The LG V60 and VELVET Review: A Classic & A Design Restart
by Andrei Frumusanu on July 15, 2020 9:00 AM ESTCamera Recap
A few weeks ago, we’ve published an extensive article comparing this first half year’s main flagship devices cameras, including the LG V60. I would recommend reading that piece for a more extensive conclusion on the camera system of the V60.
Read Our Extensive Camera Evaluation For More Samples:
Mobile Flagship Phone Camera Overview 2020 H1: Still Picture Battle
[ V60 ]
[ OnePlus 8 ] - [ OnePlus 8 Pro ]
[ iPhone 11 Pro ] - [ iPhone SE ] - [ Pixel 4 ]
[ Galaxy S20U(S) ] - [ Galaxy S20+(E) ]
[ Mi 10 Pro ]
[ Mate 30 Pro ] - [ P40 Pro ]
[ Reno3 Pro 5G ] - [ Reno3 Pro ]
[ X-T30 ]
In general LG has been able to showcase excellent results with the V60 in daylight photography, many times achieving amongst the best results in terms of detail thanks to the 64MP sensor that produces 16MP images.
LG’s HDR is pleasant and the phone has generally good colour reproduction.
[ V60 ]
[ OnePlus 8 ]
[ OnePlus 8 Pro ]
[ iPhone 11 Pro ] - [ iPhone SE ] - [ P4 ]
[ Galaxy S20U(S) ]
[ Galaxy S20+(E) ]
[ Mi 10 Pro ]
[ Mate 30 Pro ]
[ P40 Pro ]
[ Reno3 Pro 5G ]
[ Reno3 Pro ]
[ X-T30 ]
In terms of zooming, the lack of a telephoto module is compensated by the fact that the main camera is able to losslessly crop its 64MP images, although beyond 2-3x the results are not competitive with other phones with dedicated units.
The ultra-wide-angle module of the V60 is also good and amongst the top performers on the market.
[ V60 ]
[ OnePlus 8 ]
[ OnePlus 8 Pro ]
[ iPhone 11 Pro ] - [ iPhone SE ] - [ Pixel 4 ]
[ Galaxy S20U(S) ]
[ Galaxy S20+(E) ]
[ Mi 10 Pro ]
[ Mate 30 Pro ]
[ P40 Pro ]
[ Reno3 Pro 5G ]
[ Reno3 Pro ] - [ X-T30 ]
Low-light photography on the LG V60 is something solely depends on the amount of light available. In medium to lowish light the phone is able to perform fairly well, but the lack of a proper computational photography and night mode means that in darker scenarios the phone falls apart. It’s by far the biggest weak-point of the device when it comes to its camera system.
Read Our Extensive Camera Evaluation For More Samples:
Mobile Flagship Phone Camera Overview 2020 H1: Still Picture Battle
LG V60 vs LG Velvet
I haven’t had time to include the LG Velvet into a full camera comparison against the wider competition, however I did make some comparison shots against the V60 to be able to put the phone into context:
Overall, the Velvet’s camera results in terms of processing and composition is extremely similar to that of the V60, which is excellent news. Where the two phones differ is in terms of detail retention, and obviously the smaller and 48MP sensor of the Velvet here isn’t able to quite match the results of the V60.
There’s a slight dynamic range disadvantage for the Velvet, but nothing that you’d immediately pick up if you were to look at the images standalone. One more notable difference is that the colours on the Velvet are ever so slightly warmer, but again only noticeable in a few select scenarios when comparing the two phones against each other.
In general, the Velvet seems to have an excellent camera for a phone in this range, and I would say it easily beats some alternatives such as the mid-range OPPO phones, and has better processing than the OnePlus 8, with its biggest weakness again being low-light photography where the lack of a computational photography night mode is a big handicap.
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philehidiot - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
Myself, it's a matter of price. For £400 more than my current SIM only package (over 24 months) I can get an S10. That's a VERY hard deal to beat. I'm currently paying £2.50 a month more than if I got on a decent 24 month contract as I've been awaiting the 5G rollout to upgrade, so I'm on a monthly contract with unlimited data. So any phone has to be available at £400 or less before even consideration as the S10 is the benchmark.flyingpants265 - Sunday, July 19, 2020 - link
Not a fan of S10's curved screen edges. Still annoying.What I needed was OP7, Samsung, or LG G4/G8, or Realme X.. with blackshark style front speakers, and no other missing features.
flyingpants265 - Monday, July 20, 2020 - link
Well... True, honestly.I'm no fan of LG, their phones are defective. And I want a phone with front speakers.
But this looks like a OP8 with headphone jack. Or S10 with no stupid curved screen.
The second Samsung, LG or OnePlus make a flagship phone with front stereo speakers, I'll be all over it.
peevee - Friday, July 24, 2020 - link
Agree on the useless pixels. Either the people are near-sighted and don't use glasses when looking at the screens, or just go by "bigger is better" attitude of self-delusion (claiming the see the difference without a double blind test).PeachNCream - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
That's a lot of money to pay for a phone with a battery that isn't easily replaced. Kind of a pity since it doesn't really help make phones better in some meaningful way by stopping the user from yanking out and installing a fresh battery after it starts to get tired less than a year later.TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
Agreed, although with a capacity and runtime like that "tired in less then a year" doesnt apply. It isnt 2005 anymore.after 4 years my moto z play still has great battery life and is only just now starting to falter. Even so I agree on the price, no way I'd pay $900 for a phone.
PeachNCream - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
It's probably more of a symptom of the phones that I end up using, but I do find myself on an annual-ish replacement cycle for batteries regardless of the design and that means keeping a small set of specialized tools plus rolling the dice with replacement batteries. That is present day experience though rather than one from fifteen years ago when, in fact, my cell phone battery retained its endurance for quite a bit longer due mainly to the fact that it was necessary to charge the battery once a week or so rather than daily.TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
My work gives us iPhones. While 3-4 hours runtime is the norm for them, I never had one lose appreciable battery life after less then 3 years outside of the 6s’ faulty one.My personal phones have been a moto z play and before that a note 4 with a 10,000 mah zero lemon battery. The moto is showing signs of wear after nearly 4 years, the note never showed signs of wear. Before that was a dumb phone that went many years on the original battery.
TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
I should note all my personal phones went at least 3 days on a charge when new, with the dumb phone pasting 2 weeks and the note lasting 7-8 days. The moto z play goes 3-4, but I was forced to upgrade, Id’ve stuck with the note 4 if I could.PeachNCream - Friday, July 17, 2020 - link
If I leave my phone alone, it will generally sit idle for close to four days without requiring a recharge. That is a rare thing though since I tend to put my phone to use doing just about everything I used to do on my computer. Mine tends to be busy most of the day with web activity, e-mail, lengthy writing (always working on the next novel), watching videos, streaming radio or running local music, playing a few games - mainly emulators of 8- and 16-bit consoles but sometimes a few native Android games as well so I rarely end the day without charging. Since lockdown and staying at home became a thing, I've just let my phone connected to a charger almost constantly and that's been nice.Brings me back to the point though. I usually see well over a 30% drop in battery life over the course of a year and that's annoying enough to warrant an annual replacement which is never fun thanks to spudgers, tiny hex screws and so on. It isn't the most tedious thing I get to do, but it would be a LOT better to simply make the battery removable.