Newsletter
LG has confirmed that the LG V30, V35, and V40 ThinQ will be receiving Android 9 Pie update in the second quarter of this year. In other words, this means that the update should start rolling out to all three phones by the end of June.
It is worth noting that this information comes directly from LG, but the company’s LG Korea side, so the update is expected to start rolling out to Korean variants of the LG V30, V35, and V40 ThinQ. It is possible that the international models will get those updates really soon after the Korean models, but it’s also possible that we may have to wait until sometime in Q3 in order to get it.
LG doesn’t really have the best track record when it comes to keeping its phone up to date in terms of new versions of Android, not even its flagship offerings. The only LG-branded phones that got updated to Android 9 Pie at this point is the LG G7 ThinQ. The LG V30, V35, and V40 ThinQ were a logical next step for LG, and it’s nice seeing that the company is planning to upgrade all three phones at the same time, or at least in close intervals.
The LG V40 ThinQ was announced back in October 2018, while the V35 ThinQ and V30 were introduced in May 2018 and August 2017, respectively. The LG V40 ThinQ and V35 ThinQ both shipped with Android Oreo out of the box, while the LG V30 shipped with Android Nougat, and did receive one huge update already, an update to Android Oreo.
Android 9 Pie does bring quite a few changes to Google’s operating system, most of those changes are under-the-hood ones, but not all of them, of course. LG’s Android overlay will not change all that much in terms of the design, though UI elements will become rounder on all three devices, while the overview / multitasking menu will change by default, it will change to a horizontal list of cards / apps.
Adaptive Display and Adaptive Battery will be coming to the LG V40 ThinQ, V35 ThinQ, and V30 as part of Android 9 Pie update, and those two features are expected to improve battery life to some degree. Some new options when it comes to selecting and copy / paste text actions will also become available, and so on.
All the main features that Android 9 Pie brought to Google’s Pixel devices and all the other phones that it arrived thus far will be available on the LG V40 ThinQ, V35 ThinQ, and V30, in addition to what LG opts to pre-installed as part of its Android overlay. LG’s Android “skin” is always considerably different than stock Android, and it’s quite likely that you’ll get a similar experience to those that LG sent to the LG G7 ThinQ. In fact, it is even possible that the same software version will get adapted for the LG V40 ThinQ, V35 ThinQ, and V30, so those of you who have seen Android 9 Pie on the LG G7 ThinQ are pretty much clued in, and know what to expect.