I have been using the LG Wing for about 8 months now and I thought I’d share with you my thoughts & opinions concerning a few of the best apps available for Android smartphones. The smartphone app development world has grown remarkably in the past few years. It’s great to see so many different apps out there that you can customize your own little phone to suit your own needs. Below is a list of a few of my favorite apps that I feel would make your android enthusiast’s life a little bit better!
Table of Contents
Best Apps For Lg Wing
Smartphones have become boring. If you walk into a shop, you’ll see nothing but black glass slates along the wall. They all look pretty much the same. You begin to wonder if smartphone OEMs are even trying anymore.
Enter the LG Wing, the first phone in LG‘s new Explorer Project, which aims to experiment with new smartphone form factors and features. The swivel phone with two displays is unlike anything we’ve seen on a modern smartphone. It opens up brand new use cases, gives videographers a powerful new tool for their gear bag, and could be the form factor mobile gamers never knew they wanted.
Related: Everything you need to know about the LG Wing
Of course, it takes more than a nifty new trick and some plausible use cases for a phone to be a hit. The big question hanging over the Wing is whether or not it will make those potential abilities work well enough for buyers to fall in love with it.
In this LG Wing review, I’ll do my best to answer that question.
About this LG Wing review: I spent a week evaluating the LG Wing. The device shipped with Android 10, the September 2020 security patch, and LG’s UX 9.0 interface. It did not receive any updates during my evaluation. LG supplied the LG Wing review unit with a pre-loaded Verizon SIM card to Android Authority.
Update, November 2021: LG is no longer making and selling smartphones. Although it is still possible to buy an LG Wing from third-party sellers (and it will still receive updates on its original schedule), it is not an active device anymore. This review has been slightly altered to reflect this news.
LG Wing
Design: Unlike anything else
Gorilla Glass 5 front and rear
169.5 x 74.5 x 10.9mm
260g
In-display fingerprint sensor
Pop-up selfie camera
USB-C
microSD card slot
Bottom-firing loudspeaker
No 3.5mm port
Aurora Gray / Illusion Sky colorways
When you take the LG Wing out of the box, it looks the same as any other 2020 smartphone. Sure, it’s a little thicker and a lot heavier than most devices, but the usual design elements are all there: tall glass panel with curved sides, glossy glass back with a huge multi-lens camera bump, USB-C port, no headphone jack, etc.
Related: The best phones with a headphone jack
Even when you first power on the phone, it doesn’t seem out of the ordinary in any way. It’s only when you push the display out from the bottom right and expose the mini-display underneath that you realize what you have in your hands. With the display fully extended, you’ve exited “Basic Mode” and entered “Swivel Mode.”
What’s most remarkable about the LG Wing is how well its design works in both modes. If you can ignore the weight and thickness, using the phone in Basic Mode felt like using most other giant phones of the year, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. In fact, the rear camera module even looks a lot like that of the Note 20 Ultra.
LG Wing closed standing up 1
LG Wing back of phone
LG Wing power button and volume rockers
LG Wing bottom USB C port
When extended into Swivel Mode, the phone works as well as you could hope. Swiveling the display is incredibly smooth and satisfying. Whether opening or closing it, the display glides along with the chassis before making a satisfying pop sound as it locks into place. Once it’s opened up, gripping the phone from the bottom feels natural. The weight is evenly distributed. The bottom half of the phone is competently constructed, so you don’t feel like you could crush the whole thing in your grip.
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For the record, LG claims you can swivel the Wing 200,000 times before any significant problems occur. That’s enough to allow you to swivel back-and-forth 30 times a day for over nine years.
When in Swivel Mode, the back of the main display is exposed. LG added a dot matrix design here that looks pretty classy. It is a nice touch even if you won’t see it too often in regular use.
LG Wing back in hand 2
Due to the design of the swiveling display, a front-facing selfie camera wasn’t possible. That’s why the LG Wing has a pop-up selfie camera. As with other similar systems, it only pops out when you need it. When it does, a neat little animation occurs on the display, which is a subtle detail I appreciate.
On the side of the phone, you’ll find a volume rocker and a power button. All three buttons are the same exact size and feature a subtle curve. They are very clicky and feel well-constructed. However, a major design flaw is that, when in Swivel Mode, the main display covers up access to these buttons. It’s not impossible to get to them, but I found myself needing to turn the phone around so I could see them. Thankfully, software partially addresses this issue (which I’ll get to in a bit).
The design of the LG Wing is a slam dunk, which is quite notable considering it’s a first stab at a new product.
