LG pulled out of this month's Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2020 not long before the event was cancelled outright over coronavirus concerns and so rather than debuting its new 2020 K-series of smartphones in Barcelona next week, as originally planned, the company has revealed all of the details on its K61, K51S, and K41S today. The big news is a Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra-style quad camera. Sure, it won’t be of the same quality as Samsung’s world beater, but it’s impressive how quickly elite features are appearing in the best cheap smartphones these days.
All three handsets feature a 6.5-inch display and quad cameras on the rear, but there are some spec differences on these fronts, as well as in a few other areas which we'll get into. Either way, you're getting a lot of camera on a mid-range phone.
There aren't many budget to mid-range smartphones out there with a plethora of lenses like these three.
There’s no price info yet but last year's K50 with its dual camera, cost around £200 - although it's much cheaper now and you can find it as cheap as £120 on Amazon. Whether LG can add a quad camera but keep the price that low remains to be seen.
The first of the three phones is the K61 which sits at the top end of the trio. It houses an octa-core processor running at 2.3GHz but LG hasn't furnished us with the details of the manufacturer, and has historically used both Qualcomm and Mediatek chipsets, so your guess is as good as ours.
It's the only device in the lineup to sport an FHD+ display, and has a 6.5-inch FullVision screen. On the camera front, you'll find a 16MP on the front, and over on the back, a 48MP standard lens, 8MP ultra wide, 2MP macro, and a 5MP depth sensor.
The closest handset out there in terms of specs for the four rear cameras is probably the Xiaomi Redmi K30 with a 48MP snapper, 8MP wide-angle, 2MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor, although it does have a dual front-facing camera.
The K51S is a step down from the K61, and while it has the same size screen, it has a 20:9 aspect ration, compared to the K61's 19.5:9, making it longer and thinner. The display is 6.5-inch HD+ FullVision.
The camera's aren't as impressive as the K61, although LG stresses that it still has a higher pixel count than any of its previous smartphones. There's a 13MP on the front, and a 32MP standard, 5MP ultra wide, 2MP macro, and 2MP depth sensor on the rear.
Unlike the K61's 4GB RAM, both the K51S and the K41S have 3GB, but all three phones have a 4,000mAh battery.
Last up is the K41S which we imagine will be the cheapest of the lot, once LG actually tells us how much they cost. The chipset is a 2.0 GHz octa-core processor as opposed to the 2.3GHz used in the previous two, and aside from that and its cameras, it's pretty much the same as the K51S.
Speaking of the cameras, there's not anything too impressive going on, with an 8MP front-facing camera, and 13MP standard, 5MP ultra wide, 2MP macro, and 2MP depth sensor on the rear.
LG hasn't mentioned the release date or the price, but when they do become available, you can pick up the K61 in Titanium, White, or Blue; the K51S in Titanium, Pink, or Blue; and the K41S in Titanium, Black, or White.
None of the handsets are 5G ready, featuring 4G LTE instead, and will launch in Q2 2020 in the Americas, with Europe and Asia to follow.
If a budget phone is what you're after and you don't want to wait, check out this sizzling Google Pixel 3a deal which knocks the price down to just £280. There's also the Samsung Galaxy S10e which may not have as many cameras as the K61 (two on the rear, and one on the front) but is a fantastic mid-range handset that we called "the best cheap phone in the world".
If cameras are your thing, then the Galaxy S20 - nicknamed "Hubble" during production - might be worth a look, but this is definitely going to be a world away from the K61 when it comes to price. It has a 10MP front-facing camera, and a 12MP + 12MP + 64MP setup on the rear, and starts at £799.
