Step-up flagship variants are becoming a trend for recent releases. Speculations suggest that aside from OnePlus and Xiaomi, next in line to offer a flagship refresh is LG.

According to GSM Arena, reports out of Europe mention that LG Electronics has filed for a trademark in Germany. Reportedly, the South Korea-based tech giant has filed a trademark for "LG V20S."

While this hints that the current LG flagship will be released in Europe, the "S" moniker for the LG V20 remains unclear. However, given that the other LG flagship, the G5, came out with a watered-down SE version, it is expected that the LG V20S is also a step-down variant of the lineup.

Meanwhile, Phone Arena says that as per trusted sources, the LG V20S that will come out in Europe may have already been released last month. Supposedly, the upcoming version is the LG isai Beat that was launched in Japan in October as a mobile carrier-locked exclusive. However, instead of a step-down variant, the LG isai Beat is pegged as a smaller version of the LG V20.

The LG isai Beat is a dead ringer to the LG V20, although there are some minor differences at first glance. The iteration only has a 5.2-inch screen, compared with the larger 5.7-inch one on the V20. However, both devices display Quad HD resolution.

The LG isai Beat also features half of the 64 GB storage of the current LG flagship, but both devices have expandable storage option via microSD.

On the other hand, most of the specs and features of the two are similar. The LG isai Beat also sports the current-gen Snapdragon 820 processor, paired with 4 GB of RAM. The Japan-exclusive lineup also has the secondary ticker display on top of the main screen, as well as the dual-cam setup and fingerprint sensor in the rear. The handset also came out with Android Nougat 7.0 already onboard.