LG says its Wing smartphone will be available in the US beginning October 15 from Verizon and later this fall from AT&T and T-Mobile, starting at $1,000
LG's wild sliding phone won't be cheap — LG's wild-looking Wing smartphone has gotten a US price and release date …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Wing completes a run of LG secondary-display experiments reaching US carriers: the dual-screen V10 hit AT&T and T-Mobile back in 2015, and the V20 followed in 2016 at $830. When LG unveiled the twisting 6.8-inch-plus-3.9-inch design earlier this month, price and timing were still TBA.
What changed today is the commercial answer: $1,000 — well above the $820 at which LG launched its G8 ThinQ across every major US carrier — with Verizon getting an October 15 head start before AT&T and T-Mobile join later this fall. That premium on an unproven form factor is the bet under scrutiny.
First-order effects
- Verizon secures an early-window exclusive on the device from October 15, giving it first shot at selling LG's most experimental phone while AT&T and T-Mobile wait until later this fall.
- US buyers now face a $1,000 entry price for the sliding second screen — a step up even from LG's own recent flagship launches at $820–$830.
Second-order effects
- Carrier shelf-space decisions become the real test: with three national carriers signed on despite the premium, LG has bought distribution its mainstream flagships no longer command on their own.
- The Verge's subsequent review — praising build quality but finding few practical uses for the fold-out display — puts sell-through pressure back on the carriers holding launch inventory.
Third-order effects
- If premium-priced dual-screen experiments keep landing on carrier lineups without clear second-screen use cases, LG's phone strategy drifts further toward niche hardware subsidized by carrier partnerships rather than mass-market demand — a pattern whose endpoint (whether LG doubles down or exits) stays genuinely open.
The trend: LG is iterating dual-screen form factors at ever-higher flagship prices, relying on all three major US carriers for distribution as its mainstream handsets fade.