LG V30+ Review

LG has certainly stepped up its design game with LG V30+. It’s extremely slick and well-built with a shiny metal frame and curved glass on the front and back. The screen obviously fills up most of the front face and has rounded corners to match the phone’s frame. The rear glass has a subtle pattern beneath it that catches the light. This is easily the best-looking smartphone that LG has ever made and it feels just as good as the latest iPhones and Samsung Galaxy models.

Despite its size, the LG V30+ has a manageable 158g weight and it’s not too hard to use. It fits very comfortably in the hand, however, glass is slippery and this phone tends to slide off surfaces that aren’t perfectly flat. The power button with its integrated sensor is at the back, which is an LG signature touch that not everyone will like. the volume buttons are on the left and there’s a hybrid dual SIM try on the right. Thankfully the dual camera module doesn’t protrude from the rear very much.

LG has used the same 6-inch 18:9 pOLED screen that the pixel 2 XL has and it suffers from the same mild color shifting issues. Whites begin to look warmer or cooler when you tilt even a little and this is quite distracting when playing games or watching videos. This is a huge disappointment but it might not be impossible for everyone to live with. Otherwise, the LG V30+ has a great screen sharp, bright and vivid. Instead of the secondary screen that previous V series had.

You can now have virtual strip anywhere on the big screen with the same functions. Pull it up and swipe across to show shortcuts to apps and contacts, screenshot, tools or playback controls.

Performance is great thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and 4GB of RAM. Games run smoothly and we never found the phone slowing down. You get 128GB of storage which can be expended but only by sacrificing the second SIM. You get all the latest standards with 3300mAh battery as well as wireless charging and quick charge 3. LG boasts that the V30+ has 32-bit Quad DAC for high-quality audio and supports the MQA standard for lossless audio streaming. The phone also lets you record high-res audio. LG includes a high-quality headset called QuadPlay in the box. We tried some FLAC files and Apple Music and found that there was definitely an improvement in quality compared to ordinary headphones.

You get one 16MP sensor with the standard angle lens and one 13MP sensor with a wide-angle lens. You can switch between them in the camera UI even in the middle of recording. This configuration is great for capturing groups of people and auto-scenes but it means there is no portrait mode which we are users will want. The LG V30+ has good cameras but they aren’t the best in the business right now. The primary camera takes very good shots in the daytime but textures aren’t always reproduced very well. Noise and green are somewhat evident at night and the camera has trouble when there’s very little ambient light. the secondary camera is also a lot noisier than the primary one you have to remember to check which lens is active or you might end up with severe distortion in close-ups.

 

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We use the LG V30+ quite heavily playing a lot of games as well as streaming audio and video and just about made it through one full day on a single charge. It lasted for 12 hours and 14 minute in our video loop test which is pretty decent.

LG V30+ Detailed Specifications

Overall the LG V30+ is a great looking phone with a ton of features, some of which are pretty unique. It’s also priced really well. Unfortunately, the screen could be a deal-breaker for many people and it seems that LG that LG still has some way to go before it can join Apple and Samsung in the big leagues.