LG today unveiled the V20, successor to its surprise hit from last year the V10. The handset is the company’s new flagship handset after the terrible failure of the modular G5.
The handset features a gigantic 5.7-inch screen with Quad HD resolution with a few innovative features. However, unlike the G5, the V20 does not feature a modular design or support for Friends. Like the V10, the V20 also sports a secondary ticker located right above its primary screen. Since the handset no longer comes with dual selfie camera, the secondary ticker display is slightly larger and sports a resolution of 160 x 1040. Dubbed Second Screen, the ticker display is more customisable than before and now supports signatures of up to 24 characters.
https://youtu.be/u8gf32H1WOs
Made from AL 6013, an aluminum-magnesium-silicon-copper alloy that is primarily used in airplanes, the LG V20 design has a unique ace up its sleeve. Despite coming with a metal chassis, the V20 features a removable metal back that gives one access to the 3200mAh removable battery. The top and bottom sides of the handset are made from polycarbonate that makes it 20 percent more shock resistant. LG says that the V20 is MIL-STD-810 Transit Drop compliant as well.
Inside the V20 is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 chipset clocked at 2.15GHz, 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB of UFS storage, and a microSD card slot. The handset also features Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, nFC, and has Quick Charge 23.0 support. You also get the same dual-camera setup at the rear as found on the G5 albeit with some improvements. This means we are looking at a 16MP f/1.8 primary camera with OIS along with a secondary 8MP f/2.4 camera with a 135-degree wide-angle lens. This setup is paired with a hybrid autofocus system that includes Laser Detection AF, Phase Detection AF and Contrast AF for speedy and reliable focusing. LG says that the V20 makes use of Qualcomm’s third generation EIS to reduce shakes and jerks while recording video.
The 5MP f/1.9 selfie camera in the front also has a 120-degree wide-angle lens. The camera app has also been upgraded to offer features like Focus Tracking, Tracking Focus, and more.
The 7.6mm thick phone also features an ES9218 Quad DAC for impressive audio prowess. The audio quality has been further fine-tuned by Bang & Olufsen. LG claims the upgraded audio system on the V20 helps in reducing ambient noise, distortion, and provide finer controls over the volume levels. The Bang & Olufsen tuning, however, will not be available on the V20 sold in the United States. LG is also bundling a special recording app with the V20 that will be able to record sound in extremely high quality using the three microphones on the phone and offers modes like Studio, Concert, and more.
On the software front, the V20 is the first phone in the world to run on Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box with LG’s UX 5.0+ running on top of it. LG has also neatly integrated Google’s In Apps search into the secondary ticker screen to provide users with quick access to it.
LG will be launching the V20 in Titan, Pink, and Silver colors in South Korea. The handset will also be available across all major carriers in the United States from September.
