LG V40 ThinQ 5 camera smartphone first impressions

The LG V40 ThinQ is the latest flagship smartphone from LG. In order to compete with Samsung, Apple, and Google LG has packed a ton of features into this device. The V40 ThinQ has 5 cameras — two front-facing cameras and a triple camera system on the back. There’s also a 6.4-inch screen, headphone jack, and Hi-Fi amp. Following is a transcript of the video.

Antonio Villas-Boas: I’ve been using LG’s brand new V40 ThinQ smartphone for the last few days and I’ve come away so far pretty impressed. It has a really sort of very premium-looking glass back and it looks great but it is, as with all phones with glass backs, a total fingerprint magnet.

One thing in particular about this phone that is actually really, really impressive is how light it is. It’s absolutely lighter than the Galaxy Note9 which is a pretty hefty, heavy phone. The LG V40 is just a really nice light phone to hold and use. And just because it’s light, again, it doesn’t mean that it’s not premium. The phone feels solid. One of the reasons I think the phone is so light is because the phone actually has a very small battery. The V40 has a 3,300 mAh battery. It’s a little on the low side for a phone this big and this powerful. Battery life isn’t superb, it’s fine. It’s not as good as the Note9. It has quick charge which obviously is very useful. It has wireless charging which is very useful.

In true LG fashion, this is LG’s signature thing, they have a sort of high-end, Hi-Fi amp inside the phone which makes audio sound a lot better through wired headphones. Now again, the key here is wired headphones. Yup, the LG V40 has a headphone jack.

But, the real reason this phone stands out, the biggest unique feature here is the cameras. All five of them, to be exact. So, that’s three on the back and two on the front. One of the cameras is just a regular wide-angle normal lens that almost every smartphone comes with. The other lens or one of the other lenses is LG’s sort of signature ultra-wide angle lens so that means it captures a really wide version of what you’re seeing. It’s really good. It has less of that fisheye effect that we saw in previous LG phones so it’s actually a pretty great thing to have. And now, the third lens is ta-da, it’s a 2X zoom lens. Now, LG is incorporating all those lenses into one phone and you don’t have to choose anymore. So, now for the front, we have two cameras like I mentioned earlier. One of them is, again, a normal wide-angle lens that all selfie cameras are. And the other camera is also an ultra-wide angle lens so that means bigger, broader selfies with more people inside. This is a great move by LG, for sure, and just including so many options and so much versatility in this phone and with the cameras, there’s just something for everyone there.

I’ve taken some test shots. This is nothing like definitive or anything but it looks good to me. It looks really good to me. LG’s cameras on their smartphones have kinda always disappointed me in the past. One thing that the triple-lens system does which is pretty cool is you can take a photo with all three lenses at the same time. The photo quality on that sort of triple shot feature isn’t great yet. I’m wondering if maybe it has to get a couple of updates from LG to get it improved but for now it’s kinda just blowing out lights. It’s not setting the aperture correctly enough and the photos don’t look very good. Perhaps it’s something LG can fix with a software update.

Now, here’s another thing that’s pretty impressive. Three cameras, no bump. Pretty amazing there when you consider other phones like I don’t know, iPhone, and its massive camera bump on the back.

I’ve been saying this word, ThinQ, along with the LG V40’s name. So, the ThinQ part is the sort of smart part of the LG V40 and LG put the smarts into the camera. So, it’s what they call AI cam. So artificial intelligence cam. What it does is you point the camera at something and the camera sort of recognizes what you’re pointing at. So, you’re pointing at flowers, for example, it’ll say a little flowers icon on the bottom right of the screen and it’ll adjust the settings automatically for flowers. Does it work? Uhhh, I don’t know. I took a photo of flowers yesterday and it said flowers on the little, on the bottom right there of the screen, and the flowers looked terrible. They look absolutely awful compared to the regular flower shot I took with the sort of auto mode of the phone. I think it’s – sure, fine, but the auto mode on smartphones and the LG V40 is fine too. It takes great photos. Actually, I probably prefer just using the auto mode to be honest.

So, let’s talk about software a little bit. LG, like a lot of other smartphone makers, they put their own skins or layers of software like kind of a user interface on top of Android. And this one’s pretty good. Usually I’m not a fan of LG’s sort of extra layer on top of Android but this is pretty nice, pretty minimal. You do get a bunch of LG apps on there but it’s not too offensive, really. Turning the wheels inside the LG V40 ThinQ is a Snapdragon 845 and that means great performance. The phone just glides through my day, has no problem switching through apps, and just multitasking is not a problem either. Great performing phone.

The V40 has an OLED display and that means really, really nice colors, deep, deep blacks. It’s just a really nice screen, it’s sharp too at 1440p and it’s also one of those taller displays with an aspect ratio around 19:9, I believe. It’s also a large screen at 6.4 inches. Now, that’s exactly the same size as the Galaxy Note9. It’s actually a smaller phone than the Galaxy Note9 despite having the same screen size. Inescapable these days is the notch. I’m sorry notch haters, the notch is here to stay, and it’s fine to be honest. Actually, it works quite well on Android phones. It means you can get the notification bar up there around the notch and it’s out of the way of your apps. The great thing about Android is you can kind of hide the notch, right? You can turn it off or turn the colors black so it looks like just a notification bar up there.

LG made a great phone with the V40 ThinQ. If you’re getting tired of those really heavy phones, the LG V40 will totally cater to you. It’s a really nice light phone to hold and use. It’s especially appealing to audiophiles out there or if you just like music, or if you use wired headphones. But, the real reason this phone stands out, the biggest unique feature here is the cameras. If you like having a lot of options for the cameras, LG V40 is definitely for you. After moving from the Note9 to the V40, is Google home. I have Google Home again when I swipe left, not Bixby Home.