LG touts Velvet smartphone back cover design

A senior LG Electronics executive talked up the design of the company’s latest flagship smartphone, LG Velvet, claiming the handset offered something different than the “uniform design” currently offered by rivals.

Kim Young Ho, an executive at LG’s design lab for its mobile business, especially highlighted the phone’s triple camera which has a “raindrop design,” speaking at an online tech seminar hosted by the company.

“We wanted the main camera to feel like a DSLR [camera], while giving the secondary camera a certain mysticism,” Kim said.

“We surveyed a thousand people in both South Korea and US, respectively; they told use that design was the most important in their selection of a smartphone,” he said. “So accordingly, we reflected this in Velvet; in thickness, ratio, feel of the grip, among other things, all with design as the focus,”

“We wanted Velvet to become a fashion item rather than a gadget,” he added. Kim also stressed that two cameras out of the three on the smartphone’s rear were under the cover glass to prevent protrusions. This arrangement didn’t affect the capability of the camera, he added.

Also speaking at the seminar, Doh Ki Hoon, a researcher at LG’s production technology lab, said the company applied what it called “nano-stacking and optical patterning” on the back cover of Velvet. This allows the color of the cover look different depending on the viewing angle and the amount of light reflected on its surface, he said.

“We stack hundreds of nanometer-thin films made with different materials and refractive indexes,” he said. “These different materials reflect light in varied ways that produce the colorfulness of the cover.”

Optical patterning divides the patterns by a width shorter than a micrometer which gives the cover dimension, he added.

Yoo Seung Hoon, a researcher also at the seminar, answering questions on why quad DAC audio chip and OIS features were absent from the new smartphone, said LG made the decision to omit them to focus more on design and overall balance of the product.

LG Velvet began sales in South Korea on Friday. The smartphone comes with 5G connectivity, a 6.8-inch OLED display and is priced at 899,800 won. LG is also offering a half-price program for those who sign up to buy another flagship LG smartphone after two years of use.