The G7 ThinQ is a last year flagship from LG, came with pre-installed Android 8 Oreo in May, 2018. The V35 ThinQ is also a flagship arrived in June, 2018 with pre-installed Android 8 Oreo. Both flagships are powered by Snapdragon 845 and received the Android 9 Pie update recently. The next major update for these LG flagships is Android 10 Q.
The tenth anniversary edition of Android arrived with many remarkable features over earlier Android versions. The first Beta of Android Q arrived in March 2019 and the sixth one arrived in early-August. Finally on September 3rd, the Search Giant released the Android 10 update with September security patch officially without any codename.
Android 10 release dates for LG V35 and G7 ThinQ
LG has started the Beta program of Android 10 for G8 ThinQ in its home country and V50 stands next to receive the Beta. The South Korean tech giant promises that this time the rollout will take place much quicker to ragain the trust of consumers. The beta rollout of the update for G7 and V35 may begin soon after the rollout for G8 and V40 ThinQ, most likely in December 2019. However, the Beta might be available for select consumers in South Korea and the US only.
We expect the final rollout will begin for G7 ThinQ in early-Q1 of 2020 and for V35 ThinQ in late-Q1 of 2020, for unlocked devices only. The carrier locked devices might receive the update in Q2 of 2020. The rollout schedule will be posted here once LG has announced them.
Android 10 Exclusive Features
The Android 10 update came with many notable features like System-wide dark theme, Improved Privacy and location sharing options, Vulkan 1.1 support, faster app startup, multi-tasking Bubbles, TLS 1.3 support, 5G native support, live captions, native support for Desktop mode, Project Mainline and many more. Now we will get into details of each major feature of Android 10.
System-wide Dark theme
Google has been developing the dark theme for Android for many years and in Android Q we will get the full-featured dark theme. The dark theme appears gorgeous in Android Q Beta on Pixel 3 and it will appear the same in LG V35 as the device sports OLED display.
Because of dark theme, battery drain is decreased very much besides marked reduction eye strain of users. In Beta 5, Google brings even dark Boot animation for Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL devices, but it is still unknown whether the boot animation come to other Android devices or not.
Android Q Bubbles
The Beta 2 of Android Q came with a new notification feature called Bubbles which facilitates easy multi-tasking of users. Using bubbles features users can reply in Messaging apps in a new way. However, the feature is only experimental at the moment and will only available in Developer options in the final build of Android Q, according to Google.
Native support for Desktop mode
The tenth anniversary iteration of Android features support for Desktop mode. However, there is increased need of Desktop launchers for android to use the device effectively as Desktop. Developers at XDA already developed a launcher, but there is lot of room for improvements.
Using Android 10 desktop mode support and a third party desktop launcher, cable, LG V35 and G7 ThinQ users can use their devices as Desktop PCs by connecting to a monitor or TV. So applications can be used more efficiently and multi-tasking will be made more easy.
Smart Reply
The Smart Reply feature is an improvement over quick replies and Actions features which were introduced in earlier android versions. In this, Google integrated on-device machine learning, so it will get better and adapt to user’s behaviour every day and give more precise replies and suggestions.
The feature currently works better with Maps app, so when LG V35 users received a message containing an address to a location, a shortcut of Maps will appear in notifications below the message, so that users will navigate to that address with just a single click. It also shows emoji in suggested replies in Notifications. The feature works with every messaging app like Whatsapp, Signal and Google Messages.
Focus mode and Improved Digital Wellbeing
Android Q has a new feature called Focus mode which stop distractions like Notifications. When user adds an app like Facebook to focus mode, the app won’t show any notifications for the specified time, reducing even addiction of smartphone.
Digital wellbeing got new feature called Parental controls in Android Q. So using the new Digital wellbeing, parents can limit smartphone usage of their children by setting specific Screen on time or app usage time. So the new feature helps to prevent smartphone addiction a lot.
Live Captions
Google demonstrated one of the impressive features of Android Q at I/O 2019 and it is Live Captions. On enabling the feature, users will see that the any Audio or Video file playing transcribed in real time. The feature supports YouTube, Instagram and even Skype and Duo. The feature is more useful to Deaf and hard of hearing users.
The transcription appears as a black box in the bottom of the screen and movable through out the display. The feature uses on-device machine learning only don’t require any network access and so don’t cost any data use to users. However, the transcripts cannot be saved for future use and they disappears soon after the playing file ends. Google may refine the feature further in coming updates.
Battery Saver Schedule
In the Android 10 update, Google refined the battery saving capabilities of Android with the addition of AI. Google improving the battery saver feature with new refinements in every major android update. Now in Android 10 the schedule feature which uses AI is added to the Battery saver feature.
To enable the feature, user can head to Settings > Battery > Battery Saver > Battery saver Schedule and set the option to Based on Your routine. After that users can forget about turning on the saver and turning it off until the device is set to reset. Using on-device machine learning, the feature analyse the user’s behaviour and charging patterns automatically switch on the battery saver and also switch off accordingly. So both user experience and battery life will be enhanced.
Project Mainline
The Search Giant revealed many details about Project Mainline at the I/O 2019 in May. According to Google, android developers can update the critical modules of Android straight from Google Play without the rollout of full software update from OEM. So these updates will be downloaded and installed in background and applied at reboot.
The Search Giant told that Project Treble will come to all devices running on Android Q, no matter the manufacture is. However, full details about Project Treble will be revealed in coming days.
Update on 26/10/2019 :
LG announced a Beta program of Android 10 for G8 ThinQ flagship on October 16th at an event. The beta rollout for the registered G8 users should begin by the end of this month and LG is planning to release the beta for V50 users in the next month. The South Korean tech giant made no comments when the beta hits G7 and V35, but according to rumours, the rollout for these devices may begin soon after V50 ThinQ.
According to LG, the Beta update includes all standard Android 10 goodies like Dark mode, Full Gesture navigation, Bubbles, Smart reply and so on. Full details about the features in the Beta will be revealed soon.
Update on 20/9/2019 :
A Korean user posted some screenshots of V50 running on UX 9.1 based on Android 10, ofcourse a very early preview, on Meeko, Korean forum. In the preview, we can observe great changes in Notifications, Quick Settings UI. But the home screen features small changes like squircle icons and other. Settings app is revamped totally to appear similar to Settings app on Pixel 3. As this is a very early preview and half baked, more details will be revealed in upcoming leaks. However, it seems that LG is getting ready rollout the update in a few weeks atleast in its home country.
Update on 5/9/2019 :
Google released the Android 10 update officially on September 3rd and Pixel owners receiving the update notifications. Essential also rolledout the Android OTA on the same day for PH-1 flagship devices. One Plus kicksoff the Open Beta program based on Android 10 for One Plus 7 and 7 Pro on September 4th.
However, we still got no news about LG’s rollout for its flagships. The Android 10 final version is similar to the final Beta, but includes some refinements like unclean charging port notifications and overheating of Battery notifications.
We will update this post soon with more details about Android Q update for G7 and V35 ThinQ. So please bookmark this page and keep visiting.
