The LG V60 and VELVET Review: A Classic & A Design Restart
by Andrei Frumusanu on July 15, 2020 9:00 AM ESTConclusion & End Remarks
Coming to the end of the review, we’re come to know to interesting devices from LG. The V60 and Velvet are two quite different devices that contrast LG’s seeming transition in device design, and for the most part, I’ve come to a generally positive impression from both phones.
Starting off with the LG V60, the first thing that is striking about the phone is that it’s a very non-contemporary design. Whilst most other manufacturers in 2020 have opted for curved screens and hole-punch front camera phones, LG has instead opted to seemingly remain in the past with a thick-bezeled notch design with a 2018-esque chamfered metal frame. Design is subjective, and practically besides of the ergonomics of a phone of this size, there’s nothing much wrong about keeping things simple like this – I’m pretty sure even a lot of people will enjoy the flat screen.
LG’s choice to go with a lower resolution screen when compared to the V50 is odd if one wouldn’t be familiar with LG past issues with battery life. I think the mobile division’s choice in downgrading the resolution is pretty much an admission that LG’s display division isn’t able to provide them with an efficient 1440p panel. I think this downgrade, as much as it’s painful for display fidelity, is the much better choice for the V60 as it finally solves the battery problem, and combined with the Snapdragon 865 and a 5000mAh makes the V60 amongst the longest lasting devices on the market today.
The lack of a high refresh-rate panel is a pity in 2020 – so that’s one of the compromises one has to make when going with the phone. Another big weakness is colour accuracy, and the V60 here is just horrible, but sadly we’ve come to expect that from LG phones.
Performance of the phone is great thanks to the S865 – it’s on par with other devices and results in a good user experience. I feel like LG’s software here can use a ton more polish in terms of their animations and general snappiness, but it’s not the phone itself which lacks processing power.
On the camera side of things, LG’s daylight pictures are excellent and easily amongst the top performers on the market. I really love what they did with the 64MP main camera sensor and it really is very detail-rich with good processing. The biggest weakness is low-light photography when it gets darker beyond a certain point, and the company’s lack of a proper computational photography night mode means it can’t compete with the rest of the pack when it gets very dark.
The LG Velvet is an interesting phone. First of all, LG’s redesign is a resounding success, and this is by far the sexiest LG phone we’ve come to experience in years. The company has always tried to be different in terms of their designs, but to be honest, there’s only so many ways to design a glass sandwich slab. For me the ergonomics of the phone are infinitely better than the V60 even though both devices share the same screen diagonal.
It’s also a 1080p screen, but here given that it’s a upper-mid-range / premium positioned device, I feel that it’s adequate enough for its class.
The Snapdragon 765 is new for a lot of people, and whilst it’s not my first encounter with the SoC, it’s the first comparison I was able to make against the S865 against a device from the same vendor, meaning the software stack and optimisations are similar. The end-result is probably a bit more disappointing than I had hoped it to be: On the CPU side, the chip generally performs in-between a Snapdragon 845 and a Snapdragon 855. Whilst I would no way say that it’s a bad user experience, there’s a clear difference in performance to the flagship V60.
On the GPU side, I feel like the difference is quite bigger, and here the phone performs in-between a Snapdragon 835 and 845 flagship phones when it comes to the performance, almost 2.5x slower than the Snapdragon 865 powered V60. That’s quite a starker difference, and if you’re a heavy gamer, it might not be the wisest purchase, versus say, just buying an older flagship phone.
Camera wise, the Velvet actually performed very well, and its best characteristics are that the processing is extremely similar to that of the V60, which means it’s quite excellent. Of course, the inferior sensor does mean slightly less details, dynamic range, and low-light photography is still a no-go, but at this price range it’s still reasonable enough.
Availability Is The Handicap
The LG V60’s release price was $899 which actually undercut a lot of other Snapdragon 865 phones in the market at the time, at least Samsung’s devices. The phone’s strengths are its outstanding battery life and a strong daylight camera. Weaknesses are a more lacklustre screen and a worse very low-light camera system. Unique things about the phone are its inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack. In general, the competition at this price would the OnePlus 8 Pro, which admittedly just offers a much better overall package, only sacrificing some battery life and the 3.5mm jack. I feel like LG would need a $100 price cut to make the V60 a more rationalised purchase.