Obviously, a swiveling smartphone display is going to have other disadvantages. There’s no IP68 rating here, but LG still was able to gain IP54 certification. That’s not going to allow you to go for a swim with the LG Wing, but it won’t fail on you in the rain, either.
You’ll also notice that there’s no headphone jack, a big omission for LG. Due to the limitations of the design, the headphone jack became a lower priority for this phone.
Regardless of what the rest of the phone can or can’t do, the LG Wing’s design is a marvel of engineering. For a first-run of new smartphone design, it’s pretty remarkable that the phone works as well as it does.
Displays: Not the best, not the worst
LG Wing spotify and maps 2
Spotify top, maps bottom
Main:
6.8-inch OLED in a 20.5:9 ratio
2,460 x 1,080, 395ppi
60Hz
Secondary:
3.9-inch OLED in a 1.15:1 ratio
1,240 x 1,080, 419ppi
60Hz
Chances are good that if you’re at all interested in the LG Wing, the dual-display design is the main appeal, not the raw specs of the displays themselves.
Nevertheless, both displays on the Wing are stuck at 1080p, which is unfortunate. They both also only offer 60Hz refresh rates. With most major releases offering at least a 90Hz panel or even up to 144Hz in some cases, a 60Hz display on a phone this expensive is definitely a mistake. LG could have gone for at least a 90Hz refresh rate on the main panel and left the smaller one at 60Hz, but oh well.
Related: What does 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz mean?
However, both displays are OLED with high pixel densities. Both panels get plenty bright with vibrant colors and deep blacks. You also have the usual controls over display quality that LG UX provides, with multiple display mode choices and the ability to fine-tune things like color temperature, saturation, and more.
The bottom line is that these aren’t bad panels by any stretch of the imagination — they just aren’t the best.
LG Wing screens open YouTube interface 2
The main panel has curved sides, which gives the illusion that there are small bezels there. The forehead and chin, though, are both really thick and LG didn’t try to hide them. I’m sure the size of the top and bottom bezels are related to limitations with the swiveling display mechanism. However, it’s difficult not to wonder why the bezels couldn’t be smaller since there’s no speaker or selfie camera. There’s also no display cutout or notch.
The biggest complaint I have related to the display is the in-display fingerprint sensor. Compared to other phones with in-display sensors I’ve tested, the Wing is far slower and often required me to try a few times to get it to unlock.
lg wing system apps
The LG Wing runs on Android 10, with the custom LG UX skin on top, much like its siblings, like the LG V60 and Velvet. LG UX is quite clean, as far as Android skins go, and has a certain polish level one would expect from a big brand manufacturer. The Wing, in particular, features a few notable exceptions to that general statement, though, but we’ll get to that. In any case, we won’t be giving an in-depth tour of the core parts of LG UX here, since that’s not the interesting bit here. If you want more info on that front, hit-up our LG Velvet review.
LG Wing 5G review
Setting up the LG Wing for the first time is quite the involved experience. LG opted for an admittedly new incredibly guided approach and one of the lengthiest setups we have encountered.
Lengthy initial setup – LG Wing 5G review Lengthy initial setup – LG Wing 5G review Lengthy initial setup – LG Wing 5G review Lengthy initial setup – LG Wing 5G review
Lengthy initial setup – LG Wing 5G review Lengthy initial setup – LG Wing 5G review Lengthy initial setup – LG Wing 5G review Lengthy initial setup – LG Wing 5G review
Lengthy initial setup
We admit that getting some immediate info on the unique Swivel mode and the second screen was pretty convenient, though.
Second screen and Swivel mode guide – LG Wing 5G review Second screen and Swivel mode guide – LG Wing 5G review
Second screen and Swivel mode guide – LG Wing 5G review Second screen and Swivel mode guide – LG Wing 5G review
Second screen and Swivel mode guide
Most people will naturally opt for the under-display fingerprint unit as their primary unlock method on the Wing. Once the phone is in its open state, however, that reader ends up in an awkward place, to the right of the swiveled part. A pin or pattern is kind of a must on the Swing in these cases.
Unlock options – LG Wing 5G review Fingerprint unlock – LG Wing 5G review Fingerprint unlock – LG Wing 5G review Fingerprint unlock – LG Wing 5G review
Unlock options • Fingerprint unlock
Despite maintaining an impressively clean look on the surface, LG UX actually offers a fair bit of depth, especially when it comes to customization. Starting from the lock screen, you can swap clock styles, get a stylish weather animation going, and freely swap the two quick app shortcuts to anything you desire.
