LG trademarks LG G5 SE, follows Apple’s path

Apple just debuted its iPhone SE earlier last month, with a price tag of $399.99 for the handset. This seems to be a bit overpriced for a screen that’s 0.7 inches smaller than the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s, but Apple does seem to bring some specs and features to the handset that we really like: a 12MP back camera with 4K video recording, iOS 9.3 which includes Night Mode, among other things, and so on. Apple even provided a slightly bigger battery in the iPhone SE, which goes against the company’s commitment to smaller batteries in its flagship iPhones, the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus.

Well, it seems as though LG is going to “pull an Apple,” now that it’s “pulled a Samsung” and trademarked the “LG Edge” label — before bringing out the LG V10, which has an “edge” that is said to rival Samsung’s own Galaxy S6 edge. Now, LG has gone and filed a trademark for a phone called the LG G5 SE, which we presume will be a special edition of the LG G5.

We don’t have any details on the LG G5 SE, or what it will be like, but the source below says that we can expect a modular design and “secondary battery,” which seems to mimic the same idea behind the design of the LG G5. LG’s newest flagship features a module called the Cam Plus that provides an auxiliary 1,140mAh battery to complement the phone’s 2,800mAh battery inside the handset. This is what the LG G5 SE is likely referring to.

LG wants to tap into a portion of the Android consumer base that wants smaller displays and doesn’t prefer wider displays as many do in current smartphone trends. While that’s commendable, we wish LG would pick another name for this special smartphone. After all, Apple named theirs the iPhone SE because it is a special edition in the company’s lineup that targets the 4-inch iPhone crowd.

With LG, however, the Korean manufacturer has issued so many low-end, budget-friendly LG handsets with the LG name. Are those handsets not “special edition” handsets? If they are, then LG’s shooting itself in the foot by naming a new phone “Special Edition” and using the LG G5 moniker to sway voters. The company has already come under fire for claiming its LG G5 is a “metal unibody” but yet has plastered a huge coat of primer over the device so that users can’t feel the metal body. Also, since the device is a modular phone, then it can’t be a unibody. The fact that one can tear the bottom off the phone to remove the battery and attach modules shows that the LG G5 can’t be a metal unibody.

The LG G5 marketing hype hasn’t done the phone justice, but we fear that a new LG G5 SE phone isn’t going to make matters any better. What do you think?

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