LG V20 hands-on

Introduction

Today LG unveiled the highly anticipated LG V20, a successor to the rugged and powerful V10 phablet. The new V20 focuses on keeping what made the V10 so cool - the secondary display, toughness, great audio specs and impressive camera capabilities, but continues to improve the looks, the chipset, the camera experience, and the battery life.

LG V20 is keeping its shock-proof specs even though it switched to a more beautiful body manufactured from a lightweight aluminum alloy. The shape is inspired by the LG G5 flagship though there is no modular option here. Instead users will be getting an easily swappable battery.

The new V20 keeps the same big 5.7" IPS display but does some minor upgrades on the secondary screen. There is a new Snapdragon 820 chip and the same dual-camera setup introduced with the LG G5. But wait, there is more!

LG V20 at a glance:

• Body: aluminum AL 6013, MIL-STD shock resistance
• 5.7" Quad HD IPS display, 513ppi
• 2.2" 160p secondary display, always on
• Snapdragon 820 chipset: quad-core (2x2.15 + 2x1.6 GHz) Kryo processor, Adreno 530 GPU
• 4GB RAM
• Up to 64GB of built-in storage, expandable via the microSD card slot by up to 200GB
• 16MP (f/1.8) + 8 MP (f/2.4) main camera setup; OIS; laser autofocus; LED flash, 2160p video capture with lossless sound, StedyRecord 2.0, 5MP (f/1.9) selfie camera
• B&O Play certified sound with four DACs, B&O Play headphones bundled
• 3,200mAh removable battery, QuickCharge 3.0
• Rear-mounted fingerprint sensor in the power button
• Android 7.0 Nougat OS 

LG likes to call the V20 a professional tool and it surely walks and talks the part. They've made sure the phablet packs the top-of-the-shelf specs in every department, including the audio one which has been ignored by a lot of the other manufacturers.

We are done teasing you - we handled the LG V20 for a while and the report about our first meeting kicks off right after the jump.

Design:

LG dropped the previous rugged design in favor of a G5-inspired shell and you can tell the V20 is a beauty right away. The tiny chin at the bottom may confuse someone that the modular experiment is doing another spin, but it's not the case.

The V20's shell isn't an unibody, but it sure looks like one. Everything that is not screen glass is made of AL-6013 aluminum alloy, which is reportedly used in boats and planes. The material is tough, as is the frame around the V20's chassis, so the phone has similar military shock resistance compliance as its V10 predecessor.

  

There are, of course, two tiny plastic strips around the top and bottom to hide the antennas, but we are used to seeing these everywhere these days. The aluminum back panel between those is fully removable as is the battery itself.

 

There is a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor at the back, which also doubles as a home and power key - just like it did on the V10. Above is a tiny camera hump, housing the two sensors and the flash.

A closer inspection on the phablet's sides reveals nothing out of the ordinary - the two volume keys are on the left, the top has the secondary mic and the IR blaster. The bottom houses the USB Type-C port flanked by the audio jack, the loudspeaker grille and the primary mic.

  

The front is quite interesting - the 5.7" inch is as flagship grade as it gets with top-notch resolution, great contest, colors, and sunlight legibility. Right above it is the secondary screen, which is wired separately and is independent from the main one. This allows the tiny fella to be very efficient, even though it's always on. It should cost you just below 5% of your battery capacity per day which is quite acceptable.

  

The secondary display is a tad longer than the V10's and LG doubled its brightness (68 nits). The new unit also supports longer signature of 24 digits (vs 14 at V10). The number of notification icons and the clock is the same. It can still show Info (time, weather, appointments, in-app controls), recent apps and app shortcuts, quick tools or simply your signature.

Popping the battery cover is easy as is removing the battery itself. LG says its focus was towards the users who are used to swap battery and have tried to make the experience smooth for them.

Handling the LG V20 is a pleasure - the phone is about 50g lighter than the V10, and you can tell it right away. The new material feels premium and the new shape suits it great. Operating with the V20 is a flagship experience itself, even before you dig into testing the power of its Snapdragon 820 beast inside.

  

Specifications : 

NETWORK	Technology	GSM / HSPA / LTE

LAUNCH	Announced	2016, September
	Status	Coming soon. Exp. release 2016, September

BODY	Dimensions	159.7 x 78.1 x 7.6 mm (6.29 x 3.07 x 0.30 in)
	Weight	174 g (6.14 oz)
	SIM	Nano-SIM
		- MIL-STD-810G certified

DISPLAY	Type	IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	5.7 inches (~72.4% screen-to-body ratio)
	Resolution	1440 x 2560 pixels (~513 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	To be confirmed
		- Secondary display, 160 x 1040 pixels, 2.1 inches - LG UX 5.0

PLATFORM	OS	Android OS, v7.0 (Nougat)
	Chipset	Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820
	CPU	Quad-core (2x2.15 GHz Kryo & 2x1.6 GHz Kryo)
	GPU	Adreno 530

MEMORY	Card slot	microSD, up to 256 GB (dedicated slot)
	Internal	32/64 GB, 4 GB RAM

CAMERA	Primary	Dual 16 MP, f/1.8 & 8 MP, f/2.4, laser & phase detection autofocus, OIS, dual-LED flash
	Features	Geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, panorama, HDR
	Video	2160p@30fps, 1080p@30fps, 720p@120fps, 24-bit/192kHz stereo sound rec.
	Secondary	5 MP, f/1.9

SOUND	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes
		- 32-bit/192kHz audio - B&O Play certified - 24-bit/48kHz audio recording - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

COMMS	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot
	Bluetooth	v4.2, A2DP, LE, aptX
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS
	NFC	Yes
	Infrared port	Yes
	Radio	To be confirmed
	USB	Type-C 1.0 reversible connector

FEATURES	Sensors	Fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, color spectrum
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
	Browser	HTML5
	Java	No
		- Fast battery charging (Quick Charge 3.0) - MP4/DviX/XviD/H.265/WMV player - MP3/WAV/FLAC/eAAC+/WMA player - Photo/video editor - Document editor

BATTERY		Removable Li-Ion 3200 mAh battery

MISC

Colors

Titan, Silver, Pink