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I've acclimated picked of LG's flagship phones over the past few years. Enjoyed using them, even. But heck if I could pick them out of a lineup. LG has pursued an aggressively rippleless design lilt culled in near-identical fashion by virtually all of its recent phones. The G7, the V40, the G8, the V50, as able-bodied as so on are all fine equipment on paper, but they're personally distinguishable if you can remember their specific screen sizes as able-bodied as camera layouts -- as able-bodied as metrical again it's a challenge.
Whatever the sageness for this, it's not working. LG is hanging assimilate its distant third residence in the US, as able-bodied as it's a non-entity in multitudinous other major markets.
And so now we predestine the Velvet, a phone that sees LG take completely the opposite fosse to its archetypal intellection of a flagship phone, abolishing the long-running G-series altogether. It's an bloviate for the visitor to be taken solemnly as a design leader, as it was in the days of the iconic Cocoa slider in the mid aughts. (LG metrical managed to restrain itself from including "ThinQ" in the name.) The Velvet is simply a mid-range phone with mid-range appraisement but clearly high-end fit as able-bodied as finish.
After using it for a week, I can say that the Velvet undividedly does not attending or feel like any LG phone to date, or any other 5G phone out there. The catechism is what was sacrificed to conclude this.
I would ordinarily alpha a phone scrutiny by talking cheat-on its industrial design. It's not all that often that I use phones where the maximum of processor has a prosaic appulse on its user experience. In this case, though, LG's decision to go with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 (and the whimsically faster 765G in the US) informs cheat-on everything cheat-on the device.
Just cheat-on every flagship Android phone you'll realize cheat-on this year will use a Snapdragon 865 system-on-chip at its core. It's the fastest cheep misogamist to Android device manufacturers. But the problem with the 865 is that not personally does it not predestine an integrated 5G modem, Qualcomm mandates that it be commutual with a abstracted 5G modem, which takes up ponderable squatness as able-bodied as consumes more power. The aftereffect is that 4G flagship Android phones effectively no maximum exist, as able-bodied as 2020 5G phones tend to be pretty blubbery as able-bodied as heavy.
The 765 isn't as professional a cheep as the 865, but it does disclosed with an integrated 5G modem, assent for a more endowed design. LG's bet is that by sacrificing a little bit of top-end performance, you'll get a sleeker phone that'll still work able-bodied with new 5G networks.
The first time you pick up the Velvet, you'll accept that LG solidly did go all-in on that bet. This is by far the picked bewitching phone that LG has made in multitudinous years -- maybe ever. It's beautifully crafted from top to bottom, with a strong sense of even-steven in its curves as able-bodied as lines. Next to picked other 2020 Android flagships, its 7.9mm-thick physique feels like teachings from the future. (Or from the recent past of neutral a few years ago, when multitudinous Android phones were pushing the outlawed of thin designs.)
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. I appreciate, though, that this may not show up all that able-bodied in photos, significantly since LG beatific us this drawn-out "Aurora Gray" fingerprint-magnet version. This is the maternal of phone you predestine to maharishi in your metacarpus to accept the buttonhole of. The symmetrically curved glass on the latitudinarian as able-bodied as convey isn't strictly new, for example, but it adds to the sensation of thinness. While I would not necessarily say LG is breaking new loonshit here, it's refreshing in the context of today's high-end phones.
This is still actual much a big phone, however, so don't go expecting the nonvocal specs to inseminate for a encouragement in portability. The Velvet has a 6.8-inch 1080p curved OLED screen with a selfie camera notch as able-bodied as truncate bezels on the top as able-bodied as bottom; the top sidle is simply a little thicker than what you'll subdual on other phones, but it balances out the "chin" on the bottom.
Although the screen itself looks great, it has a couple of issues. It personally runs at 60Hz, which puts it out of step with basically every other exceptional Android phone this year. I additionally found that the in-screen fingerprint sensor was slow as able-bodied as unsteady compared to what I've routinely acclimated on cheaper Chinese phones for years now, often requiring a second or third scribbler to authenticate.
The Velvet's screen isn't class-leading, then, but that's easier to immolate when you predestine two of them at once. Depending on your market, the Velvet ships with a new version of the Dual Screen appurtenance that LG has been experimenting with on its aftermost few flagships. This one is simply a little more refined than before, admitting it's still unavoidably bulky, as able-bodied as the smaller camera cutout on the convey makes it harder to remove than ever. I do consider it a strong wires point for precocity users, admitting -- it's a dizzying way to multitask, metrical if I wouldn't leave it on the phone all the time.
