LG Will Update Its Puricare Air Purifier Mask With Mics And Speakers

LG has announced that it will be updating its Puricare Wearable Air Purifier mask with slight improvements and new features. Most interestingly is the new addition of microphones and speakers, which makes it easier to have conversations while wearing the mask.

LG calls this new feature VoiceON technology, which is claimed to automatically recognise when the wearer is talking via the built-in microphones and will then amplify their voice through the speakers. There’s no demo of this technology in action at this time but hopefully it would provide a better experience than the original, which has been reported to significantly muffle the user’s speech.

Other than that, the updated air Puricare Wearable Air Purifier mask will sport a smaller, lighter and more efficient motors for its dual fans. Battery life also gets a bump with a larger 1000mAh battery (up from 850mAh) which charges within 2 hours. And it’s not just the motors that got lighter, as the whole mask itself now weighs only 94g (the original was 126g).

It’s also worth noting that LG’s VoiceON feature is quite similar to Razer’s VoiceAmp technology, which will be present in Razer’s Project Hazel mask that is due to be released later this year. Unlike Razer’s, the South Korean giant’s mask does not feature interior lighting to light up the wearer’s mouth, but it does have a cleaner aesthetic for the minimalists.

While LG has yet to reveal the price, it noted that the mask will first launch in Thailand next month, “with other markets to follow once approved by local regulators.” Unfortunately, the mask is not officially sold in Malaysia, but it is made available in Singapore for SGD $229 (~RM710).

LG Called Out By Tech Channel For Attempting To Manipulate “Editorial Direction”

It is no secret that big names and major corporations that manufacture popular products, often try and get reviewers to publish reviews of said products in a favourable light, usually with the promise of monetary compensation. For LG, the Korean electronics giant found itself between a rock and a hard place when its attempt to bribe tech channel, HardwareUnboxed, went horribly wrong.

The whole showdown was made public when Tim Schiesser, one of HardwareUnboxed’s reviewers, posted a video about his engagement with LG recently. To summarise the video, Schiesser’s bane started when LG began dodging his questions about one of its gaming monitors. Shortly after, the brand then issued a “reviewer’s guideline”.

To be clear, brands issuing reviewer’s guidelines is nothing out of the ordinary. In this case, handing out such a document seemed a bit odd, given that the gaming monitor in question had been in Schiesser’s lab for some time now. The punchline of this conversation, however, was that LG blatantly tried its luck in attempting to get Schiesser to provide it with a “draft” of his review, and that he would be given compensation for his cooperation. Unsurprisingly, Schiesser said no.

This isn’t the first time HardwareUnboxed has taken to expressing its discontent against major brand names. Some of you may remember how the tech channel was initially struck by NVIDIA’s banhammer last year, due to issues pertaining to, yet again, the channel’s editorial direction. It wasn’t until two other major tech channels, LinusTechTips and JayzTwoCents, decided to step into the ring that NVIDIA decided to backpedal on its decision.

The good news is that, shortly after the video went live, Ken Hong, Head of Global Corporate Communications, LG Electronics, contacted Schiesser, hopefully to apologise for the kerfuffle and to inform him that the company will be implementing “significant changes” to how its monitor reviews will be handled in the future.

Indonesia And LG To Build US$1.2 Billion Electric Vehicle Battery Factory

Indonesia announced that government-owned Indonesia Battery Corporation (IBC) and South Korean electronics giant LG will be building a new electric vehicle (EV) battery factory worth US$1.2 billion (~RM5 billion) with the capacity of 10 gigawatt hours (GWh).

According to a Reuters report, the factory is part of a larger US$9.8 billion (~RM40.6 billion) EV deal signed between LG and Indonesia last year. It’s set to be constructed in the city of Bekasi, which lies on the eastern border of Jakarta.

Indonesian Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia made the announcement, but didn’t specify a time frame except that the plant would be built “in the near future”.

“The first phase of construction will have the production capacity of 10 GWh, which will later be used for EVs from Hyundai,” he said.

Earlier, Reuters reported that LG Energy Solution, the firm’s battery production division established last year, is keen to make advanced battery cells for Tesla in 2023. To that end, the former is reportedly considering setting up production sites in the US and Europe.

No doubt, all this signals a broader shift towards EVs. Indonesian officials have indicated that the country wants to produce 140 GWh worth of batteries by 2030.

LG Officially Shuts Down Its Mobile Business

LG has announced that it is winding down its mobile business. Rumours regarding the closure have been floating around since earlier this year but it is only today that the company revealed that the move has now been approved by LG’s board of directors earlier today.

Inside the announcement, LG also stated that its existing phone will continue to be available for purchase. Similarly, customers will also be able to obtain aftersales support and software update for a certain period of time that LG said will differ from one market to another.

