- I'm Andru Edwards and you're watching Gear Live.
(upbeat hip-hop beat)
LG and Samsung have announced
their main flagship smartphones for 2020
in the Samsung Galaxy S20 lineup
and the LG
V60
ThinQ
5G
This year both companies are coming out swinging
with premium android smartphones
with LG looking to beat Samsung on price.
In this video, we compare the features
of the Samsung S20
to the LG V60 ThinQ
to find out which one
is truly the better buy for most people.
What is going on, Tech Squad?
Andru Edwards here, editor and chief of GearLive.com
as I mentioned today,
we are taking a look, we are comparing
the Samsung Galaxy S20 Lineup
against the LG
V60
ThinQ
5G
What a ridiculously long name.
Although, technically, I guess
the official name of this phone is
the Samsung Galaxy S20
Ultra
5G as well.
So, ridiculous names all around.
But that is besides the point.
We're going to be taking a look at
and comparing different aspects
of these two flagship android smartphones
with my goal hopefully being to help you
make a better buying decision based on
the features that are most important to you.
By the way, we are doing a giveaway for an iPhone 11
or Samsung Galaxy S20.
We will have two winners.
Each winner can choose which phone they want.
Link to the giveaway
is down in the description below as well.
I've been able to spend time with both lines of smartphones
and there are a lot of similarities between the two
especially as it pertains to the Galaxy S20 Ultra
which is Samsung's top-of-the-line flagship
and the LG
V60
ThinQ
which shares a lot of the same specs
at nowhere near the high price point.
Of course full reviews of the Galaxy S20 line
as well as the LG V60 ThinQ are coming.
If you don't wanna miss them,
be sure to hit the subscribe button
and bell notification icon down below.
But without any further ado let's jump into the comparison.
We will be taking a look at five key areas.
Those being, the display, the price, the camera
the battery and the internal hardware.
So, let's kick this off right now.
Staring with one of the most important aspects
of any smartphone: the display.
The Samsung Galaxy S20
comes with a 6.2 inch dynamic AMOLED display
with a 3200x1440 resolution
at 556 pixel per inch
and 20:9 aspect ratio.
S20+ comes in a 6.7 inches
and the Galaxy S20 Ultra
maxes out at a ridiculous 6.9 inches.
The Galaxy S20 lineup also sports a 100 hertz refresh rate
which you can enable when using the phone at 1080p.
The display also supports HDR10 and HDR10+
And is protected
by Corning Gorilla Glass 6.
Switching over to the LG V60 ThinQ
you've got a 6.8 inch OLED display,
so that's right between the sizes
of the S20+ and S20 Ultra
but this display has a 2460x1080 resolution
with 395 pixels per inch
and a 20.5:9 aspect ratio.
One unique aspect here is that LG is offering
a dual screen case with the same specs
giving you two displays to work with of equal quality.
Now LG's display is technically not as high resolution as
what Samsung is doing on the S20 line
However, out of the box
when you buy an S20 smartphone,
it will also be at 1080p resolution in the setting.
If you want higher 1440p resolution
you need to enable that yourself,
which techies are probably gonna do
but the average consumer probably won't even think about.
Also, while Samsung uses Corning Gorilla Glass 6
LG is using Gorilla Glass 5 instead.
Now personally I think the 120 hertz more
that Samsung added to the S20
puts those displays over the top.
However, a couple of caveats.
Number one, you can only use 120 hertz
when you are set to a 1080p resolution
You can not use it 1440p.
And number two, turning that on does cause
a significant hit to the battery.
On the S20 Ultra that I've been testing
I'm seeing about two to three hours less
battery life per day when I have a 120 hertz enabled.
Now this in particular has that 5000 milliamp power battery
so this can take it,
but I don't know that I'd enable it on
the typical entry-level Galaxy S20 myself.
And of course, alternatively, LG is offering
that dual display experience which we're not gonna see
on any other flagship smartphones this year.