The LG Velvet comes in at 599€. Whilst the phone its generally good for its price-point, the biggest issue I have with these premium devices is that 90% of the time you’re just better off buying last year’s flagship phones. A Galaxy S10 right now undercuts the Velvet at 555€ whilst being a much better phone with a better display, more performance, and overall better camera system. The only thing where the Velvet really is able to claim victory over last year’s devices is its 5G connectivity which future-proofs the phone significantly. In that sense, I also feel that the device is slightly overpriced as-is, and a 100€ reduction would alleviate any hesitations for its purchase. OnePlus’s upcoming Nord device seemingly will have very similar specifications to the Velvet while we’re expecting it to come at a lower price as well.
LG’s biggest issues today however isn’t merely pricing, but also availability. The V60 was never released in Europe and in the US it’s most commonly available only from select carriers. My review unit is actually T-Mobile branded phone and it comes with the usual bloatware associated with that.
The Velvet just outright isn’t available in the US, so you’ll have no luck in getting a device there. The phone was recently released in Europe with wider availability, as you can for example just buy a unit off LG directly from Amazon for example.
Overall, both phones aren’t the most competitive phones, but they’re still LG’s best phones they have made to date, and are both definitive improvements of the company’s past attempts. Let’s hope the Velvet’s fresh redesign can also be applied to other future LG devices.
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TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
How is it qualcomm's fault? Samsung, motorla, HTC, google, asus, none of these brands have the bootloop issues LG had.Quantumz0d - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
Bootlooping shit is dead long time back, V20 and up no issues of that, I have a V30 thankfully it has the Bootloader community unlock as LG didn't because of their higher up mobile chair changes always and mostly due to the US Carrier stranglehold, Samsung NA market phones also no BL unlock at all.And man my V30 is still running like a champ maybe a little battery deterioration but the Audio performance is almost identical to my desktop DAC+AMP setup (Modi + Alex Cavalli), and the Camera UI is perfect, the phone doesn't have any bullshit notch or deadpixel hole or shit. It just works like how it did out of the box, Oreo is the OS, I have it rooted and removed all bloat like social media bs and installed USB Audio Pro for the bitperfect playback without Android's bullshit 48KHz upsampling trash.
OS updates do not matter to me, when Android 9 ruined the multitasking by copying iPhone (Google is to blame due to their obsession with Apple) and they ruined the DSD playback on 10 and 11, 11 brings that notorious dogshit Scoped Storage which no one mentions because they all are fine with the sandboxed zero user ownership of their own fucking files on their own phone just like an iPhone.
TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
Being limited to carriers with no unlocked version is a huge drag on the V60. I applaud LG for building a simple devvice without silly resolutions and curved screens, instead opting for decent bezels to protect the fragile screen and a big battery for long runtimes, but I'm never buying a carrier locked phone again.The other elephant in the room is the price. $900 is a lot of money. That's almost 2 mortgage payments. Phones like the moto G power have a worse camera, but the same size battery and even longer runtimes, for $250. Sure its only got a SD665, but its more then enough for 99% of use cases and costs a quarter of the V60.
I hope LG has great success with the V60 and it leads them to make more of these simple designs, but I feel it's kneecapped before it even starts the race.