Despite its exit from the mobile phone market, LG insists that it will be utilising everything that it has learned and developed during its two decades in the mobile industry for other business segments. The company will also continue to be involved in the development of future mobile technologies such as 6G.

While LG expects that the closure is to be finalised by the end of July this year, the fate of the employees within the LG’s mobile phone division was not revealed in detail inside the announcement. There was a rumour earlier this year claiming that LG was going to sell off its mobile phone manufacturing facilities in Vietnam, China, and Brazil to Vietnam’s Vingroup but this was not addressed in today’s announcement.

Nevertheless, the company did say that it will be “determined at the local level,”. On another hand, we don’t expect today’s announcement from LG will have impact on Malaysian consumers though, due to the fact that LG has stopped selling its phones in our market since a few years ago with 2017’s LG V30+ being the last model sold here.

LG considers exiting smartphones in 2021

LG is considering exiting the smartphone market in 2021. After losing around $4.5 billion over the past five years, LG’s smartphone business has been struggling to compete with rivals. Now LG CEO Kwon Bong-seok has notified employees that the company is considering making big changes to its smartphone business.

The Korea Herald reports that Kwon Bong-seok sent out an internal memo to staff on Wednesday, hinting at a change in direction for LG’s phone business. “Since the competition in the global market for mobile devices is getting fiercer, it is about time for LG to make a cold judgment and the best choice,” says an LG official in a statement to The Korea Herald. “The company is considering all possible measures, including sale, withdrawal and downsizing of the smartphone business.”

LG confirmed the internal memo was genuine in a statement to The Verge, noting that nothing has been decided yet. “LG Electronics management is committed to making whatever decision is necessary to resolve its mobile business challenges in 2021,” says an LG spokesperson. “As of today, nothing has been finalized.”

This new internal memo follows a now-deleted report from Korean outlet TheElec earlier this month that claimed LG was planning to exit the smartphone business. LG branded that report “completely false and without merit,” in a statement to Android Police just a week ago.

LG has previously promised “wow factors” to try and attract consumers and make its flagging mobile division profitable. LG has tried multiple times with the G7, the V40, the G8, and the V50 to compete with Samsung and Huawei, but it’s not been enough to push its market share in the right direction. LG’s latest Velvet and Wing smartphones have attempted to try something new, but neither were well received.

Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo, and Apple all continue to dominate worldwide smartphone shipments, according to IDC. LG is now turning its focus to its Rollable phone, in an effort to differentiate it from the competition. LG teased the Rollable device again at the Consumer Electronics Show last week, with a “unique resizable screen” that extends from a phone to become a small tablet display.

LG has promised its Rollable device is real and will launch in 2021, but with the company reconsidering its mobile plans it could be one of the last LG phones we’ll see.

LG Has A Bendable OLED Monitor To Showcase During CES 2021

While other tech companies are working on foldable phones, LG seems to have its focus on the bigger screens. Last year the company launched its Signature OLED R rollable TV. And it looks like it also has a “bendable” OLED gaming monitor to showcase in the upcoming CES 2021.

Engadget reports that the LG monitor in question is a 48-inch 4K “Bendable CSO (Cinematic Sound OLED) display”. It’s basically a screen that can transform between your usual flat panel display to a curved one. The curve itself can go up to 1000mm radius, and this is done with the press of a button. And it can support refresh rates of between 40Hz and 120Hz.

So what about that Cinematic Sound bit of the LG bendable monitor mentioned earlier? According to the report, this is a 0.6mm film exciter underneath the display. And this turns the whole OLED panel into a speaker. This sounds quite similar to the tech found in the Sony Bravia A1 TVs from back in 2017.

Technically speaking, it sounds pretty impressive. But on the flip side, it sounds like it will cost a pretty penny once it becomes available in the market. And LG is likely to announce those details a while after CES 2021 itself.

LG Will Announce 86-Inch QNED MINI LED TV During CES 2021

LG has announced that it will be revealing its first-ever QNED mini LED TV lineup during the virtual session of CES 2021, along with its other premium LCD TV lineups for next year. Chief among its new lineup is an 86-inch model that supports resolutions of up to 8K.

For those among you wondering what QNED stands for, according to LG’s official press release, the “N” in the acronym refers to its NanoCell technology. To that end, it’s not wrong to say that its QNED lineup will be one of the world’s first TVs to merge both its NanoCell and Samsung’s Quantum Dot technology into one single panel.

Combined with LG’s Mini LED backlighting technology, the 86-inch QNED panel will support resolutions of up to 8K, house up to 30000 tiny LEDs with a contrast ratio of 1000000:1, paired with up to 25000 dimming zones and a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz, the latter presumably restricted to just 4K resolution at most. Oh, and they also support HDR.

Some of you already know that this isn’t LG’s first time dabbling in the realm of 8K. Earlier this year, the company introduced its NanoCell 8K TV during CES 2020, before officially bringing the TV into Malaysia in August.