Best of both: the LG Wing is the phone I wish I'd tried before phone design became boring

Date:
Sat, 17 Jan 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Description:
Since LG closed its mobile business, the LG Wing has been the coolest phone you cant buy

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With the prospect of price hikes and RAM shortages on the horizon, we might remember the current era as a good one for smartphones even if phone design has actually hit a pretty boring plateau .

Still, Im enjoying the fact that, for now, its a great time for tech specs
and value for money in the world of mobile phones flagship prices have held fairly steady over the past five or so years, and the best phones offer incredible performance, photography, and battery life.

And while I find myself feeling nostalgic every now and then (check out our recent 2016 retrospective ), Im pretty happy to be living in a world with phones that last a couple days on a single charge and can take serviceable photos at 30x zoom.

With that said, there is one phone I wish Id had the chance to try before it was discontinued and unlike my favorite phone of all time, the iPhone 5s, this one isnt even that old. The LG Wing featured two displays a swivelling 6.8-inch main panel and a 3.9-inch secondary screen hidden underneath (Image credit: Future)

The LG Wing , released in 2020, was the last hurrah from LGs mobile business before it shut down in 2021. The finale to a series of weird and quirky phones, the LG Wing featured a rotating display that allowed the phone to swivel out into a T-shaped orientation effectively giving you a landscape view without having to rotate the phone itself.

At 6.8 inches, that rotating display offered a pretty wide view in its, uh, deployed state, and swiveling out the main screen revealed a second 3.9-inch panel, to use as a keyboard or for other quick actions.

Its possible that the Wing was a response to the advent of folding phone technology perhaps LG had hoped that consumers would prefer the sleekness
and convenience of their rotating design, which measured just 10.9mm thick compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 2 s 16.8mm folded thickness. More than
anything, the Wing was inventive no other phone maker had offered an alternative to Samsungs booklet-style form factor that was quite as unique, and none have since.

In typical LG style, it was a bit bizarre, but the LG Wing was also well-equipped. For $999 in the US, you got the two displays, a triple camera system with a special gimbal-style ultra-wide lens, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 4,000mAh battery. And if it didnt already have enough moving parts, the selfie camera had a motorized pop-up system.

Sadly, the LG Wing came and went before I made my start in tech journalism, and with my trusty Huawei Mate 20 Pro keeping me company through 2020 and
2021 I had neither the means nor the reason to pick up a new phone. Want a phone with extra screen space? Nearly all your current options owe their design to the Samsung Galaxy Fold released in 2019 (Image credit: TechRadar)

Alas, LGs phone division has been shut for half a decade and every large phone is a foldable in the footsteps of Samsungs Galaxy Fold. As cool as the phones of today are, none of them can quite scratch the itch the LG Wing has left me.

Of course the LG Wing didnt save the companys phone division. Phones with moving parts are have increased likelihood of failure, a higher price tag compared to slab phones, and possible servicing difficulties.

Still, it was bold for LG to hitch its hopes on a niche device when it
needed a win to stay afloat. LG was too far ahead of the game for its own good. The LG Wing wasn't a flop, it was ahead of its time. The phone featured three cameras a main lens and two ultra-wide cameras, one of which was reserved for a unique gimbal mode only accessible with the screen rotated. (Image credit: Future)

Holding a phone horizontally sucks. Its not how phones are designed and normally leads to hand cramps. That's why pop sockets and mobile gaming controllers exist, and its why vertical video is so dominant.

The LG Wing offered the best of both worlds landscape and portrait, while offering a vertical grip. The market wasnt ready for it. TikTok was just gaining momentum; YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels launched the same year
as the Wing, in 2020. The world hadnt yet realized how convenient holding a phone vertically all the time c ould be.

I just cant get over the LG Wing. Its like over-the-top tech that pops up in the background of a Star Wars movie - possibly useful and designed to look cool. Its a phone youd see in a YouTube video from 2006 titled this will be smartphones in 2012, a relic of optimistic and experimental design.

The LG Wing is the coolest phone I cant buy its discontinued, and buying a second-hand phone with that many moving parts doesnt seem smart. Let me know which phone you wish youd been able to get ahold of in the comments below.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/best-of-both-the-lg-wing-is-the-phone-i-wish- id-tried-before-phone-design-became-boring


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