Lock screen – LG Wing 5G review Lock screen customization – LG Wing 5G review Lock screen customization – LG Wing 5G review Lock screen customization – LG Wing 5G review
Lock screen • Lock screen customization
Same goes for the Home screen. You can fine-tune things like swipe effects, icon shapes, swipe up and down gestures, and enable or disable the right-most Google feed.
Home screen options – LG Wing 5G review Home screen options – LG Wing 5G review Home screen options – LG Wing 5G review Home screen options – LG Wing 5G review Home screen options – LG Wing 5G review Home screen options – LG Wing 5G review
Home screen options
The Wing home screen experience can actually be set up in one of three distinct ways. The default mode skips a traditional app drawer, dumping everything on home screen panes, instead. If that is not to your liking, you can get the app drawer back and even choose whether to have a dedicated button for it or not. Lastly, there is EasyHome, which leaves just a few essentials on the home screen and locks many of the interactions and brings the system UI and font size up all at once. It is great for youngsters of less tech-savvy elders.
Home screen and app drawer variants – LG Wing 5G review Home screen and app drawer variants – LG Wing 5G review Home screen and app drawer variants – LG Wing 5G review
Home screen and app drawer variants
System navigation is equally customizable. Gesture controls are the default setting, but you can easily get the old-school trio of on-screen buttons back. Even better – you can choose on which side the back button should go, so you can go retro-Android with ease.
Navigation options – LG Wing 5G review Navigation options – LG Wing 5G review Navigation options – LG Wing 5G review
Navigation options
While we love this extra flexibility of LG UX, this level of freedom can often leave you with a somewhat odd mixture of slick, new and retro, traditional UI elements. Not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but worth pointing out. For example, the app drawer, folders, and recent apps switcher look rather traditional.
App drawer – LG Wing 5G review recent apps – LG Wing 5G review
App drawer • recent apps
In contrast, the notification shade and especially quick toggles area are very “trendy” with their transparent, “frosted” look.
Notification shade and quick toggles – LG Wing 5G review Notification shade and quick toggles – LG Wing 5G review Notification shade and quick toggles – LG Wing 5G review Notification shade and quick toggles – LG Wing 5G review
Notification shade and quick toggles
The volume control UI also looks modern and mostly follows in the same style. We particularly appreciate the availability of Google’s fairly new automatic captions feature.
Volume controls – LG Wing 5G review Volume controls – LG Wing 5G review Volume controls – LG Wing 5G review
Volume controls
Then, abruptly switching gears once more, we find the always-on interface, which, while extraordinarily in-depth and customizable, has a few graphical options that can even go beyond merely looking retro, straight into tacky territory. Like having a colorful, drawn GIF animation there on loop.
Always-on display options – LG Wing 5G review Always-on display options – LG Wing 5G review Always-on display options – LG Wing 5G review Always-on display options – LG Wing 5G review
Always-on display options
Again, this is not just us needlessly criticizing the looks of the Wing’s UI. That’s a subjective thing. This overarching theme of mixing styles is just a bit hard to ignore once you get to LG’s exclusive interfaces for the Swivel display.
Swivel mode, Swivel Home and the second display experience
Now we’re getting into the exciting bits. When you open the LG Wing up, the main display switches over to a special interface LG calls Swivel Home. It is a rather simple carousel that, in our opinion, both looks and feels very retro.
LG Wing 5G review
The animations are slow, and you need a few swipes to actually get from app to app. An experience quite reminiscent of a bygone era when both the developers and UI designers did this on purpose to show off the fancy, “futuristic” 3D visualization their product is capable of. We’ll stop ripping on Swivel Home and leave it at that, though.
Swivel Home – LG Wing 5G review
Swivel Home
In keeping with the separation paradigm between the primary and the secondary display on the Swing, you get a separate set of options for Swivel Home. Since it is nothing more than a fancy Home screen, you can still control the basics, like having an app drawer button or not, the swiping transition effect, and what the swipe up and swipe down gestures trigger. You can still bring-up the familiar notification and quick toggles shade.
Swivel Home settings – LG Wing 5G review Swivel Home settings – LG Wing 5G review Swivel Home settings – LG Wing 5G review
Swivel Home settings
Multi App Shortcuts is a powerful and quite self-explanatory feature. It allows you to create a shortcut for two apps – one will open on the main display, while the other on the secondary one. The interface itself allows you to swap positions around and is both potent and straight-forward.
