LG G8 ThinQ’s vibrating screen will turn it into a boombox

The upcoming LG G8 ThinQ will use its screen as a speaker, LG has revealed. The feature, dubbed ‘Crystal Sound OLED’, or CSO, by the company, vibrates the screen to create sound in a similar way to how the diaphragm works in a human.

By using the entire screen as a speaker, the G8 ThinQ should deliver better audio clarity and more pronounced bass than other smartphones. This would make it ideal for watching movies – but there’s a chance it won’t work as well for playing games, as fingers touching the screen would cancel the vibrations.

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LG has used the feature in some of its TVs, but it’s new to smartphones – so when we get our hands on the device we’ll need to test it out and see if it really does improve the audio quality.

CSO isn’t the sole form of audio output on the LG G8 ThinQ,  however. The device also has speaker perforations on the rear, and together with the CSO these will be used to provide stereo surround sound for speakerphone mode.

As well as CSO, LG confirmed a range of other sound-related features for the device, including a ‘boombox speaker’ feature which uses the phone’s internal space to resonate sounds, DTS:X surround sound, and Quad DAC Hi-Fi.

With the ‘O’ in CSO standing for OLED, we can also assume that LG is changing the screen on the device. The G7 ThinQ device has an LCD display, while OLED displays were reserved for the V series ThinQ handsets, so it’s  welcome news that the G series is getting the screen tech.

LG has now told us about the G8 ThinQ’s audio features and the technology in its front-facing camera, but there’s still a lot that it’s keeping under wraps. That’ll change at LG’s MWC 2019 conference on February 24, when we’ll find out all about the new flagship device.  

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