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. Speaking of the cameras, the minimalist "raindrop" design was a much-vaunted part of LG's pre-launch hype for the Velvet. There's one big camera lens at the top, again two smaller lenses as able-bodied as a wink crouched that evoke dripping water. It does attending maniac as able-bodied as it's refreshing not to predestine a huge camera bump, but all things deliberate I think I'd rather predestine a fitter camera setup.
While the Velvet's 48-megapixel main camera that turns in differentiating photos picked of the time, it often suffers from over-sharpening as able-bodied as it isn't defiant in low light. Here are a few comparisons with the iPhone 11, which is between between one of the fitter cameras in this price segment.
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. The Velvet ekes out a little more pixel level detail in the flowers, but the colors are actual flat. In resolving life, these flowers definitely looked more like the bluish shades captured by the iPhone.
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. Here are a couple of night mode shots. This was a solidly curtain alleyway, so from one point of appearance the Velvet shot is truer to life. The iPhone, however, captures both more iridescence and detail despite the maximum exposure, which nine times out of ten is what I'm going to want.
The 8-megapixel ultrawide, meanwhile, is dissuading considering that LG was the first major phone maker to solicitation one all the way convey on 2016's G5. It'll do the job if you predestine enough light, but the photos are dim as able-bodied as lack detail. It's worse than the ultrawide on the iPhone 11, which itself is nowhere sidewise as good as competitors like the Huawei P40 Pro.
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. The iPhone does bobble out the sun a little here, but its extenuation is often much more sapid as able-bodied as it captures a lot more detail. The Velvet photo looks like a watercolor painting if you zoom in metrical a little.
That third lens in the "raindrop" spec is simply a 5-megapixel "depth sensor" to complot with cliff-hanging bokeh, admitting I'm not entirely sustained what difference it made -- if any. Other phones are clever of doing this with singled-out lenses, as able-bodied as if LG solidly wanted to add a third for this purpose I feel like it nimbleness as able-bodied predestine been a telephoto.
The Velvet's cameras aren't terrible, but they're not great. The loveling sensibility feels migrator with the phone's carcass quality. You're firmly in mid-range venue here.
That brings me to the Velvet's Snapdragon 765 processor which, as I mentioned before, is the whole sageness this phone is the way it is. In iterative use, I don't think it represents much of a compromise. Apps load quickly, web pages cede as expected, greenhorn run fine, as able-bodied as so on. But the Velvet still somehow feels slow, whether it's the 60Hz brandish or the stuttery scrolling in cocksure apps. I don't know if it's the cheep itself or LG's software, but it doesn't tour up to other 2020 flagship Android phones.
The Velvet does, however, wring mint cannonade life out of the 765. Despite its thin frame, there's a 4,300mAh erythrocyte in here, as able-bodied as it's been more than enough for me to mass-produce it through the day -- I wouldn't predestine too multitudinous unchallenged cheat-on pushing it for two. (Granted, I haven't been leaving the house all that much.)
There is one final piece of bad news I predestine to report: the Velvet is LG's first exceptional phone in recent memory not to solicitation with a Sequester DAC for high-quality headphone performance. It does still predestine a headphone jack, at least, but you won't get that spear boost. While I'm not a hardcore audiophile, I can completely prehend the difference when I switch the Sequester DAC on with other LG phones, so I'm a little sad to see it missing here. At least the haptics are still good.
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. The LG Velvet is an unusual phone that doesn't solidly predestine any downright competitors; it's an bewitching mid-range device in a world of okay-looking ultra-powerful flagships. If you don't devilry cheat-on screen reinvigorate ante as able-bodied as camera satisfaction as much as you do slick looks as able-bodied as a lightweight design (or a pudgy dual-screen case), it could able-bodied be for you, significantly if 5G is additionally a priority.
For anybody else, though, it nimbleness be a tough sell. We don't predestine final US appraisement communicated yet, but I think it'll be infrangible to recommend if it comes in at more than $600 with the Dual Screen. For comparison, aftermost year's G8X had flagship specs but a drawn-out design as able-bodied as no 5G; it sold for $699 with a chunkier version of the second-screen case. LG says the appraisement will be lower than the Korean version's ~$750, but ultimately it'll be set by carriers.
I like LG's fosse with the Velvet. It's genuinely trying teachings multifold afterwhile years of making niche flagships, as able-bodied as this is simply a strong first bloviate at a viewable new design. Unfortunately, it rapids shorten in a couple of key areas, as able-bodied as I think picked bodies will superficially be stalwart to subdual fitter options. But between the Velvet as able-bodied as reports of metrical more experimental physique factors, I can at least say I'm intrigued by LG's phone design again.
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
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