Quantumz0d - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
I agree, and man no Bootloader unlock on US SKUs either, it's the same old shitshow that US Carriers are having on the NA market, a big middlefinger to the consumer. A shame to be honest, LG hardware is #1 but their BL unlock situation is worse. OS updates is a hot topic many want them for some reason but in reality Android is moving away from it's openness on the OS principles one of it is APK bundling which is mandated by Google to make devs certify their own apps by Google isntead of them, keys to the castle for the apps. Then they have this scoped bullshit storage which ruins the whole Android FS and makes hard for developers to use Java and other POSIX based I/O libs to that performance hog and limited SAF, it destroys Android on a whole another level read on it, It's just Apple type grip. Security updates should at-least have been made mandatory by Google at CTS level for 3-5 years that would be a MUCH simple task than to support mega OS downgrades. It's a sham, they all want money if the phone doesn't stop why will anyone buy a new phone ?WPX00 - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
I think LG is among the best at camera performance even with the not very ambitious hardware. For years, from the G2 through the V30, the camera barely changed.G2/G3 - 13MP 1.12um OIS
G4/V10/G5/V20 - 16MP 1.12um OIS
G6 - 13MP 1.12um OIS
V30 - 16MP 1.0um OIS
They squeezed a LOT of life out of those tiny camera sensors, so it's no surprise to me they did well with the much better GM2/IMX686 sensors, even though they should theoretically pale compared to the ultra ambitious HM1 sensor in the S20U, or the IMX689 on the OnePlus.
customdtg - Saturday, July 18, 2020 - link
Presentation/View Layer. This layer comprises UI components and UI process components. ...Navigation Layer. ...
Services Layer. ...
Real-Time Updates vs Notifications. ...
Navigation Options. ...
Define User Interface.
thankyou
https://www.customdtgprinting.com/create/T-shirts?...
Revv233 - Saturday, July 18, 2020 - link
Bummer it's such a monster. Headphone jack and great battery life.I wish they would go thicker smaller rather than flatter wider and taller.
My s9+ is already at the limit of my hands & pockets.
Maybe Sony's new phone will work but also 170mm tall.
Anand12 - Saturday, July 18, 2020 - link
I don't thin the LG Velvet has OIS in their cameras. I think the reviewer has made an error. This will be reflected in Andrei's performance review and year end bonus.Kind Regards,
Anand
George Allan - Monday, July 20, 2020 - link
It is a great review https://www.anandtech.com/show/15905/the-lg-v60-an...BAllen2782 - Tuesday, July 28, 2020 - link
All i see is a bunch of cry babies in the comment section. Still yappin about the G4 bootloop issue. But, they never say anything about LG's customer service and free 2 year promise with the 1 year warranty already with the phone. Also, you can call LG and send in your G4 and theylle replace the logic board for free. I just got my fixed for free last year. As long as the phones screen isn't cracked and the phone is in good condition, LG will fix it for free. But, poeple have to let the bootloop thing go. It's been 5 years. Get over it. So, anyway i walked into a T-Mobile store to buy a new sim card for my fixed LG G4 and seen the V20 for $900. This was in Jan. 2017. I really liked the look and the only flagship SD820 phone out there with a removable battery was a perfect fit for me. Doing a lot of video content and such. But, i wasn't going to pay $900. So i held on to my G4, and a year later, there was the LG V20 brand new for $200 on ebay (from a reputable seller). I don't mind waiting a year or getting last years flagship phone for almost a quarter of the price. So, i bought the V20 with 2 extra batteries, a true OEM screen replacement for accidents, cause they do happen and a tripod. Also knowing that you do not remove the protective sticker off of the camera lens because it will crack. But, another great thing about the V20 was the phones repairability. With 1 micro screwdriver, the phone can be completely disassembled for repair. Thanks to Jerry Rig Everything for the teardown vids. He also gage the V20 an award for the easiest repairability. Also, the V20 is surprisingly durable. LG is the mainstream smartphone manufacturer that gives it flagship phones a MLT-810G transit drop rating. That let you know you can do more with the phone, like climb Mt Everest and when you get to the top and oull out your phone, it wil still work. They did it with the V30. But, enough about the V20. I wanted a newer phone and