Multi App Shortcuts – LG Wing 5G review Multi App Shortcuts – LG Wing 5G review Multi App Shortcuts – LG Wing 5G review
Multi App Shortcuts
Overall, it is clear that LG has put in a lot of effort in simplifying the operation of the two displays here. And, for the most part, has succeeded in the endeavor. You might have noticed that the Multi App Shortcut setup UI has some of the apps grayed-out, particularly for opening on the secondary display. This is by design. All apps, except those pre-approved by LG and known to work, are hidden from the secondary screen’s UI.
Second display UI – LG Wing 5G review Second display UI – LG Wing 5G review Second display UI – LG Wing 5G review
Second display UI
To get any other apps to open on the small display, you have to specifically enable them in a whitelist. For most apps, this results in a prompt warning you that things might not scale properly. In our experience, that is rarely the case for apps. Game engines, with their particular touch input and scaling schemes, are definitely more problematic on average. Then again, we don’t see the secondary display getting a lot of dedicated gaming action.
Second screen apps whitelist – LG Wing 5G review Second screen apps whitelist – LG Wing 5G review Second screen apps whitelist – LG Wing 5G review
Second screen apps whitelist
Frankly, most users are likely to have on the secondary display most often is the keyboard. Typing on the small panel requires a bit of a learning curve, but it does become easier and can eventually be a pleasant experience. Not to mention a lot less-obtrusive, since you can continue to enjoy whatever is on the main display entirely uninterrupted.
LG Wing 5G review
There are some essential specifics to note on how the LG Wing actually handles focus and its secondary display. The default behavior mostly has the two displays entirely separate, as their own “isolated” spaces. That allows certain things like opening two different apps on the two displays and using them concurrently. That, however, doesn’t necessarily mean that both will be fully active at the same time. Due to the way Android works, you can expect something like a video stream to continue playing on one display, as you are interacting with the other one. However, an app simply left open on one display while interacting with the other might not get its UI updated until you switch focus to it. This is important to know, for things like messengers. Although those will still have their background notifications to potentially inform you when new content is available.
This focus-based logic also becomes apparent when you start capturing screenshots on the Wing. The last display that you interacted with will generally be the one that gets captured in the screengrab. This is also why you can’t have the same app open on both displays simultaneously. Well, at least you can’t do that with most third-party apps. That’s because most apps are programmed to only have one active instance at a time.
LG Wing 5G review
There are notable exceptions to this behavior, though. And not just in proper dual-display apps and games, which we will talk about in a bit. The default LG keyboard, for instance, operates in such a manner that it leaves app focus on the main display, even though you may be typing on the secondary one.
This initially got us very excited about the possibility of using something like a third-party keyboard that mimics controller input on the second display, to control a game on the main one. LG notably lacks any such baked-in feature of its own. A real shame since pulling-off proper on-screen control mapping on the second screen could be a “killer app” for certain gaming use cases.
LG Wing 5G review
Long story short, whatever LG is doing with its default keyboard is sadly not a transferable behavior to third-party keyboards – normal or mimicking joystick input. Installing a different keyboard like Gboard entirely breaks this seamless experience of having uninterrupted content on the big display and a keyboard on the second one. The keyboard just crams itself in horizontal orientation onto the main display, just like it would on any normal phone.
LG Wing 5G review
LG has clearly thought of at least a few other interesting usage scenarios for the second display and included things like a virtual trackpad that spawns a mouse pointer on the main display and a temporary input lock for the secondary screen, called Grip lock.
Second screen quick toggles – LG Wing 5G review Grip lock – LG Wing 5G review
Second screen quick toggles • Grip lock
Proper second-screen experiences on the LG Wing
Proper terminology is still kind of scarce when discussing fancy new form factors and additional displays on smartphones. Yet, we need to make a clear distinction between simply having two separate apps or an app and its keyboard input on two different screens, as opposed to an app or game making use of two displays. That doesn’t mean simply spanning its UI over said displays either, but rather actually taking into account the existence of a second display and using it in a specific and sensible manner.
LG Wing 5G review
The best analogy we can think of is to second-screen gaming, which is a thing, even if it never got amazingly popular. Notable examples include the Nintendo DS line of handheld consoles and later some games on the Nintendo Wii U. So, for the time being, we’re dubbing these second-screen experiences.
The LG Wing has access to a limited set of these. Starting with its default apps, the Camera is probably the most prominent example, as featured in all of the promo materials. This is actually the only way to use the Wing’s fancy and feature-rich gimbal video mode, as well as its dual-recording mode. We will discuss both in the camera section, but both simply have their controls placed on the second display, which the user is expected to grip, while the main display handles viewfinder functionality.
Conclusion
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