What you need to know about the LG V20

LG has updated its slightly weird V10 smartphone to unveil its second flagship of the year: the V20. If you weren’t too sure about the modular concept LG was trying to sell with the G5, this new flagship might be worth checking out.

Advertisement

How does it look?

Unlike the rubber-like texture and metal sides of the V10, this V20 looks more like a sibling of the G5 with this matte aluminum back. You get a dual camera setup in the rear, which means it doesn’t build on the two selfie cameras the V10 had before. There’s a circular fingerprint scanner at the rear and the secondary screen remains on top of the phone. LG put in a mechanical button on the side of the V10, which people assumed when the leaks came out would make the phone modular. Instead, that button pops open the rear cover to help you swap out batteries. Thankfully, LG decided to stick with a removable battery format.

The primary screen is a 5.7-inch QHD IPS display. Its secondary screen gets an upgrade and LG claims it’s brighter and has better contrast this time around.

What powers it?

Inside you get what you’d expect from a 2016 flagship: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, 3,200mAh battery, and 64GB of storage that supports up to 2TB via microSD. It has an MIL-STD 810G rating for drop and shock resistance (no water resistance here). And it has USB Type-C port that supports Quick Charge 3.0.

What’s so special about it?

While the secondary screen likens it a bit to Samsung’s Galaxy edge phones, the key features LG is pushing in the V20 is the camera and its video recording capabilities as well as it’s built-in support for Hi-Fi audio.

As mentioned, the dual camera setup is moved to the back of the device, making it similar to the G5. It has a 16-megapixel sensor with f/1.8 aperture and optical image stabilization and a wider 8-megapixel sensor with f/2.8 aperture. But what makes it different from the G5 is LG focuses on its video recording capabilities more, injecting features like the Qualcomm Steady Record 2.0 for smoother videos. LG says the microphone built into the V20 can record everything from voice memos to loud concerts without distortion and clipping. It even has the ability to save lossless audio files of the videos you record, making it a tool videographers might want to look into.

Speaking of lossless audio, the V20 has a 32-bit quad DAC setup, which supports popular lossless music formats. LG teamed up with Bang & Olufsen to improve the playback performance of the V20. The smartphone also has a 72-stage volume control.

It is also the first Android device outside of the Nexus ecosystem to get Android 7.0 Nougat baked into the smartphone. While you wouldn’t get the uncluttered stock operating system experience, you still get access to things like the new In Apps feature that helps you find content from built-in apps as well as user-installed apps.

How much and when is it available?

The V20 comes in titan (dark gray), silver, and pink. Global release is expected this month but that could still mean next month here in the Philippines. We’ll also have to wait for pricing but we’ll update once we get word about its price. The V10 debuted with a P37,990 suggested retail price, while the G5 sold for P34,990. You can expect its price to play around that range, especially since LG packed in a whole lot of tech into this sleek-looking phone.