LG V30 ThinQ long-term review

Conclusion

The V30S is a good smartphone. It compares well to other flagship Android devices in pretty much all respects. Its only real downsides is that it's a flagship which is not using the latest chipset and the fact that the selfie camera image quality is nowhere near flagship territory.

The Snapdragon 835 is definitely no slouch, even today, when it comes to performance, and handles everything you may throw at it without a hitch. That said, people buying this handset in 2018 may feel a fear of missing out - FOMO, as they say. There's no way around this - today's top dog for high-end phones not made by Samsung, Apple, or Huawei is the Snapdragon 845, which you'll see inside dozens of devices by the end of the year, most probably including LG's yet to be announced G7. So if you're thinking about choosing the V30S, that's one thing you'll have to be okay with.

Additionally, if you're the type who obsesses over selfies and uses the front-facing camera more than the rear setup, you might be disappointed with the V30S in this regard. Don't get us wrong here - it certainly produces passable selfies, but in this area it doesn't quite live up to its competitors.

On the other hand, the dual rear cameras deliver shots that make the handset a contender for at least the Top 5 from this point of view, even today when Samsung's Galaxy S9 duo and Huawei's P20 Pro are available. There are obviously differences between the output of those phones, the Pixel 2, the iPhone X, and the V30S', but they aren't huge or of the dealbreaking variety. In the end, some people will be more pleased with the pictures shot on the V30S, others with what another flagship is capable of, but that all comes down to personal preference.

LG's software UI keeps getting better with every iteration, changing less things about Android while adding features that you simply can't find on a Pixel. It's also easier than ever at this point to simply ignore those add-ons if you want to. You may find the skin's design a tad too colorful or cartoonish, but LG does provide a theme engine, which should alleviate the problem at least somewhat.

The core functionality you expect to get from Android in this day and age is all still in there, unaltered underneath LG's unique paint job. The main issue with LG's software isn't the way it looks or performs, it's how unfocused on timely updates the company seems to be, especially for units sold outside of Korea. Back in 2016, the V20 was the first handset to launch running Nougat, beating even Google's original Pixels to the punch.

Since then, however, LG's been less than reliable even delivering security updates, and while big new Android releases do eventually make it to its flagships, you'll be waiting around for months after Google's already sent them out to its smartphones. You may not be bothered by this situation at all, but we still feel it's important to stress.

Despite having played the smartphone game for a very long time now, LG is outshined, sales-wise, by its Korean neighbor Samsung. Perhaps that's a consequence, at least in part, of its marketing budget not being anywhere close to that of its nemesis. Still, the fact that you don't see LG in the Top 3 of smartphone makers doesn't mean it can't produce great devices.

The V30S looks pretty, has a premium metal and glass build that's now a requirement for this price point, is very easy to handle, and might surprise you by being a tad lighter than you'd expect. It performs admirably, feeling fast no matter what your use case may be, without any hiccups or slowdowns whatsoever.

It shoots great pictures with its main camera array and employs a wide-angle lens that is still unique to LG's smartphone range. We think you can't really appreciate how useful that is until you've actually owned a device with such a setup, especially if you travel a lot or enjoy snapping pictures of cityscapes or interiors or other tight spaces.

Like LG itself in the smartphone world, the V30S truly is an underdog, though one you'll ignore at your own peril.