LG rumored to launch an upgraded V30s with an AI camera feature

LG may be launching a new smartphone called the V30s, an upgraded version of its V30 flagship at Mobile World Congress this year, according to a report in ETNews (via PhoneRadar).

The V30s will purportedly share the same design as the original V30, but with a new AI-powered camera feature described as similar to Google Lens or Bixby Vision on the Pixel 2 and Samsung Galaxy S8, respectively. LG’s version is said to be able to identify products and offer online purchasing links or similar suggestions, perform bar and QR code scanning, and translate written text (similar to Google’s Word Lens functionality).

LG is definitely late to the game here

LG is definitely late to the game when it comes to AI-powered cameras, especially compared to competitors. Plus, it’s also coming from a position of relative weakness in the market, in terms of both the maturity of AI and machine learning prowess that’s necessary for this kind of smart camera feature to work well, as well as simply shipping devices. A smart camera feature is certainly nice, but it’s hard to see how this will help LG compete against the dominant forces of Samsung or the home-team advantage of Google’s Pixel phones in the long run, even if it does work well (which is by no means guaranteed).

The V30s is also said to ship with 256GB of onboard storage, compared to the 64GB and 128GB on the original V30 and V30 Plus. But it’s unclear whether LG will be making other changes — like, say, upgrading the processor to this year’s Snapdragon 845 model.