It’s stylus week in smartphone world, and although the Galaxy Note 9 is still to come, LG has started us off by announcing the LG Q8, a 2018 refresh of the entirely different Q8 from last year. It’s not a Note 9 challenger, and has a midrange specification sheet — but it may serve those who want a pen to scribble with but cannot justify the massive prices a Samsung Note phone usually commands.
What makes it most notable (sorry) is it provides some more feature and specification information into the recently announced LG Q Stylus range, which will be sold in the U.S. soon. LG wasn’t very forthcoming with the specs or price for the Q Stylus at the time, and the Q8 appears to resemble the Q Stylus Plus. Why has LG announced the phone under a different name? The Q8 is destined for South Korea at the moment.
The stylus hides inside the Q8’s body until its needed, at which time it can be used with the memo feature, for drawing, and to create your own emoji. The memo feature works even when the screen is switched off, making it easy to quickly take notes, and LG has built little sound effects into the pen so it sounds like your writing instrument of choice when it touches the screen.
Specification
This isn’t a small phone. The screen measures 6.2 inches with an 18:9 aspect ratio, and a 2160 x 1080 pixel resolution. There is no notch along the top of the display, and screen bezels similar to the old LG G6. On the back of the phone is a single-lens 16-megapixel camera above a flash unit and a fingerprint sensor. A wide-angle selfie camera is on the front. Despite the sleek appearance, the LG Q8 reaches the MIL-STD 810G standard for toughness, including an IP68 level of water resistance. It weighs 172 grams and is 8.4mm thick, with a 3,300mAh battery inside.
A Snapdragon 450 processor and 4GB of RAM power the phone, and there is both 64GB of internal storage space, and a MicroSD card slot too. The 2017 Q8 resembled the LG V20 and had a far higher specification, but the new version has taken on a style of its own, and become a very different device despite using the same name. The Q8 didn’t have a stylus either.
LG has not given the Q8 a release date yet, but the price converts over to around $480. It will be sold in both Moroccan blue and aurora black color schemes. While the Q Stylus range is the model for buyers in the U.S., the Q8 may also be adapted for use elsewhere in the world. Just don’t get confused over the names for what is essentially the same phone it has announced once this year.
