LG is about to unveil its latest smartphone and, more importantly, tell the world when the LG Velvet will arrive in its home country

The South Korean phone maker plans to unveil the LG Velvet at an online event in its home country on Thursday (May 7) Thanks to the magic of time zones, American smartphone buyers will find out everything they need to know about the LG Velvet tonight

Here you can follow along with tonight's LG Velvet unveiling and what we already know about this new LG phone

LG has scheduled an event to unveil the LG Velvet on May 7 at 10:00 AM (KST) This means that US viewers will be able to watch the event on Wednesday, May 6 at 9:00 PM (EDT/6:00 PM PDT)

In this age of social distance, online product launches have become the norm, and LG is following suit: the LG Velvet teaser video states that the phone will be available on LG Electronics Korea's YouTube channel or the company's Facebook page at LG Electronics Korea's YouTube channel or the company's Facebook page to follow the phone's unveiling

One problem: both of these sites are in Korean, and there appears to be no English version of tonight's LG Velvet event feed It would be a good idea to check

The LG Velvet is not necessarily a mystery, as LG has been systematically leaking details about the new phone in the weeks leading up to the May 7 launch Our LG Velvet hub has the full details, but here is a summary of what we know so far about the phone

The LG Velvet is essentially the LG G9, the follow-up to last year's LG G8, and LG says it is trying to get out of the habit of naming phones with a series of letters and numbers, at least for consumer products And as someone who routinely confuses G-series and V-series phones, I'm fine with that

LG says it is focusing on design with the LG Velvet, but according to some early images of the new phone, the company is not messing around here The most distinctive difference is the rear camera array, which LG says resembles raindrops Other design highlights included a trimmed-down bezel and an array of four colors for the new phone

LG also confirmed many of the specs for the new 68-inch smartphone, which will feature an OLED screen and a 4,300 mAh battery There is a Snapdragon 765G powering the device - which means 5G connectivity - enhanced with a rumored 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage The rear camera will feature a 48MP main sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 5MP depth sensor

These are the big questions we hope LG will answer this week: how much will the LG Velvet cost and in which countries will it be available

Tackling the first part of that, the LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen - which the LG Velvet replacement phone - debuted for about $699 We expect it to be priced around that, especially considering that the high-end LG V60 ThinQ is $899 That phone, which appeared earlier this year, runs on the Snapdragon 865 chipset, a more expensive piece of silicon than the Snapdragon 765 planned for the LG Velvet

As for availability, the fact that LG is holding this event in Korea almost tells us where it will arrive first LG plans to officially launch the LG Velvet in the Korean market in the middle of next month" More details on global availability will be shared in the coming weeks"