LG Wing Teardown! - HOW DOES IT WORK?!

the lg wing is probably one of the most unique devices we've seen all year or maybe even of all time it's one of those devices that well blazes its own trail without really stopping to ask for directions and i'm all for it this is a pre-production unit sent to me by lg so it's not a retail unit the durability test has to wait until that comes out like we always do but the hardware is finalized so we can take it all apart to see how it works huge thanks to lg for sponsoring this video and sending over the wing rather brave them since i've never opened up a phone like this before and there's a pretty good chance it won't survive let's get started [Applause] [Music] the lg wing has about the same size shape thickness and weight as my note 10 plus inside of its case but the lg wing can do this which is something i never thought a phone would need to do instead of folding this guy swivels it'll be super interesting to see how that works from the inside the phone splits in half swiveling up into a t-shape so the screen is horizontal while revealing a secondary square screen down below the swinging motion feels solid and really easy to initiate and something catches the screen at the top of the swivel to gently ease it into place we're going to find out how the hinge works once we get inside lg has installed a high lubricity polyacetyl which is a lubricated plastic of source that surrounds the front panel and protects the screen it's a softer smoother plastic raised up to form a slight cavern inside so foreign materials won't be rubbing up on the screen when it's closed or opening this is important because pocket sand is a real danger to glass displays when the phone is opened up in its wing to state there is more real estate for activities and multitasking like with youtube it displays the video up top and the video controls down below or when we're in the camera app the bottom display can act as a gimbal for the camera unit adding extra electronic stabilization to the camera there is no physical movement of the camera hardware while you're controlling that gimbal it's all done with software but still pretty cool activating the top camera makes it pop out of the phone like a daisy and then the wing can film forwards and backwards at the same time it also has the same retract and fall detection features that we've seen in other pop-up cameras the coolest thing though i think is the ability to watch a video full screen while another app like texting is open at the bottom or even the ability to comment on a video while it's still full screen or maybe while you're on a road trip the navigation can be vertical while the music is over on the side screen there are a lot of different options i mean let's be honest this probably isn't going to be the best phone to recommend to grandma but if you're looking for the latest craziest and most uniquely designed phone on the market this might very well just be it now that the wing has been awake for five minutes it's time to take it apart so keep in mind that this is my first time seeing the lg wing and it is very different from any other phone we've taken apart recently so cross your fingers for our new friend's survival dlg wing has passed nine different mil standard 810g tests one of which is the shock test which dropped the wing at 26 different angles from 1.2 meters and it still survived but that's obviously quite a bit different than being completely dismantled i'll remove the back glass panel since that's where i'd assume we'd find the screen and internal connectors along with whatever magic makes up that swivel hinge with the back glass gone we get our first look at the wireless charging pad and the no dogs allowed sticker which is good since i'm not a canine i'll continue there are nine normal phillips head screws holding down the top plastics and once that panel is removed we get our first tease at how lg has assembled the wing we know ribbon cables can flex you know from those pop-up cameras and this ribbon cable controlling the screen goes through the pcb and rotates gently with the display inside of its large smooth circular opening lg says they've tested this opening motion over 200 000 times which like if you flipped open the phone 100 times a day would still last you about five and a half years so far so good we can also get a close-up look at the pop-up front-facing camera it's got the same stepper motor setup that we've seen other pop-up cameras use i used to dedicate an entire video to a pop-up camera but now we've got whole phones splitting in half technology's pretty great i'll disconnect the battery the bottom screen the usb-c charging port cable all just like little legos then i'll pull out this sim and expandable memory sd card tray you might think that a phone like this wouldn't have any water protection and you're kind of right the phone isn't exactly sealed shut but lg has coated the internal boards with a water repellent coating there's still no official ip rating so keep it away from water but it is nice to know it does have some protection i'll lift the motherboard out from the phone after disconnecting the 32 megapixel front-facing camera there are three rear-facing cameras the 12-megapixel swivel camera up top a 64 megapixel main camera which does have optical image stabilization and a 13 megapixel wide angle camera down at the bottom the top camera does the whole gimbal thing that i showed you earlier with its built-in electronic stabilization there is a small thermal pad on the back which helps transfer heat away from the processor into the frame of the phone i'll take the battery out next before we try to remove the wing there is an incredibly reasonable amount of adhesive holding the battery down no magic pull tabs but it does pop up easily with my pry tool thumbs up for that it has a four thousand milliamp hour capacity we have a few more revelations about that hinge from this vantage point the little doohickey that cushions the hinge opening is right here next the display ribbon it's the smallest hydraulic damper i've ever seen hydraulic shocks are common on trucks and off-roading vehicles to help cushion the impact of the vehicle while off-roading and here we have the babiest of the baby shocks inside of the lg wing if we can get an awe down in the comments that would be great we'll get a closer look at that guy in just a second in order to get the front screen off i imagine it has something to do with these six large phillips head screws after those are gone i can tell the screen wants to come away from the phone but it's still connected somehow i'm trying to be gentle since i never really asked lg if they wanted this phone back alive or not but they also didn't tell me how to open it so here we are after a lot of unfruitful jiggling and wiggling i realized that the screen itself had a little hole in its sliding mechanism kind of like how we would find in a hotel room chain door lock and once i got those internal screws removed it gets loose enough so the hole can be lined up and popped off the body of the phone i used to you know tell my mom that video games would help me learn problem solving skills that i could use as an adult and i don't think this is exactly what she had in mind but i'm still counting it there are nine black screws holding the hinge of the super thin top display and once those are gone we finally get our full complete view of the lg wing hinge the rest of the hinge components are riveted together which makes sense because what's left inside are two pretty powerful springs one that helps the phone open and hold it open and the other that holds it in the closed position both equally balanced so that the swiveling motion itself is easy the large hole in the center is for that ribbon cable the two curved sections you see on the hinge are for the double locking mechanism that keeps the screen from opening too far in either direction and having two of them both made out of metal helps keep the screen strongly positioned parallel to the rest of the foam body it looks like our itty bitty hydraulic damper is held in place with three tiny screws of its own i'll pop those out and pull away our tic-tac-size little friend it's amazing how small this thing is the same technology that keeps the screen door from slamming shut is now inside of a cell phone 2020 has been pretty wild speaking of wild it's going to be really crazy if i can get this whole thing put back together and functioning again i'll feed the top display through the hinge and get that screwed down the top display is 6.8 inches and the bottom display which is still attached to the frame is just about four inches getting the curved metal guiding slot in the screen lined up with the metal post on the foam body is probably the trickiest part of the reassembly but once i feel it get clicked in everything else just falls into place exactly how it should and i can attach the spring portion of the swivel hinge back to the frame from the inside everything else is relatively normal just like a regular phone the motherboard goes back in with this pop-up camera and all of the little lego style ribbon attachments get clipped in i'll lay the battery in place and get the wing screen ribbon connected then i can attach the wireless charging and protective backed plastics with the screws and trust me i'm just as surprised as you are the whole thing still turns on and functions like normal not too shabby i'm impressed at lg's leap of innovation the wing brings some exciting diversity to an otherwise rather boring sea of rectangles and i think it's pretty cool i'm curious to hear your thoughts about the wing down in the comments we'll do a durability test when the retail version comes out to keep things consistent i am glad that lg gave us an early look inside though hit that subscribe button if you haven't already coming out with me on instagram and twitter and thanks a ton for watching i'll see you around

