Learn more and apply at NYIT.edu: http://bit.ly/2gHFfb0
Here's everything you should know about the LG V30 before you buy it.
It’s been over a month since the LG V30 was announced and it is just now starting to reach the hands of consumers. We’ve had a pre-production model since late August and we produced a first impressions video covering its main features and specifications. But September was a big month full of several big smartphone launch events so we thought we’d revisit the device and tell you everything you should know about this device before you buy it.
First the design. The design is an evolution of the LG G6. While it doesn’t have a curved display, it has curved glass that actually makes swiping through content and opening up app menus much more comfortable.
If you’re looking for a design similar to the G6, Samsung Galaxy S8, or a Note 8, you should enjoy the LG V30. The 6-inch QHD P-OLED display with an 18:9 aspect ratio is almost reminiscent of Samsung’s devices. You’ll find that extremely high contrast ratio and deep blacks that you just won’t find with the LG G6 or really any smartphone with an LCD display.
The phone is really light, especially for coming from an iPhone 8 Plus. Chances are, you won’t be coming from the iPhone 8 Plus but that’s just the phone I’ve been testing recently. And the difference in weight is night and day. Other things you should know about include the headphone jack being up top, that’s just a feature you don’t really see too often these days. The fingerprint scanner is on the rear because there’s no room for it up front. It works really well and it’s actually in a natural spot that’s easy to reach. Wireless charging is in tow and there is quick charge 3.0 technology to allow you to charge to 50% in 36 minutes via a cable if that’s more your thing. There’s only a single bottom-facing speaker, which is definitely a con in my book. One of the reasons why I’m so excited for the new Pixel smartphones is for the dual front-facing speakers. The Pixel XL 2 is made by LG so it would have been nice to see front-facing speakers in LG’s newest flagship. But for what it’s worth though, this bottom-facing speaker can get very loud and the sound is surprisingly clear and pungy. It just doesn’t face the right direction. Furthermore, in the design department, we have a slot for a microSD card for expandable storage. That’s dope. The IP68 water and dust resistance rating is also a drug taken illegally for recreational purposes a.k.a. Dope.
Even though my unit is a pre-production model, the retail version of the LG V30 will not ship with the latest version of Android, that being Android Oreo. It actually ships with Android Nougat 7.1.2. If you’re looking for a phone that runs stock Android and gets the newest updates straight from Google, you should probably look into a Pixel smartphone. The V30 does run a heavy skin on top of Nougat but it’s very customizable. You can change the launcher and you can use third party apps to alter and change the notification drawer, etc. Naturally, it’s not going to be as smooth as a phone running stock Android but in my testing, I have found this phone to be very quick and very responsive even after a month of use. It really doesn’t seem to slow down. It is being powered by the Snapdragon 835 chipset with 4GB of RAM. 6GB of RAM would have been nice to see but 4 is certainly adequate. Let’s say you’re coming from the LG V10 or even the V20, you should know that there’s no secondary display. LG has opted in for a floating bar that tries to give you the functionality of a second display without the extra hardware. What I like most is the floating bar available via Always On display. That’s what I ended up using most because I can quickly swipe through to turn on my flashlight or open up the camera app all from the display even when the display is technically off. And the secondary display doesn’t use much battery because it is using a P-OLED display.
The camera is actually one of the best in the business. There’s actually three camera sensors: a 16-megapixel main shooter, 13-megapixel wide sensor on the rear, and a front-facing 5-megapixel sensor. The 16-megapixel shooter has an f/1.7 aperture, the widest of any smartphone camera. This will let you take less noisy night photos or photos with inadequate lighting. It will also help you get those really milky depth of field shots. The wide-angle sensor is also really fun to play with because it captures a whooping 120 degrees. It also has a really wide f/1.9 aperture so when you’re capturing those outdoor shots, outdoor landscape images, the wide-angle sensor really comes in handy and makes photos look amazing and much bigger and more grand than the main sensor.
The front-facing sensor is also capable of capturing some wide-angle selfies too so if you take a lot of selfies with some friends, that’s good news for you. If you’re a cinematographer, aspiring YouTuber, or a camera enthusiast, you might really like the new cinemode that is made up of a collection of filters that maintain color accuracy, have a wider dynamic range for a smooth transition between lighting dark scenes, and more vivid colors. There’s also some pretty neat zoom effects that can be added with this new mode.
In closing, the LG V30 is priced at around $800 in the US. It’s competing against the Note 8, the iPhone 8, and iPhone X. There’s a lot to love about this phone. My guess is it’s really going to come down to software differences that will ultimately make you buy the V30 or leave it in the dust for Samsung, Apple, or some other manufacturer’s offering. And the reason I say that is because the hardware is so similar to the Note 8 or iPhone X. The V30 has really all the bells and whistles that you can come to expect when paying for an $800 phone.
