- This is the new LG V40 ThinQ.
It's the latest high end smartphone from LG
and it'll be available really soon for a flagship price.
(upbeat music)
Now there's some interesting things to talk about
with the V40,
but first I wanna set up where this sits
in LG's smartphone world.
Like Samsung, LG releases two flagship phones every year.
In the springtime there's the mainstream flagship phone,
so that's like the G7 that I have right here.
And then later on in the fall
there's the other flagship phone,
which is really similar to the first model
but with a little extra on top.
And this year that's the V40.
(dramatic music)
Now as a result the V40 shares a lot with the G7.
It kinda has the same overall look and design,
it's got the same processor and specs,
it's got the same boombox speaker and so on.
Now there are a couple of differences
but the big major standout feature with the V40
that separates it from the G7
and virtually every other phone on the market
is its new camera system.
This phone comes with a total of five cameras.
Not one, not two, not three,
or even four that we've seen before,
but five cameras between the front and the back.
Now there's two cameras on the front,
there's three on the back
and the whole thing kind of makes the V40
look a little like a bug eyed monster.
Now it may seem crazy to have so many cameras on your phone
but the way LG is using them on the V40
is actually pretty smart and interesting.
In addition to a standard camera,
the V40 has a super wide angle option
and a telephoto camera.
It lets you change your composition
and feel view really quickly
and without having to put on any attachment lenses.
This is just something you can't do with other phones
right now and it separates the V40
from the many other options
that have multiple cameras on the back.
Now to be clear the V40 doesn't just have three lenses,
it has three different cameras on the back
and they have different specs across them.
The main camera is 12 megapixels
with 40% larger pixels than the G7.
In an f1.5 lens with a 78 degree field of view,
this is like your standard camera.
The super wide option has a 16 megapixel sensor
and 107 degree f1.9 lens.
Basically the same as the super wide camera on the G7.
Finally there's the telephoto camera
which has a 12 megapixel
47 degree, f2.4 lens,
which gets you about two times closer
to your subject than the standard camera.
With the differences in specs between these
it's obvious that you'll get a different quality image
from each camera.
And I can tell you right now that the telephoto camera
does not work well indoors.
That's largely par for the course
with smartphone telephoto cameras though.
And in addition
to having three different composition options,
the V40 lets you do some interesting things
with the three cameras.
There's a standard portrait mode which blurs the background
and there's some new portrait lighting effects.
But those aren't really any better than any other phone
that does them and they're not that great.
But what is cool is the ability to preview the shot
from each camera before you take it
which you can do right in the camera app.
Even more interesting is LG's new triple shot mode,
which takes a pic from all three cameras in one button press
then it stitches them together in an animated clip
and it gives you the still images from each camera.
It's an easy way to get all three viewpoints
if you just can't make up your mind.
But it could be a little faster
in processing the animated clip
which is fun but not particularly useful anyways.
Over on the front there's a standard eight megapixel camera
and a wide angle five megapixel camera.
But the second camera's only barely wider
than the normal one and it maybe lets you
fit one or two more friends in your selfie.
There's also the portrait mode and portrait lighting effects
up front but again they really aren't that great.
For the rest of the phone,
the V40 has a standard snapdragon 845 processor,
six gigabytes of ram,
64 gigabytes of storage, and a micro SD card slot.
Its 3300 milliamp hour battery is larger
than the one in the G7 but definitely not as big
as the Note 9's monster cell.
It also has wireless charging,
IP 60 water and dust resistance.
And of course a 3.5mm headphone jack.
LG has also included the same button on the left side
for the Google assistant that the G7 has.
The V40's display is a big 6.4 inch OLED panel.
It has good viewing angles, great colors,
and dense resolution.
It may not be as searing or in your face
as the note 9 screen,
but unlike older OLED LG panels
I really don't have any complaints with this one.
Most of the time when we're talking about smartphone cameras
we're talking about incremental improvements year over year.
The kind of things that are maybe noticeable
but probably not unless you're comparing phones side by side
all the time.
But with the V40 you're getting an upgrade
on what you can do with the cameras on your phone.
And it lets you capture images and compositions
that you just can't get with other phones.
If you ask me, that's the kind of upgrade I'm into.
Hey thanks for watching,
for more on the LG V40 including more impressions and specs
and details and camera samples,
be sure to check out our articles on theverge.com.
And before you do, don't forget to like and subscribe.