LG announces four mid-range smartphones ahead of MWC 2015

It has become tradition for companies to launch products in advance of major shows to try to get ahead of the inevitable background noise, but this year’s MWC seems to be setting new standards as products are launched weeks early.

Ericsson jumped the gun with a seven product mega launch last week and now it’s LG’s turn to serve up not one but four smartphones a clear week before the start of the Barcelona mobile extravaganza.

For the time being the Korean giant seems to have abandoned the letter based naming convention (G3, L90, etc) in favour of words that can be infused with lovely marketing hyperbole. So now we have the Magna, Spirit, Leon and Joy smartphones.

As you can see from the specs below this is a Samsung-like attempt to cover every conceivable niche within the mid price-tier. The smartphones range in screen size from 4 to 5-inches, but otherwise seem to have pretty similar specs. This, to some extent, explains the reason for a slightly more exotic naming convention.

“LG’s new mid-range collection continues our legacy of offering amazing smartphones at reasonable prices,” said Juno Cho, CEO of LG Mobile Communications. “For millions of consumers around the world, the deciding factor on which smartphone to buy isn’t how fast or how big it is but how balanced it is. With our new mid-range smartphones, more and more customers will be looking to LG for their next handsets.”

What Cho means by “balanced” is unclear, but among the headline marketing bullet-points are a curved back and some UX tweaks. Differentiating between the devices seems to be a challenge LG’s marketing department was happy to take on. “The LG Magna was designed with high quality selfies in mind,” claims the press release, while the LG Spirit “embodies the spirit of LG’s innovations.”

Leon means lion in latin, we are told and the LG Leon “offers a 4.5-inch display in a compact, premium-looking body.” And we conclude with “The smallest of the group, LG Joy, has a 4-inch display and delivers pure enjoyment in a smartphone that fits in any pocket.”

LG hasn’t specified which markets will get these, but it’s unlikely all four will coexist on the same shelf. With this launch LG is refreshing its mid range, which it will hope to be selling in significant volume in mainly developing markets.

LG Magna Specifications:

LG Spirit Specifications:

LG Leon Specifications:

LG Joy Specifications:

* Depending on market.