Yesterday at an event, LG finally launched its much awaited LG V20 at Rs 54,999. The smartphone will be available via Amazon and retail stores starting today. Globally, the device was launched back in October and was interestingly the first device to launch with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box back then. However, it took some time for LG to bring the device in India. Nevertheless, when it was here, we were there as well, so here is our first impression of the LG V20.
Opening up the box, we get a bunch of stuff including the V20 of course. Apart from the device, there is a hard back case, a power brick with USB Type-C charging cable, user manuals and other device literature and we also get B&O Play earphones as well. 
Unwrapping the device, we get a beautiful solid looking LG V20. The device is built out of aluminium and it feels premium as well as sturdy in hands. Interestingly, the back is removable which leads to the battery and memory expansion slot. The power button lies at the back panel along with a fingerprint scanner embedded in it and the volume rockers are located on the right side. Also, to snap open the back, LG has given a dedicated button on the bottom right. There is a secondary screen up top which can also act as an ‘always on’ display. The USB Type-C port, 3.5 mm headphone jack, and the speaker grill are placed at the bottom of the device. Moreover, LG did a good job to shrink the overall size of the device, Thanks to some thin bezels and impressively thin chins on both top and bottom. Further, LG boasted about the built quality and claimed that the V20 comes with aircraft grade aluminium with shock absorbing material which can survive drops from a height of 4 meters. Yes, we did test it out which it survived impressively with minor scratches. The device measures at 159.7 x 78.1 x 7.6 mm and weighs at 174 grams. 
Coming to the display, the LG V20 sports a 5.7-inch Quad HD (1440 x 2560 pixels) IPS Quantum display which was pleasing to the eye. The device also comes with a secondary 2.1 inch 160 x 1040 pixels display which contains a bunch of App shortcuts and controls. Further, this display can also perform a lot more functions which we will explore more in our detailed review. 
Digging inside, we get a 2.15 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Chipset coupled with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage which is expandable up to 2 TB via micro SD card. Powering on the device, we are greeted with LG’s own UI which surprisingly didn’t have an app drawer. However, the device felt extremely snappy on the first go and there were tonnes of options spread all across the UI. As it comes with Android 7.0 on board, we also get features like multi-window support, new notification panel, doze on the go etc. Sadly, there was a lot of bloatware pre-installed. 
For the photography, LG V20 features a dual-camera setup. However, the two cameras are independent of which one is a 16-megapixel regular field view sensor with f/1.8 and the other is a super wide angle 135 degree 8-megapixels shooter. At the front, there is a 5-megapixel Wide-Angle selfie camera with f/1.9 aperture. It’s too early to comment on the camera performance, however, we were impressed with LG’s dual camera implementation on the V20. The wide-angle camera can really come in handy in situations where you are too near to the object and still wants the complete shot. Moreover, LG has also included a bunch of other modes like Time-Lapse, Slow-Mo, Pop out etc. Further, we also get a manual video mode apart from manual photo mode which is very rare on smartphones.
Apart from this, the V20 sports a 3200 mAh battery which is removable. LG V20 also sports a 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC (Digital to Analogue Convertor) which helps deliver high-quality sound when plugged in with headphones. Talking about the headphones, the B&O Play earphones sounded impressive as well. The earphones are not for bass lovers but can be perfect for someone who love the balanced sound.