LG Hits The Wine To Bring Back The Flip Phone

LG is reviving the flip phone with some much-needed technological upgrades.

The LG Wine Smart (yes, really), brings back the best of the 2000s with a retro clamshell design and numeric keypad that has been updated with some modern hardware to still provide a very modern smartphone experience.

Mature

Although the 3.2 inch HVGA display might be a bit small for younger eyes accustomed to 5 inch screens, the Wine Smart does pack in a 1.1GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 4GB of storage, all powered by a removable 1,700mAh battery.

Weighing in at 143g, the device will run Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, meaning it should be able to handle many of today’s top apps and support 4G LTE networks, as well as packing a USB port and Bluetooth 4.1. There’s also a 3MP rear camera and a VGA front lens in case you fancy revisiting the image quality of a decade ago.

Originally launched as the LG Gentle in the company’s South Korean home, the now-updated LG Wine Smart will be available in two colour schemes in several other markets, including France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Kazakhstan and Japan – although there’s no news yet on a UK release yet.

“Our goal with LG Wine Smart was to create a smartphone that fans of flip phones could embrace,” said Chris Yie, vice president and head of marketing communications for LG Mobile.

“Consumers shouldn’t have to miss out on the smartphone revolution because they prefer a particular phone design over another. With LG Wine Smart, they won’t have to.”

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