Channel: JerryRigEverything

Views: 7,005,506

Keywords: LG Wing, Smartphone, tech, LG wing teardown, How does the LG wing work, folding phone, LG, best smartphone, cool smartphone, unique smartphone, wing

Id: fxGI8r8vAFk

Length: 9min 37sec (577 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 24 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Dr-Sommer]

I love it when phone manufacturers dare to get really weird with their new models. It's a bummer it doesn't work out in like 99% of cases, but it's always interesting to look at.

[u/ryanvsrobots]

So cool yet so dumb at the same time.

[u/petaboil]

Damn, this is the exact sorta thing I want youtube to recommend to me, but would never think to look for myself, I love watching stuff get taken apart.

[u/lowbug12]

Hmm i guess this is one of those things where i wonder why the fuck, but in the future everyone and their granma will be using

[u/screenavenger]

I could see this a useful device in certain fields/careers as a work phone, but probably won't fly as a consumer product.

[u/GroundPoint8]

This is the kind of technology that's good for pushing boundaries and changing the paradigm of what a modern phone could be, but really doesn't make my life better or easier in a way that I really want or need. Is it cool? Oh sure. Do I want one? Just to play around with for a few minutes, I guess, for the novelty of it. It just isn't something that I ever find myself really wishing my normal phone had, and so I can't see myself paying for this kind of mechanical complexity.

That being said, if you can normalize it enough and force it into enough peoples hands, then people will start taking it for granted and resent phones that don't have these features. But for now it's just kind of unnecessary.