It's different than a folding phone,
because you can take off the case
and just use it in single-screen mode
which is, I think, still going to be
the best way to use a smartphone
until phones get a lot more durable.
All right, next comparison we need to do is one that just
about everyone cares about who carries a smartphone
and that is going to be battery life.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 has a 4000 milliamp hour battery.
The S20+ has a 4500 milliamp hour battery
and the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
has a massive 5000 milliamp hour battery.
The S20 and S20+ support 25 watt charging,
while the Ultra supports 45 watt charging
however, you will need to buy
a 45 watt charger
separately from your S20 Ultra purchase,
because they do not include that faster charger in the box.
Now these are the biggest batteries that Samsung
has ever included in the Samsung Galaxy S lineup,
so that is great to see and it is a massive improvement.
Samsung revealed their phones before LG did
and I was under the impression that you'd need to shell out
the money for that large battery this year
and we will get to price in just a couple of minutes.
However, on the LG side of things
it was equally surprising to see
that they are shipping the LG V60 ThinQ
with that same
5000 milliamp hour battery
that we're seeing in the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
However, while matching the battery in the S20 Ultra
LG will be pricing the V60
at less than the entry-level
Galaxy S20.
So, if battery life is one of your main concerns,
it looks like you'll be able to go with LG
for a lot less money if you want 5000 milliamp hours.
All right, now it's time to get to one of the main reasons
that people buy a new smartphone
and upgrade from their old phone in particular,
that being
the camera system.
Starting with the Samsung Galaxy S20
you're getting a triple rear camera setup.
There's a 12-megapixel primary lens,
a 64-megapixel telephoto sensor,
or in the case of Galaxy S20 Ultra
a 108-megapixel telephoto sensor
and a 12-megapixel ultra wide-angle lens as well.
When it comes to video the cameras are capable of shooting
8K Ultra HD at 24 frames per second,
4K at 60 frames per second,
1080p at 240 frames per second
and 720p
at 960 frames per second.
Over on the front, you have a 10-megapixel selfie camera
and Samsung's big feature this year with the Galaxy S20,
you've probably seen it all over the place,
it is superzoom.
Superzoom allows you do 30x digital zoom on the S20
and S20+
and goes to 100x digital zoom
on the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
These images are not really that great at all
when zoomed in like this,
but even going up to a 10x zoom
can produce great looking shots,
which is something you wouldn't get on other smartphones.
Now I did a couple of videos taking a look at my favorite
features on the Samsung Galaxy S20 camera
using the S20 Ultra in particular.
If you wanna see those, I will leave a link up here
as well as down in the description below.
Now turning over to the LG V60 side of things,
LG has the opted to go with
a dual-camera system this time around.
However, they do it with a few tricks up their sleeve.
First of all, you're getting a main 64-megapixel camera
and a 13-megapixel super wide-angle camera as well.
On the back next to those cameras
you'll also find a time-of-flight sensor.
The LG V60 is also capable of a recording in 8K
4K
and full HD
and on the selfie's front offers a 10-megapixel camera
just like the Galaxy S20 series.
Now the interesting thing about the way
LG is using that 64-megapixel camera
is that even though there isn't a dedicated telephoto lens
the megapixel count is so high
that LG can use this camera to give you the 2x zoom
and produces 16-megapixel pixel-binned images.
Now honestly having used both of these camera systems
it pretty much seems like they are fairly equal.
Now, obviously Samsung has the superzoom feature,
but I don't know that most people
are going to be using that one all that much.
The average consumer is going to take out their camera
point it at something and take a photo.
When you do that, both cameras come out looking great.
In addition, 8K recording is available on both.
As is 4K recording.
And I actually think that is the bigger story here.
Android smartphones of the past have always suffered
as it pertains to video, especially 4K video
when compared
to Apple's iPhones.
This is the first year I feel like you can pick up
a Samsung phone or an LG phone, switch over to video mode
and get great looking video with no compromises
like you can with an iPhone.
And that I think is the best praise
I can give these cameras, here in 2020.
