Future of LG G4 and stylus less clear after latest leak

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Future of LG G4 and stylus less clear after latest leak

As we look down the road in 2015 for a successor to LG’s LG G3 smartphone, one of the rumors that surfaced was that LG may equip their flagship device with a stylus to be able to compete a little more directly against the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. That rumor was fueled by information about a trademark filing for the “G Pen” name. A new trademark filing for “G4 Stylus” could be a sign that LG is actually planning to equip a mid-range device with a stylus instead of their flagship device.

LG did not get much press here in the U.S. for their stylus equipped smartphone as it launched in foreign markets. Nevertheless, the company is present in the stylus-equipped smartphone space with the LG G3 Stylus which was a 5.5-inch device carrying a 1.3GHz processor, only 960 x 540 resolution on the screen, and 1GB of RAM. Despite sharing the G3 moniker it its name, the G3 Stylus was definitely not a high-end device with those specs.

Along with the new trademark application, a leaked document appears to show an entry for a stylus equipped pen that is somehow related to the LG G4 even if only in name. In the screen capture, a listing appears for an LG device with model number H810 and project number P1 which is believed to be the AT&T variant of the G4. The same listing shows a project with codename “P1s” which could signify the addition of a stylus to project P1. However, the resolution for the P1s is only 1280 x 720 and the model number is listed in a different series, H63x. Except for the P1 part being the same, this seems to be more consistent with the LG G3 and LG G3 Stylus model where the stylus equipped smartphone was a mid-range unit.

The question now is whether the previous trademark entry for the G Pen was in reference to new equipment for an LG flagship device or is LG just trying to protect their investment in a line of stylus-equipped smartphones that fall in the middle tier in terms of specs.