LG V30 hands-on review: First impressions

Introduction

LG's brief flirtation with OLED gave us the Flex phones, but now it's a long-term commitment. Yet - surprisingly - it's not the screen, which covers 82% of the front of the LG V30, that is the star attraction. Instead, the much-improved dual camera is the main focus of this generation.

The screen still catches your eye thanks to its HDR10 support, meaning you can enjoy HDR content from Netflix, Amazon and other sources.

In fact, LG is heavily favoring cinematography features with the V30. It starts off simple, with 15 Cine effects, and ends up deep into advanced topics like log curves and color grading. The phone could be the only tool you need to use, starting from shooting, going through editing and finally sharing your creations.

This all rests on a solid foundation as the main camera boasts the brightest aperture on a mobile yet, f/1.6. It is important to note that the wide-angle camera has a wider aperture too - from f/2.4 on the LG G6 to f/1.9.

Circling back to the screen, its small companion is gone. Instead, the Floating bar takes over its functions,and there's plenty of room for it on the 18:9 screen. The singular screen measures 6" big, which puts it smack in the middle of the Galaxy S8 and S8+.

LG has not abandoned its audio ambitions either, you're still getting Quad DAC (region dependent). The Acoustic Overload Point microphone from the V20 is back, but LG made further enhancements to ensure the best quality when recording in LOUD environments.

LG V30 at a glance:

• Body: IP68 waterproof, MIL-STD-810G compliant
• Screen: 6" P-OLED, 18:9 aspect ratio, 1,440 x 2,880px, 10-bit HDR; 82% screen to body ratio
• Platform: Android 7.1 Nougat; Snapdragon 835 chipset with 4GB of RAM
• Storage64GB built-in, 128GB for the V30+ model; microSD card slot
• Camera: 16MP main (f/1.6, OIS) + 13MP wide-angle (f/1.9); HDR video capture, manual mode and color grading
• Battery: 3,300mAh; Qnovo tech; QuickCharge 3.0, wireless charging
• Audio: Quad DAC, AOP microphones
• Misc: Face, voice and fingerprint recognition

Should the LG V30 prove successful, it will inform the design of next year's G7 and spread its influence to the lower echelons (we already have the Q-series phones, which mimic the two flagship series). After a languid market performance by the G5 and G6, LG's smartphone line could use a shake-up - and that could start today.

LG V30 official images

So, no pressure, V30, now show us what you've got.

Note: LG gave us an early pre-production unit for this hands-on. We will use a release unit for the full review.