LG has officially announced the V35 ThinQ today. From a design perspective, it’s largely identical to its V30S and V30 predecessors. As for internal specs, it borrows pretty much everything from the $750 G7 ThinQ. The main differences between the V35 and the G7 are the screen, battery capacity, and amount of RAM. Another significant difference is price: AT&T is selling the V35 ThinQ for an eye-popping $900 (or $30 monthly over 30 months). Preorders start Friday, and the V35 will be in stores on June 8th — around the same time that other carriers will start selling the G7. The V35 is also coming to Google’s Project Fi next month, though it’s an AT&T exclusive if you’re only looking at the big four carriers.

With the V35, you get a more traditional, no-notch OLED screen. The display is wider than the G7’s, but the tradeoff is that the phone won’t be quite as comfortable in one hand. The battery is slightly larger at 3,300mAh compared to 3,000 in the G7, and the V35 includes 6GB of RAM versus the G7’s 4GB. Aside from the notch, the G7’s other standout feature is its incredibly loud Boom Box speaker; the V35 doesn’t bring that over. Nor does it have a dedicated power button (the fingerprint sensor handles this) or Google Assistant button.

It’s hard for me to view this phone as anything other than the G7’s guts inside the V30 chassis. That alone isn’t a problem if you really prefer OLED or strongly dislike all things notch. But I’m totally baffled as to where the $150 price hike comes from or what justifies it. You’re paying a lot for different screen tech here.

The G7 strikes me as the better device, to be frank. It at least feels somewhat new. If the V30S was repetitive, as Vlad wrote back in February, then LG isn’t doing much of anything to revitalize things for the V series. Everything that once made it stand out has trickled down to the G series, and there’s not much left for the V35 to stand on. Also note that the very similar V30S can be had for under $700.

Here’s how the V35 and G7 compare. Differences between them are in bold:

V35 ThinQ specs:

• 6-inch 18:9 Quad HD+ (2880 x 1440) OLED display (538 pixels per inch)
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor
• 16MP super wide angle (f/1.9, 107-degree field of view) and 16MP standard angle (f/1.6, 71-degree field of view) rear cameras
• 8MP wide angle (f/1.9, 80-degree field of view) front-facing camera
• 64GB of internal storage and microSD expansion
• 6GB of RAM
• 3,300mAh battery
• Android 8.0 Oreo
• Other features: AI CAM / Super Bright Camera / Super Far Field Voice Recognition / Google Lens / AI Haptic / Hi-Fi Quad DAC / DTS:X 3D Surround Sound / IP68 Water and Dust Resistance / HDR10 / Face Recognition / Fingerprint Sensor / Qualcomm Quick Charge™ 3.0 Technology / Wireless Charging / MIL-STD 810G Compliant

G7 ThinQ specs:

• 6.1-inch 19.5:9 Quad HD+ (3120 x 1440) LCD display (564 pixels per inch)
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor
• 16MP super wide angle (f/1.9, 107-degree field of view) and 16MP standard angle (f/1.6, 71-degree field of view) cameras
• 8MP wide angle (f/1.9, 80-degree field of view) front-facing camera
• 64GB of internal storage and microSD expansion
• 4GB of RAM in US / 6GB in some international markets
• 3,000mAh battery
• Android 8.0 Oreo
• Boom Box speaker
• Other features: Super Bright Display / Google Assistant Button / Power Button / AI CAM / Super Bright Camera / Super Far Field Voice Recognition / Google Lens / AI Haptic / Hi-Fi Quad DAC / DTS:X 3D Surround Sound / IP68 Water and Dust Resistance / HDR10 / Face Recognition / Fingerprint Sensor / Qualcomm Quick Charge™ 3.0 Technology / Wireless Charging / MIL-STD 810G Compliant