LG V40 ThinQ review

Competition

There aren't many Penta camera smartphones on the market now, are there? The Galaxy A9 (2018) is certainly not in the same league, and that pretty much leaves no phone to rival the V40 in sheer number of camera modules. They don't really have to.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro matches the V40 in the number of rear cameras, and that matters the most. They're also in a similar ultra-wide/normal/tele configuration, but the Mate is superior in two ways - its ultra-wide has autofocus, and then the telephoto is longer. The Mate also has vastly superior battery life and ultra-fast charging, newer Android (believe it or not), under display fingerprint reader, and its face unlock is pretty neat. The selfie game is meh on both, but the V40 still has two cams, one of them wide angle, and LG is keeping the headphone jack if you're into wired headphones.

That doesn't work against the Galaxy S9+, which has the jack too. It very much lacks the ultra wide cam though, but outlast the ThinQ comfortably in all battery-dependent endeavors. It's arguably got the better selfie cam too, single as it may be.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro • Samsung Galaxy S9+ • Google Pixel 3 XL • Apple iPhone XS Max

The PIxel 3 XL oddly has the same number of front cams as the V40, and the same concept too - a regular and a wider one. The Pixel's selfies are so far ahead of the V40's that they shouldn't really be compared. The Pixel's sole rear cam may be superior than the V40's, but it can't make up an ultra wide shot with it, and the computational zoom isn't quite like the real optical one either.

Another in the list of boring triple-camera phones with merely dual rear cameras, the iPhone XS could also fill the void in your pocket, waiting for a V40. The usual OS/ecosystem considerations apply, but the iPhone offers superior performance and display, while the LG does have the benefit of the additional wide cams on both sides.

Verdict

The Penta camera moniker on the LG V40 ThinQ's sleeve may be a bit of an overstatement - technically it does pack a total of 5, but it's not like it has five cameras on its back, plus the two front ones are far from spectacular. The truly important rear ones, however, are pretty great, in both stills and video, and the versatility of the combo is undeniable.

While it's not truly bad by any stretch, the V40's display could use some tweaking to satisfy anyone who's after color accuracy. Other than that, we have an idea for a simple fix for the battery life - bigger battery - the phone is light and compact enough to handle it. That's obviously not happening with a software update and it's for LG to address on the next model. Users would have to resort to carrying an external battery pack.

This V40 ThinQ, as it is right now, is a bit too flawed in areas that we consider too essential to give it a pass just like that. It's also too awesome in other areas that will make the flaws a mere blur in the background at the right price. For better or worse, knowing how things go with LG phones, the right price is not more than a few months away.

Pros

• Very light for its size without sacrificing premium looks and feel.
• Exemplary audio quality and great sounding speaker setup.
• Overall good still image quality, triple camera adds versatility.
• Class leading video-recording options, excellent end results too.

Cons

• Unimpressive battery life, towards the bottom of the charts for the class.
• No truly accurate display in any color mode.
• The selfie side of the self-proclaimed Penta camera is a letdown.