LG phones often play second or third fiddle to the iPhone and Galaxy brands, but with the LG V40 ThinQ, the Korean tech company is making waves as the first mainstream phone to have five (yes, five) camera lenses dedicated to taking better, more creative photos than the iPhone XS Max or Galaxy Note 9 -- three on the V40's rear, two on the front.
The LG V40 has a few camera tricks to keep it from being an also-ran Android phone, unlike this year’s unsurprising, risk-averse LG G7 ThinQ. It captures larger pixels and combines a regular, telephoto, and a super-wide-angle camera in a rear three-camera array. There’s also a normal and wide-angle camera pair on the front for selfies and group selfies, respectively.
You’re getting five different perspectives from the LG V40 cameras, and several unique modes. Triple Shot simultaneously snaps pictures from all three rear cameras, so you don’t have to worry about which lens is best for a particular shot. Cine Shot allows you to create six-second cinemograph’s to partially animate still photos. And Cine Video, first seen on the LG V30, is back to make it easier to fluidly zoom in anywhere, not just the dead center of the camera screen.
So should you get the V40? It's definitely worth considering if you see yourself using the wide-angle lens often -- that is, taking expansive photos with a wide field of view, and fitting lots of content in each frame. It's a signature feature in many LG phones, and the company has been iterating and improving on it for years. It's also one of the few premium phones that still has a headphone jack.
Looks-wise, the V40 ThinQ is pretty much a V30 (ThinQ or otherwise) with an extra camera both front and back and a notch on the display even if that's us oversimplifying things a bit. Sure, the camera arrangement is horizontal now, but even so, the family ties are apparent.
(V30 | V40 ThinQ | G7) (From Left to Right)
Pretty much the same goes for the glass back-metal frame build LG adopted with the G6. This model will come in Moroccan Blue and Aurora Black color schemes, but don't be surprised to see more eye-catching paint jobs like the Raspberry Rose on the G7 above (that's not to say we're not perpetually in love with the deep blue, new or old). The black one is stealthier, though it will produce a navy tinge under certain angles and light.
About time we move over to the front where the 6.4-inch OLED display awaits. LG is using an OLED panel for this one, so no claims for outlandish brightness like we saw on the G7's RGBW LCD.
You can also set the parameters to choose to hide it in settings (which we quite obviously did). You can also tweak the radius to round off the corners and even accentuate the status bar with a rainbow effect - the G7 treated its notch the same way. We keep calling it a notch, but LG likes the 'Second screen' name - to remind us that it was in fact LG that first filled the top bezel with screen on the V10 before it was cool. Looking back, it was pretty cool.
It’s also among the fastest Android phones we’ve tested thanks to the Snapdragon 845 chipset and 6GB of RAM, and it’s one of the few that has a headphone jack, a powerful speaker, and a micro SD card slot.
The LG V40 is noticeably lighter than its large-screen smartphone competition, and yet it doesn’t feel cheap in the hand. It’s the weight of a sizable plastic phone, with all the benefits (and risks, in terms of potential dings and scratches) of a premium, all-glass design. There’s some nice polish here, even if the black version is tested and is inescapably a fingerprint magnet.
The LG V40 has been released on Thursday, October 18, the V40 is more expensive than it should be, really, costing anywhere from $900 to $980 in the US. The T-Mobile version costs a middle-of-the-road $920, while Verizon has it for $980. We’re waiting on the confirmed UK price, and to see how much it costs in other regions.
In the US, we can already tell you that it costs more than the similarly sized Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus ($840), but less than the iPhone XS ($1,000) and iPhone XS Max ($1,100).
Also new to the V series is the dedicated Google Assistant button, matching what we saw on the LG G7. This summons Google’s AI voice assistant, which is smarter Samsung’s terrible Bixby AI. But you’re still bound to accidentally hit the button, mistaking it for the volume-down key that sits right above it. The Google Pixel 2 and HTC phones have the right idea, with the less problematic squeeze-the-lower-body mechanic for calling up Google Assistant in a pinch.
The LG V40 has just one speaker, but we found it gets plenty loud thanks to its Boombox Speaker concept. We saw this with the G7, too – inside, the entire back of the phone is dedicated to a resonance chamber. You’ll also find a 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC and DTS:X 3D Surround Sound, continuing the V series tradition of offering some of the best audio on a phone when you’re using it with headphones.
The V40 charges via the USB-C port on the bottom and comes bundled with a fast charger. Another thing you'll find in the box is a pair of wired earbuds that connect via a standard 3.5mm plug - because the V40 still has the headphone jack.
The V40 ThinQ boots Android 8.1 Oreo with LG's in-house launcher on top. Sadly, gone are the days of the V20 which was at the time the first phone to launch on Nougat. It is what it is. Anyway, the V40's user interface is basically identical to that of the G7 - colorful icons, white menus, the proprietary Smart Bulletin
Quick Spec List:
- Size 6.4 inches
- Resolution 1440 x 3120 pixels, (~537 ppi density)
- OS Android 8.1 (Oreo)
- Chipset Qualcomm SDM845 Snapdragon 845 (10 nm)
- CPU Octa-core (4x2.7 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4x1.7 GHz Kryo 385 Silver)
- GPU Adreno 630
- Memory 64 GB, 6 GB RAM, microSD, up to 512 GB
- Rear Camera 12 MP, 27mm (standard), f/1.5, 1.4µm, 3-axis OIS, dual pixel PDAF 12 MP, 52mm (telephoto), f/2.4, 1.0µm, 2x optical zoom, OIS, PDAF 16 MP, 16mm (ultrawide), f/1.9, 1.0µm, no AF
- Front Camera 8 MP, 26mm (standard), f/1.9, 1.4µm 5 MP, 21mm (wide), f/2.2, 1.4µm
- Sensors Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, color spectrum
- Battery Non-removable Li-Po 3300 mAh battery
- Colors New Aurora Black, New Moroccan Blue
- Price About 800 EUR
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