LG’s Flip Phone Runs a Newer Version of Android Than Your Fancy, Modern Handset

Daniel Bean
·Assistant Editor
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The LG Gentle Android flip phone is a classic story of old meets new, with the odd twist here being that probably not even your new phone is up to par with this 1999-ish phone’s cutting-edge version of Android.

This clamshell handset with a 3.2-inch screen comes with Lollipop 5.1 installed — making it among the 1 percent of Android devices running Google’s latest iteration of Android.

According to Google’s June statistics, only 11.6 percent of Android devices worldwide are even operating on version 5.0 (an earlier release of Google’s Lollipop software). And the largest portion of Android phones and tablets — 39.2 percent — are running 4.4 KitKat.

Notable feature additions for Android 5.1 include compatibility with HD voice calling, new and improved ringer and notifications settings, and some nice-looking visual interface tweaks. Of course, we’re not sure which, if any, of these things are built into this flip-friendly, custom version of Android Lollipop.

In fact, to be fair, LG’s Gentle doesn’t have near the processing power or beautiful screen real estate offered by any other powerhouse smartphone introduced over the last couple of years. But then again, your brand-new Samsung Galaxy S6 is still stuck on the first version of Lollipop. So if you’re less concerned with actual phone performance than you are with being on the absolute latest software, we’ll go ahead and mark you down as envious.

For now, the LG Gentle is available only in South Korea. And we’d have to guess the most famously disappointed person to learn that news would be South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. Because after he destroyed his last flip phone in spectacular fashion, and asked Twitter which type of smartphone he should get to replace it, this high-tech Android flip would have most definitely been the presidential candidate’s next handset.

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(YouTube/IJ Review)

Via: 9to5Google

Email me at danbean@yahoo-inc.com. Follow me on Twitter at danielwbean.

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