LG has finally unveiled the latest or should we say the true flagship smartphone of 2017, the V30+, in India. The device comes with a price tag of Rs 44,990 and it will be available on Amzon from December 18.
LG V30+ is the first device from LG camp that comes equipped with an OLED display panel and it is the second flagship device from the brand to bear the new 18:9 bezel-less display. The phone is equipped with the latest and greatest hardware and it surely comes with some premium design. So, will it be able to prove its mettle or will it be overshadowed by competition? We used the device for a while and here are our first impressions.
Design and Display
LG has finally created its one of the most elegant-looking smartphone with the V30+. The first striking thing you will notice about this device is the compact form factor and lightweight design. The device is 7.3mm thick and weighs only 158 grams. We got Aurora Black colour option for review and it surely looks premium from all angles. The phone looks more compact and classy as compared to Samsung Galaxy S8.
Giving a brief about its design aesthetics, the front is dominated by a bezel-less display with top and bottom bezels kept minimum. One the right there is a SIM slot, while the left bears volume controls. The top houses 3.5mm audio jack, while at the base, you will find USB Type-C port and single speaker grille. At the back, there is a dual-camera setup situated at the top-centre position and just beneath it is the fingerprint sensor, which also acts as a power on/off button.
Moving to the display, the V30+ sports a 6.0-inch QuadHD+ OLED FullVision Display with a screen Resolution of 2880 x 1440 pixels and an aspect ratio of 18:9. The display is quite bright and delivers some vivid colour output. The high Pixel density means that colour saturation will be at par with rest of the competition and the viewing angles look great in this one.
Unlike other V-series smartphones, LG decided to skip the Secondary display and instead has opted for a floating bar can be customized with up to five apps for easy access to the most used applications. Then there is Always-On Display, which lets you see the time and some notifications, a welcome move indeed. We will be talking more about the display in our upcoming review.
Hardware and Software
Coming to the hardware, the LG V30+ is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Processor along with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage option, and it offers up to 2TB of expandable storage. The specs are in line with the rest of the competition and with this price point, it sure looks an interesting proportion altogether. However, during our initial testing we found out the device tends to overheat sometimes. So, stay tuned to us for more updates. Further, the phone is Daydream-ready, meaning that one can utilise Google Daydream headset for an immersive virtual reality experience.
Moving on, there a 32-bit Advanced Hi-Fi Quad DAC powered by EES Technology’s SABRE ES9218P meaning that phone could be a delight for music buff. Plus point here is that you get an Audio Jack and a pair B&O Play earphones.
On the software front, the device still runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat based with company’s custom UI running on top of it. The user interface comes loaded with some interesting features like a built-in smart doctor that optimise the overall performance of the device. Then you the option shrink the size of the display with Mini View and KnockON screen unlock feature. We will be talking more about this in our review.
Camera
Probably one of best things about the V30+ are the cameras. The smartphone features 16-megapixel standard lens with Aperture f/1.6, optical image stabilization (OIS), electronic image stabilization (EIS) and hybrid Autofocus that combines both Laser Detection Auto Focus and Phase Detection Auto Focus. There is a secondary 13-megapixel Wide-Angle lens with aperture f/1.9 and a 120-degree field of view. For the front, the phone features a 5-megapixel selfie shooter with aperture f/2.2 and a 90-degree field of view.
That said, the camera UI is pretty clean and easy to use. You get a bunch of interesting features and one of them is the cine videos. In this mode, users get to apply different filters like romantic, comedy and mystery among others. Then there is Point Zoom option, which zoom in and out smoothly without any jerk. Then there is manual video mode through which you can control different setting for shooting a video. The camera performance looks interesting as well, though the front camera does not seems to be so powerful as compared to the main.
Battery and Connectivity
The LG V30+ is backed by a 3,300mAh battery along with Quick Charge 3.0, which the company claims can charge the device from zero to 50 percent in around 30 minutes. Further, this one also comes with wireless charging. It would be interesting to see whether it will be able to deliver some good battery backup or not.
On the connectivity front, you get Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac, Bluetooth 5.0 BLE, NFC, USB Type-C 2.0 and Dual-SIM slot. Further, the device is water resistant and dustproof with IP68 certification so it can easily take in that sudden rain but surely not a dive in a swimming pool as IP68 translates into a Water-resistant in 1-meter deep water for 30 minutes.