it Jan 2020. And i'm not paying $1,400 for a smartphone. That's ludicrous. Once again i jumped on ebay to my favorite vendor that's has truly Unlocked phones and not just a GSM unlocked sprint or At&t phone. I came across a brand new fully unlocked LG V40 (QA7) for $250. It was just $200 but, i missed the sale. He had one left and it came with a brand new (open box) $60 Otterbox Defender series (screenless edition) case and a pair of LG Tone Pro's worth $100. Even though, the Unlocked version comes with a pair of decent earbuds in the box. Those can be used for back up. I wanted the V50 but, everyone wanted $450 for'em at the time. They've dropped to $350 now, but, i'm only willing to pay about $300 max for a phone. Like i said, i'm a very patient person and don't mind running last years flagship or the year before that. As long as the phone is new and under $300. So, i'm a bargain shopper, kill me... The SD845 is plenty fast and the Adreno 630 (512ALU's) runs any AAA mobile game out there at 30 or 60 fps or whichever the game is set to run at. Also, another biggie was XDA has gained root on the V40 so, i was able to create a thermal.conf.file and change the thermal throttle temps so that famous LG micro stutter goes away. The V50 doesn't have this problem but, come to think of it, my V40 didn't ever get hot or thetmalw throttle itself. But, I'm a tinkerer and like to set my phone up my way. So i set the thermal throttle temps on the GPU and CPU. Time for modding the kernal or just making one. I got the ASUS ROG phone 1 clock mod and applied it to the my V40. Niw i have a SD845+. The Adreno 630 GPU is running at 725MHz and get about 900GFlops matching a stock Adreno 640 (768ALU's) clocked at 625MHz. The 4 HP A75/Kryo cores are running at 2.96GHz and have no issue doing so. What about the battety, well this specific LG V40 is a replacement phone for lost and stolen phones for LG's 2 year promise warranty. Can't have a extra 2 Year warranty without backup phones to give customers, right. So, when i went to check the iMEI the phone was manufactured on Dec.5th 2109 and shipped from LG's warehouse on the 10th. Making the specific V40 only 7months old. So, the battery is new. Using Acuutebattery after about a month of charge cycles says its health is at 125% and is comparable to a 4100mAh battery. And it's not lying. I get 9 to 10 hours on that little 3300mAh battery, with moderate to heavy use. Plus, i'm running a modified version of Stock Android 10 with some of LG's stick apps in there. That with the overclocks to the CPU and GPU bring this phone up to a SD855 level. Benchmarks aren't my thing but, i had to test it. It gets an easy 400,000 points. 170,000 for the GPU and 130,000 for the CPU. No other SD845 device comes close to that. My V40 was never slow or throttled. The newer silicon definitely didn't hurt matters. But, LG gets put in the shadow for no reason. They are great phones even out the box. I've been with LG and T-Mobile since the first quad core phone that came with the original Transformers movie. The Optimus G. Remember those. Was a great phone. I still have it and it does work.i actually wrote a longer version of this but, didn't want to bore the non-readers with a autophoneagraphy. But, from the manual 4K60 OIS/EIS video recording. Which with ROOT can lift the 6min limit and use both OIS and EIS while doing so. And everyone knows LG has the audio goods. From the ESS SABRE qDAC to the 2Vrms 3.5mm headphone jack that can easily push my 650Ω Senheiser 800HD's with volume to spare. From the V20 and G6 on up. There are great phones. Buying a phone that was released 2 years ago but, built just 7 months ago was a lucky thing for me but, still. A 1 or 2 year old flagship for a Quarter od the price is the way to go for me. Though, i'm might get the V50 or wait for the V70 because the V60 only has a 1080p display. Gotta have my 2K or 3K. The V50 is still $350 right now but, it'll drop. It has a 4000mAh battery and a Vapor chamber along with the SD855 and Adreno 640. Which i know i can turn into a SD855+ with the Adreno 640 pushing just over 1Teraflop of FP32 compute. I never thought i'd see 3GHz CPU's in SOC's that couod have sustainability and thermal issues. But, the SD865+ is here. Though, running a SD845/+ or SD855/+ at 2.96GHz is plenty enough for me. That with a 1 Teraflop GPU. Anyway, i herd there was going to be a LG Velvet with a SD845. That, i wlukd buy. Once it dropped in price. Well i'm tired and i gotta get back to this online money. This was a good but, somewhat a little off review. Anandtech isna great site and they do awesome work.PS. This was typed on a LG V40.