Make the mosquitos go away with the LG K7i

From a phone that packs a molecular scanner to a phone with an integrated thermal camera, you can’t say that the world of Android does not include some weird devices. The niche train waits for no one, however, and LG decided to buy a ticket with the K7i, the first phone that tries to keep away the mosquitos.

The feature, which LG calls “Mosquito Away,” uses the K7i’s big hump at the bottom to emit ultrasound waves that theoretically keep the mosquitos away from your delectable skin and blood. LG has used Mosquito Away in its air conditioners and TVs, but this is the first time one of its phones incorporates it.

For the record, I’m just as skeptical about this as you might be, and for good reason. Per the BBC, a 2010 article that examined 10 field studies concluded that ultrasound mosquito repellent devices “have no effect on preventing mosquito bites” and “should not be recommended or used.”

In other words, LG’s Mosquito Away seems more like a marketing gimmick than a legitimate function. Still, I’ll give LG some credit for advertising such a feature in India, which has its fair share of mosquitos.

Even if you find Mosquito Away at least a bit interesting, the K7i seems pretty weak on paper. Equipped with a 5-inch, 1280 x 720 resolution display and a 2,500 mAh battery, the K7i also features an unnamed quad-core processor clocked at 1.4 GHz and 2 GB of RAM. The 16 GB of internal storage can be bumped up by an additional 156 through the microSD card slot, with an 8 MP camera around back and a 5 MP sensor up front.

Finally, the K7i runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The K7i’s 7,990 rupee ($121) price tag does not take away the fact that the phone runs software that is over two years old. Making things worse, there are no plans to update the K7i to Nougat or Oreo.

Really, the K7i’s biggest attribute isn’t its supposed ability to repel mosquitos, but its ability to repel sales.