This afternoon in New York City the folks from LG finally announced and revealed their all-new and impressive looking flagship smartphone to take on the Moto X, Galaxy S4, and more. That being the new 5.2-inch LG G2. It’s powered by Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, and there’s no word when 4.3 will arrive, so our first thought was if they’d also offer a Google Play edition smartphone.
As you all know, Google and manufacturers have been teaming up to offer “GPe” devices running bone stock Android. Both the Galaxy S4 and HTC One are available today direct from Google’s Play Store with stock Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. They have the latest software, and are promising faster updates due to not having custom bloated software on board.
We’ve heard Sony has plans to offer some Google Play edition smartphones, and there were even rumors of Oppo, and a few other manufacturers doing the same. However, Samsung and HTC have been the only ones thus far. We know LG made the Nexus 4, and there’s rumors that the next Nexus smartphone will arrive later this year as the LG Nexus 5. So with that, we asked LG if they had plans to offer a GPe G2, and here’s what they had to say.
As of right now, LG doesn’t have any plans for a Google Play Edition. The focus for the G2 is penetration through carriers. That however could change down the road.” –Ken Hong, LG PR
LG has confirmed this afternoon that within the next 90 days they will be offering the flagship LG G2 smartphone on over 100 different carriers on a global basis. And one important market is the US, where we know it will be arriving on all four major US carriers. Hopefully before mid September.
In the end here we took away one thing from the comment above, which was “that however could change down the road”. Hinting that there is at least the possibility of LG adding the device to the Play Store to better compete with the others. I’m still pulling for an LG Nexus 5, but also wouldn’t mind seeing it be built by HTC.
A completely stock Android 4.3 Jelly Bean powered G2 sure sounds nice, right?
Isn’t that what HTC said about the HTC One, too?
This is true.
That is exactly what I was thinking. Also they wouldn’t necessarily need a Google Play edition if the next Nexus device is to be based on the G2 anyway. Personally I’d rather see HTC or Motorola take a crack at the next Nexus, but that’s just because I’m preferential to their products.
Their software is close enough to AOSP though and as they are owned by Google, they are more likely to release non-GPL source (such as device source and also the proprietary binaries), so the advantages to the user of it being a Nexus wouldn’t be as great as an HTC, Samsung, or LG Nexus because they only release the source they absolutely have to (pretty much just the kernel) and their software isn’t much like AOSP, so it’d be a more different experience. The Moto X is AOSP plus some cool features, so I feel like the only difference of a Google Play edition would be getting rid of those features and I guess faster updates, but I wouldn’t want to sacrifice Moto’s features for that personally (such as always-on voice control).
They should MAKE plans. This is the PERFECT phone for GPe.
If that means no GPe, does that mean that there’s a G2-based Nexus 5 on the way? I do agree that it would be great for HTC to make it. However, since the phone is so thin, I wouldn’t mind an LG Nexus, just give HTC the next one.
Unless the Nexus 5 is going to cost $600, I can’t see how they could base it on the G2. They’d have to cut specs/features/build quality because otherwise how will LG be able to justify that the phone is $600 under this branding and $300 on that branding? No Nexus G2 (unfortunately) in my humble prediction. But give us a GPE…I’d be happy with that.
LG is still making the Nexus 5. The G2 is not the Nexus 5. It’s the fraternal twin of the Nexus 5. The G2 will not be a “Google Experience” device, because the LG Nexus 5 will make that redundant.
HTC Denied the One would be available as a Google Edition as well.