ.
At long last, the financially struggling company has realized the error of its ways, dropping the increasingly convoluted and confusing “alphanumerical designations” of most of its phones released in the last few years “in favor of familiar and expressive names” aiming to help the consumer “capture the essence of the device best suited for his or her personality and ever changing trends.”
The LG Velvet will start this exciting new trend sometime soon, launching in lieu of what we’ve been referring to as the G9 ThinQ by force of habit. While the company’s press release confirming that specific moniker and the general change of branding strategy contains no details on the availability of the “upcoming” handset, The Korea Times claims LG has indeed verified a rumor of a May commercial rollout.
It’s not entirely clear if the LG Velvet will be released around the world in the near future, however, as Korean media previously speculated this thing would primarily target a domestic audience. Interestingly, LG appears to be suggesting its plans to “move away from alphanumerical designations” are not exclusive to the G series, so the V60 ThinQ 5G might also end up as the last of its name.
Speaking of 5G connectivity, the Velvet is widely expected to support that courtesy of an upper mid-range Snapdragon 765G processor, which obviously means this is unlikely to go up against Samsung’s Galaxy S20 lineup or the Huawei P40 Pro family.
At the same time, we’re expecting a reasonable price point of around $700 and a premium and somewhat unconventional design confirmed to include a “Raindrop” rear-facing camera with three imaging sensors and an LED flash arranged vertically in descending order by size and a “symmetrical, flowing form factor” described as “both pleasing to the eye and pleasing to touch.”
In case you’re wondering, the name “velvet” was apparently chosen to “evoke images of lustrous smoothness and premium softness.” We know, that largely sounds like (poetic) marketing mumbo jumbo, but we’ll admit we’re very curious to see how this rebranding strategy works out.