LG is going toe-to-toe with the highest-end phones out there.
High-end smartphones are expensive, often inexplicably so. But even when recognizing that they're generally expensive across the board, we were still surprised to see the announcement today that AT&T will be offering the LG V20 for a rather massive $830 when pre-orders start on October 7.
There's no doubt that LG has thrown a massive number of specs and features into a really nice design on the LG V20, but the pricing of $830 puts it in some pretty rare company. Looking down AT&T's device offerings, the iPhone 7 Plus starts at $769, the Galaxy S7 edge at $794 and the Galaxy Note 7 at $879. Of course the just-announced Google Pixel XL will start at $769 as well. For what it's worth, the LG V10 debuted at $700 this time last year.
Can LG really get over $800 for a phone today?
AT&T offers 24- and 30-month 0% financing for its phones, but that doesn't erase the fact that hardly anyone was expecting the V20 would cost well over $800. Seeing as how the LG G5 hardly flew off store shelves at its flagship price, it's hard to see how many people will buy the V20 for some $150 more. Very few companies can charge that kind of money for a phone, and despite the Note 7's issues slowing down Samsung, we're not so sure that LG is one of those companies.
Until other carriers reveal pricing — T-Mobile announced availability but not pricing earlier today — we're going to reserve completely judgement for a moment, but $830 for the LG V20 is really going to test how much people are willing to go with an LG phone over other equally competitive models at lower prices.
