LG Looks to Avoid Samsung's Shadow, Dribbles Out News of G4 Flagship Phone

Let’s face it, no matter how good LG’s upcoming G4 is, it is going to have trouble getting noticed in a market dominated by Apple and Samsung.

Making matters worse is that both Samsung and HTC have already launched this year’s flagship models with the Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9 both hitting the U.S. market this month.

So props to LG for trying an approach different from the big-bang rollout favored by its larger rivals. Instead, LG is employing one of its favorite methods: Tease your own launch with nuggets of news.

While the official G4 announcement isn’t planned until April 28, LG has already had separate releases touting the 5.5-inch screen that will be on the device and changes the company is making to its software interface. LG also announced a program to give 4,000 consumers a month-long test drive of the new phone.

That’s in addition to teaser videos and other attempts at buzz generation.

LG has tried this before, particularly ahead of major trade shows like CES and Mobile World Congress where it knows it is up against companies with deeper pockets and higher name recognition.

Whether it will work this time is unclear and will depend not just on the marketing plan but also how good a phone it actually has in store. But points to LG for not just giving up in the face of massive rival ad budgets.

Update, 8:10 p.m. PT: Another night. Another press release. Tonight’s update lets us know that the G4, as hinted at by the photo, will have a new 16-megapixel camera module with a wide f1.8 aperture. It will also have an 8-megapixel front-facing camera.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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