Chopping off the LG Wing’s swiveling screen leaves a tiny, square display that’s just perfect for gaming
When the LG Wing debuted in 2020, it was clear that this imaginative, innovative handset would either utterly transform our expectations for phones going forward, or it would — well, let’s just leave it at “LG gave up on making smartphones entirely.” But for as weird a legacy as this phone had, complete with starring in a bizarre pandemic movie, it’s what we’ve seen modders do with the hardware after its death that has really been interesting. Someone had already turned the Wing’s smaller screen into a stand-alone phone, and now we’re seeing it adapted as a custom gaming console.
Over on the Retro Game Handhelds Discord, custom-build enthusiast laozhang has been showing off his work turning the Wing’s 3.9-inch 1080 x 1240 internal screen into the basis for an Android-powered gaming machine, with access to all your favorite apps and emulators (via Mishaal Rahman). A special-built controller shell houses the Wing’s guts, adds gaming controls, and provides a new home for the battery — there’s even a cut-out that allows the Wing’s cameras to continue functioning.
If you’re already as excited/jealous as us, we’ve got some bad news for you, because while laozhang has reportedly constructed 50 of these units, they’re all spoken for, and none are expected to be put up for public sale. While you could absolutely crack open that Wing you bought for dirt cheap and try your luck, there is a tremendous amount of skill and refinement that clearly went into this project, and we just cannot imagine anything we might try doing ourselves coming out looking anywhere close to this good.
Between its decently high resolution and unusually square aspect ratio, the Wing’s secondary screen seems particular apt for retro gaming, and it’s almost a little surprising it’s taken this long for someone to take a stab at modding the hardware for it. At least, it sure beats trying to source a 4:3 screen from an old LG Optimus Vu.
