Introduction
There's quite a lot to the LG V10 - a flagship, a phablet, a camera phone, a rugged phone, a Hi-Fi phone and the first of the new V-series. It's a feature-packed device and its signature feature is the secondary always-on display and a dual selfie camera.
Until recently, the LG G4 and the G Flex2 ruled LG's lineup as co-flagships, but now there is only one king. In our preview we described it as "G4 on steroids" and the longer we spend with the LG V10, the more we are convinced this is an apt description.
The secondary display is essentially one line above the main screen that can be left on 24/7 and serves for notifications and shortcuts. This is to the notification light as email is to Morse code - a much richer way to give you at-a-glance info of what happened since you last checked your phone.
We've seen secondary screens like this one before, but this is our first dual selfie camera. LG solved the problem of group selfies ('groufies') by adding a super-wide 120° camera, in addition to the standard 80° one. Many more of your friends can now fit into the shot.
The main camera is very impressive too, it features the most comprehensive set of manual controls we've ever seen on a mobile device. Even PureView Lumias and Samsung's smartphone/camera hybrids didn't have some of the settings available on the LG V10.
And then there's the fingerprint reader, the 32-bit Hi-Fi DAC and the premium headphones. Here's the short version of it, we'll do a deep dive into the top features of the V10 as soon as we're done with the intro.
Key features
·Main 5.7" Quantum display, QHD
resolution (515ppi)
·Secondary 2.1" line display,
1,040 x 160px
·Stainless steel (316L) body and Dura
Skin cover; shock-proof (MIL-STD-810G)
·16MP main camera, 1/2.6" sensor,
f/1.8 aperture; optical image stabilization and laser autofocus
·2160p video capture, manual mic
control
·Dual-selfie cameras: both 5MP, one
with 80° lens, one with 120°
·Dual-core Cortex-A57 (1.82GHz) +
quad-core Cortex-A53 (1.44GHz), Adreno 418, 4GB of RAM; Snapdragon 808 chipset
·Android 5.1 Lollipop with Optimus UI
·64GB built-in storage plus microSD
card slot
·Fingerprint sensor
·3,000mAh battery; Quick Charge 2.0
(50% in 40 min)
Main disadvantages
·More powerful chipsets exist, a
flagship should have gotten the best
·Rugged, but not water resistant
·The durable back cover not as premium
as G4's leather covers
·Rather heavy, even for its size
The LG V10 provides a nice antithesis of the Galaxy Note5 and S6 edge+. Their sealed back compartments and glass backs (which double the chance of cracks when dropped) make them seem more vain than practical. Also, the Galaxy S6 edge+ does not use its dual-curved screen as a separate control like last year's Note edge did.
LG V10 in Luxe White and Opal Blue
LG issues a serious challenge to other makers on the camera and audio battlefields with the V10. The phone is also LG's first to feature a fingerprint reader since 2009's GW820 eXpo (not counting the Google-designed Nexus 5X).
Time to get started since there's a lot of ground to cover. The bodywork on the LG V10 is quite complex, the software section has to explain why you need a secondary screen and the camera section has a couple of new terms to introduce to the world of smartphone photography.
Display
The LG V10 has a screen unlike anything we've seen. Yes, we've seen second screens before, however, this one is one display panel one corner of which has been cut off. And it has a second display driver and backlight, specifically for that upper portion of the panel that works as a second screen.
This allows it to show an image and track touch input with minimal power draw, which in turn enables some helpful controls you can access without having to wake the phone (like muting the sound or turning on a flashlight). It also keeps you abreast with any new notifications - instead of color coded messages from a notification light you get to see the app's icon.
On paper the screen of the LG V10 seems to be powered by the same technology as the one on the LG G4, but it actually has a higher contrast ratio (1490:1). The maximum brightness level is somewhat lower (432nits vs 532nits) but the black levels are much lower resulting in the improved ratio.
In terms of color accuracy, both screens are pretty much identical with overall good scores (Avg deltaE 4.9 and Max deltaE of 10.7 for the primary colors plus black and white). LG hasn't provided any ways for you to adjust the screen color temperature to their liking otherwise we could have achieved a more color accurate result with a slightly warmer setting.
The LG V10 screen shares the amazingly low minimum brightness level of only 3.9nits that we first saw on the LG G4, which means it will go quite easy on the eyes when you use the phone in pitch dark settings.
Going outside of such murky areas, the LG V10 screen offers above average legibility at max brightness. Since the brightness slider is all too eager to reduce the nits you'll want to keep it in the upper half.
Connectivity
The LG V10 has all the connectivity goodies save for a dual-SIM option. It comes in GSM and CDMA flavors (the latter will happily work on GSM networks if the bands match up). The fastest mobile data option is 300Mbps LTE Cat. 6 and you get 42Mbps on 3G.
Locally, the situation is pretty familiar with Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac bearing most of the load with Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA add-ons. For low-power connectivity there's Bluetooth 4.1 LE with the apt-X audio codec.
NFC is on-board so the V10 is compatible with Android Pay (LG is rumored to be working on its own system too). You get the benefit of fingerprint security too.
Anyway, our unit came with DMB-T TV tuner, though this is a regional thing. All regions will get the IR blaster for TV control though.
The wired microUSB 2.0 port handles USB storage and TV out (SlimPort, but it seems that not all regional versions support it).
On the software side you get a DLNA server support and Miracast, plus a number of LG-specific features. One is SmartShare Beam (transferring files between LG devices) and LG AirDrive, which does the same but with a computer (you need an LG account).
Battery life
The LG G2 with its 5.2" screen had a 3,000mAh battery, then the G3 with a 5.5" screen, the G4 and now the LG V10. The V10 is slightly thinner than the G2 (8.6mm vs. 8.9mm), but not by much. What we're getting at is that the internal volume has gone up while the battery capacity hasn't changed in over two years now.
LG rates the V10's talk time at 18 hours and about as much, close to 17 hours. Even the G2 did better than this. The web browsing and video playback times are average. Nothing spectacular when you consider the screen was at a modest 100 nits (well below average).
As a result the endurance rating works out to 56 hours, just over two full days. The standby power draw is fairly low, but that's with the second screen off. Turning it on brings the LG V10 down to 46 hours endurance rating. The impact is fairly small, with or without the second screen you'll get two days of moderate usage and one day of heavier usage.
Note that we're testing a Korean unit, LG says that international units units will perform better in Europe and the US.
