LG might announce 5G LG V50 ThinQ at Mobile World Congress 2019

5G phones — real ones you can actually buy soon — are coming.

OnePlus and Samsung have already pledged to release 5G smartphones sometime in 2019, but LG might beat everyone to launching one first if a newly leaked image of its alleged 5G-ready V50 ThinQ ends up being real.

Phone leaker extraordinaire Evan Blass aka @evleaks published an image of what he claims is the LG V50 ThinQ. 

The successor to the V40 ThinQ will reportedly be one of the first phones capable of connecting faster 5G wireless networks and is likely to be announced at Mobile World Congress on Feb. 24 during LG’s press conference.

The alleged press render reveals quite a bit of information on the yet-to-be-announced phone. Besides a yellow 5G logo on the back and within the status bar on the front, there also appears to be three cameras on the rear. Based on the V40 ThinQ, we can safely assume these will be a regular wide-angle lens, telephoto lens, and ultra-wide lens. One new aesthetic change: the cameras are flush with the body and don’t protrude (yay!).

The front also has dual cameras, which will probably be similar if not identical to the V40 ThinQ’s 8-megapixel standard selfie camera and 5-megapixel ultra-wide selfie camera.

There’s also a rear-positioned fingerprint reader suggesting LG will not follow its competitors with in-display fingerprint readers. Vivo was the first phone maker to release a phone with an in-display fingerprint reader and OnePlus and Huawei both followed by the end of 2018. Samsung is also expected to introduce an in-display fingerprint reader in its upcoming Galaxy S10, which will be announced on Feb. 20 at its Unpacked event in San Francisco.

Android Authority also believes the V50 ThinQ will sport a giant 4,000 mAh battery, which is about 21 percent larger than the 3,300 mAh battery in the V40 ThinQ. That’s good because 5G will be a battery hog until the modems shrink down over time.

The last thing we learned from the image is the likely V50 ThinQ carrier: Sprint. Yes, the fourth-largest U.S. carrier and the only network that’s suing AT&T for misleading consumers with its fake “5GE” branding is  apparently diving into 5G.

LG will most likely reveal everything there is know about the V50 ThinQ at Mobile World Congress (if it doesn’t get leaked before). The biggest question will be: how much? 5G phones could cost as much as $300 more than 4G LTE phones according to OnePlus CEO Pete Lau. Also, how much will 5G data plans cost? They surely won’t be cheap at first.