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The Japanese unit of LG Electronics rebranded its V30 Plus flagship and released it in the Far Eastern country as the LG V35 earlier this week. Unlike the regular LG V30 and V30 Plus, the V35 runs Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box, with the company’s proprietary mobile software suite UX UI being on top of it. The units released in South Korea and Western markets all shipped with LG’s ROM based on Android 7.1.2 Nougat and aren’t expected to receive an upgrade to Android 8.0 Oreo before late December. The LG V35 is presently available in Japan exclusively through Au (stylized as “au”), one of the largest wireless carriers in the country. The mobile service provider is offering the flagship in Cloud Silver, Aurora Black, and Moroccan Blue, with the handset itself being nearly identical to the LG V30 Plus, save for having a different name and support for 1Seg and WiMAX 2 connectivity. Au will start retailing the LG V35 in late December but has yet to provide any pricing details on the handset.
The South Korean original equipment manufacturer has a history of rebranding and revising its offerings for Japanese consumers, having most recently done so by releasing a compact version of the LG V20 marketed as the LG V34 in late 2016. Unlike the LG V35, the V34 was a full-fledged revision of one of the company’s V-series flagships, offering a 5.2-inch display panel instead of a 5.7-inch one found on the LG V20, in addition to boasting IP67-certified resistance to dust particles and water that the regular smartphone lacked. The LG V30 launched with IP68 elements resistance that’s also supported by the LG V35, with both phones being compliant with the MIL-STD-810G military durability standard despite having glass backs.
The LG V30 Plus is already widely available in the United States and other Western markets, featuring 128GB of storage space, or twice as much as the base model. Another selling point of the Android handset comes in the form of the bundled LG QuadPlay earbuds designed to take advantage of the smartphones’ quad-DAC setup, whereas the regular LG V30 ships with less capable earphones. American consumers who purchase the LG V30 Plus from T-Mobile are also able to benefit from the wireless carrier’s new 600MHz network in areas where it’s available.