New LG G6 leaks: New image, Google Assistant, and no removable battery

LG will announce the G6 on February 26, a day before Mobile World Congress officially kicks off in Barcelona. The device is already confirmed to feature a 5.7-inch QHD+ screen, heat pipes, advanced AI and quality tests that are “higher than international standards”. Most of the remaining specs are just rumors for now.

A few more rumors regarding the upcoming flagship from LG have just surfaced though. Some of them are new, while others have been talked about before. “A person familiar with the company’s plans” talked to CNET saying that the G6 will have a sealed battery like some of the Galaxy S phones and will, therefore, be waterproof.

The battery obviously won’t be removable, which also means that the modular design seen on last year’s G5 is a thing of the past for LG. Is this a good or a bad thing? Well, it really comes down to whether the modular design of the G5 was of any real value to you. It certainly didn’t do LG any good as it didn’t help to increase sales of the smartphone, but abandoning modularity so soon will be rough for anyone that bought into the LG Friends ecosystem.

CNET also reports that the LG G6 will ship with Google’s Assistant on board. If this is true, LG’s flagship will be the first phone, aside from the Pixel and Pixel XL, to feature the popular digital assistant.

But apparently, Assistant wasn’t LG’s first choice. The company has a strong partnership with Amazon and initially wanted to include Alexa on the G6. According to CNET, Amazon’s digital assistant didn’t feel quite ready yet, so LG took the next best thing and opted for Google’s Assistant, but the company still plans on bringing Alexa to its devices later this year.

In addition to the rumors, we have also come across a new image of the LG G6 (see above) which recently leaked. It shows the upcoming device from the side, revealing the SIM card slot that looks pretty long, and therefore suggests that the device will also support microSD card expansion. This is the second image of the G6 that has leaked so far. If you want to see the first one, check out our “This could be our first real look at the upcoming LG G6” post.