Next up, let's talk about
the internal hardware of these devices
and how everything matches up.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 is powered by
the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset
which is an octa-core 64-bit 7-nanometer system on a chip
and is paired with an Adreno 650 GPU .
The base S20 variant comes with 12 gigabytes RAM
and 128 gigabytes of internal storage.
And the S20+ and S20 Ultra
can be purchased with an upgraded 512 gigabytes of storage.
All S20 models are expandable
up to one terabtye through a microSD cardslot
and they run Android 10 with the Samsung One UI 2.0 on top.
When it comes to 5G, the Samsung Galaxy S20 smartphones
support both Sub-6 5G
as well as millimeter wave 5G
with the exception of the entry-level Galaxy S20.
That will only support Sub-6 5G
unless you purchase it on Verizon
in which case, then it will also support
millimeter wave as well.
Looking at the LG V60 ThinQ
you're going to find a lot of the same.
You got the same Snapdragon 865
paired with the same Adreno 650 GPU
so the processor and graphics are matched perfectly
between the two phones.
The V60 comes with 8 gigabytes of RAM
and 120 gigabytes of internal storage,
but it's expandable up to two terabytes
instead of one terabyte using a microSDXC card.
It also runs Android 10 out of the box
and as far as 5G connectivity goes
all LG
V60 models
will support Sub-6 5G
unless purchased on Verizon
in which case it'll support Sub-6
and millimeter wave as well.
Now one unique hardware feature that needs to be called out
on the LG V60 in particular
is the continued inclusion
of the headphone jack
and the 32-bit quad DAC.
Now Samsung made fun of Apple for several years
for removing the headphone jack
and then last year decided to follow suit
and remove it from their smartphones.
Meanwhile LG keeps the headphone jack for anyone
who wants that high-quality wire headphone experience
along with a great-sounding quad DAC as well.
In fact, if you are a wire headphone user
and want the best sound out of your smartphone
you're going to be hard-pressed to find a better device
than the LG V60
here in 2020.
And last on our list for our comparisons
is one that everyone takes into account
when they pick up a new smartphone
and that is price.
Starting on the Samsung side
we're seeing the most expensive launch lineup
in Galaxy S history.
The entry-level Galaxy S20 starts at$999.99
The S20+ sells for $1,199.99
and the Galaxy S20 Ultra starts at $1,399.99.
Now meanwhile on the LG side of things
they have not yet given us a solid launch price
for the V60 ThinQ
but what they did have to say was that the V60 ThinQ
would cost less than the entry-level
Galaxy S20
which means it'll cost less than that $1,000 price point
which is interesting, because we're seeing a bigger display
almost as big as the S20 Ultra
which cost $1,400
and we're also seeing that 5000 milliamp hour battery
in the V60 as well which matches up
to what the S20 Ultra is offering.
So, it seems like in some cases, the LG V60
becomes the better value when you're comparing
these two flagship Android devices.
So, I want to hear from you.
What do you think?
Did LG do enough to get your attention
and potentially your money
for the LG V60 ThinQ along with that second display?
Or is Samsung impressing you enough
with their new camera system
to make you want to go with a Galaxy S20?
Or are you sticking with what you have now
and waiting to see what's coming next from Apple
or Google or Huawei, et cetera.
Let me know what you think down in the comments below
and I will meet you there for further discussion.
If you wanna hear more on the comparison
between the LG V60 and the Galaxy S20
and a bunch of other thoughts
be sure to tune in to the Geared Up Podcast.
Geared Up is the show I do each and every week
with Jon Rettinger
where we take a look at the latest
in tech, gadgets and games.
We're bringing all of our thoughts and impressions
so you can listen to us when you're on-the-go.
Just search for Geared Up in your favorite podcast player
and you'll find us right there where you can subscribe.
Again, guys any questions you have about the S20
or the LG V60, drop them in the comments.
Thank you so much for watching.
As always, I appreciate your support.
I'm Andru Edwards and I will catch you in the next video.