The V30 is LG’s answer to the Samsung Galaxy S8+

LG has finally taken the covers off its latest big screen flagship at IFA 2017. Dropping its secondary screen that came with the V10 and V20, the new LG V30 now features an all-screen OLED FullVision display. It somewhat resembles closely with this year’s Samsung Galaxy flagships and it’s definitely better looking than the LG G6.

The LG V30 features a 6.0″ QuadHD+ (2880×1440) display which is slightly smaller than the Galaxy S8+’s 6.2″ Infinity Display. Using an 18:9 display aspect ratio, the V30’s screen is bigger than the V20 (5.7″) but it manages to reduce its height by 8mm while trimming down the width by 3mm. Without the ticker display on top, LG has allowed itself to push a higher screen to body ratio compared to its predecessor.

From the images, the V30 appears to have a curved display similar to Samsung. However, the screen itself is actually a flat OLED panel and they have created that illusion by using curved Gorilla Glass 5 for both front and back. Overall it’s 7.3mm thin and it weighs 158g, which LG claims to be the lightest 6.0″ smartphone.

While it looks more fragile than the LG G6, the V30 surprisingly meets durability requirements of US Department of Defense by passing 14 categories of MIL-STD 810G Transit Drop tests. It is also dust and water resistant with an IP68 rating. This means the V30 can withstand being submerged up to 1.5 metres up to 30 minutes.

As expected with the latest flagship, it runs on a current Snapdragon 835 processor mated to 4GB of RAM and it comes with 64GB of onboard UFS 2.0 storage. If you need more, it also supports microSD expansion up to 2TB. There’s also a V30+ model that comes with 4GB RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.0 storage.

LG’s signature dual-camera system has been improved further on the V30. It now gets a primary 16MP camera with a f/1.6 Crystal Clear Lens which allows 25% more light than a typical f/1.8 lens. It also has OIS, EIS and Hybrid AF assist which uses Laser AF and PDAF. For taking wide-angle shots, the V30 secondary camera is an improved 13MP f/1.9 unit that promises 2/3 less edge distortion when compared to the V20. Over at the front, it features a 5MP f/2.2 wide angle selfie camera which is somewhat a downgrade from a 5MP f/1.9 shooter on the V20.

On top of taking great wide-angle shots, LG is also pushing the V30 as a tool to create professional looking content without the complexity. It has 15 Cine Effect presets to give your videos a movie-like look and its Point Zoom feature allows smoother zooming when you want to get closer to your subject. As teased earlier, the LG V30’s Manual Mode also gets Graphy where you can pick a scene that you wish to achieve from a template of professional images and then it will automatically preset your camera settings such as white balance, shutter speed, aperture and ISO accordingly.

The V30 is also big on sound as it gets a HiFi Quad DAC that’s tuned by B&O Play. Also included is a set of B&O Play earphones that are tuned for optimal listening experience. LG has also retained the 3.5mm audio jack at the top which is good news for music enthusiasts.

Despite being a larger phone, the LG V30 is powered by a 3,300mAh battery. That’s slightly more than the LG V20 (3,200mAh) and it’s the same capacity as its smaller 5.7″ LG G6 (3,300mAh). As you would expect, it also supports QuickCharge 3.0 via USB Type-C which is rated to do 0-50% charge in 30 minutes.

In terms of software, we are a little disappointed that it runs on Android 7.1.2 Nougat instead of the very latest Android 8.0 Oreo. When the LG V20 was announced last year, it was the first smartphone to run on Android 7.0 Nougat. Just like Samsung’s Galaxy Note8, we expect LG to update the V30 to Oreo later this year.

The LG V30 will go on sale in South Korea beginning 21 September before it rolls out to other markets. The V30 will be available in Aurora Black, Cloud Silver, Moroccan Blue and Lavender Violet. So far there’s no word on its availability and pricing for Malaysia. Assuming the V30 and the Galaxy S8+ are priced the same, which would you pick? Let us know in the comments below.