LG V50 ThinQ 5G Dual Screen review

Five cameras, no bumps

The LG V50 ThinQ 5G has a triple-camera setup on its back and a dual-snapper arrangement at the front for selfies.

There are three imagers on the back - a 12MP primary for wide-angle shots, a 12MP telephoto for 2x optical zoom, and a 16MP snapper for ultrawide photos.

The main camera is a 12MP sensor (1/2.55", 1.4µm pixels) with 27mm f/1.5 lens and 3-axis OIS. It also makes use of dual-pixel phase-detect autofocus. Then there is another 12MP snapper (1/3.4", 1.0µm pixels) with 52mm f/2.4 lens, OIS and PDAF for delivering 2x zoomed photos. You will also find a 16MP ultrawide-angle camera with 16mm f/1.9 lens, 1.0µm pixels, and fixed focus. There is no OIS for the ultra-wide camera but it's not really needed with this short focal range.

The V50's notch has two snappers - an 8MP f/1.9 regular cam and a 5MP f/2.2 wide-angle shooter. There is no autofocus on either of those.

The camera app is pretty straightforward - swiping left and right will switch between camera modes that include Portrait, Auto, Night view, Manual Camera and Studio with the latter mimicking a studio setting letting you fine-tune the lighting as if it's coming from several sources. The much-appreciated manual video recording mode with a couple of other modes is in the More menu.

Camera settings and menus

If you wish to dive deeper into the settings, you can tap on the Settings icon in the upper-left corner of the viewfinder. All the usual settings are in there as well as the option to select video recording mode and resolution. The same goes for the stills.

Image quality

The main camera of the LG V50 shoots high-quality 12MP pictures. There resolved detail is plenty, the sharpness is just right, and the contrast is superb. The dynamic range is above the average, while the colors turned out a bit warmer and popping than they should be.

The foliage presentation could have been a bit better, especially when shooting grass, but trees do look fine though.

Finally, the noise levels are mostly low, but you can still see traces in areas of uniform color and shadows.

LG V50 12MP photos

The 16MP ultrawide pictures are good though not the best we've seen. There is acceptable detail at the center, while the automatic distortion correction is doing a great job around the corners at the expense of added softness and purple fringing.

The images are contrasty and the colors here stayed true to life. The dynamic range is rather low, even when the HDR kicked in, and some noise is present.

LG V50 16MP ultrawide photos

The 12MP zoomed photos turned out very good - their detail is excellent, the sharpness is the right amount, and the contrast is brilliant. The white balance is often off though, and the samples have this red tinge that shouldn't have been there.

LG V50 12MP telephoto images

The LG V50 shoots some of the best low-light images we've encountered lately! The main camera produces excellent and very bright 12MP shots with impressive detail, very balanced exposure, low noise, and superb colors. The bright f/1.5 aperture, the large sensor pixels, and OIS are all massive helpers, of course.

Note that the V50 often preferred to shoot with HDR most of the time in low-light and we weren't arguing with that.

LG V50 12MP low-light photos

You can opt for Night View and it takes a second to capture an image. There is little to no difference with the regular shots, and after long pixel-peeping, we noticed a minor drop on the already low noise levels in the shadows. That's it.

LG V50 12MP Night View photos

The ultrawide snapper on the LG V50 also has some bright f/1.9 lens and its low-light photos are quite good. They are bright and balanced, detailed enough and managed to preserve the good colors and contrast.

Sure, these ultrawide images are noisy and far from great around the corners when looking them in full resolution but are still very much usable and among the better ones we've seen.

LG V50 16MP low-light ultrawide photos

You can use Night View for ultrawide shots, and it will lower the noise and restore some clipped highlights. It also improves the colors by making them more natural and less yellowish.

LG V50 16MP Night View ultrawide photos

Finally, the 2X zoomed photos are not taken with the dedicated telephoto shooter at night - no matter if you are using Night View or not. The LG V50 shoots with its primary camera and then it digitally zooms and crops the center.

LG V50 12MP low-light 2X zoomed photos

LG V50 12MP Night View 2X zoomed photos

Here's how the 12MP unit on the LG V50 ThinQ stacks against the rest of the competition in a more controlled environment.

LG V50ThinQ against the LG G8X ThinQ and the LG V40 ThinQ in our Photo compare tool

Portraits

The LG V5 snaps portraits with its main 12MP snapper, and those turned out pretty good. The images are detailed, with lively colors, and the subject separation is accurate for the most part. You can adjust the strength of the blur if you don't like the default setting, and whatever you decide - the effect is rather convincing.

LG V50 12MP portraits

Selfies

The LG V50 has dual-selfie shooters - an 8MP f/1.9 25mm primary and a 5MP f/2.2 21mm secondary for wide-angle photos.

The 8MP selfies have enough detail, but far from the best we've seen. The contrast is good, as well as the colors, while the HDR will kick in if needed and will restore clipped highlights if necessary.

LG V50 8MP selfies

Portraits are available on the 8MP selfie snapper, too, and while the separation is pretty good, they won't shine with photo quality.

LG V50 8MP portrait selfies

Now, if you want to fit more people into your selfie, you should switch to the wide mode and the 5MP comes in handy. It also can't excel in detail and sharpness but will get the job done.

LG V50 5MP wide selfies

Video recording

The LG V50 can do 2160p videos in 30 and 60fps, and the same goes for the 1080p mode. The primary and the ultrawide camera support all these resolutions and frame rates, while the telephoto shooter can't do 60fps on any resolution.

The sound is always captured stereo at 156Kbps bitrate.

Regarding quality, the 4K videos from the main camera and ultrawide cameras turned out to be nice - the dynamic range is remarkable, the noise is kept low, colors and contrast are simply excellent. The image isn't shining with detail - mediocre in the 60fps footage, and good enough in the 30fps clips.

The 1080p@30fps footage from the main and ultrawide snappers is superb in every aspect - detail, sharpness, colors, contrast, and dynamic range. The detail is halved in the 60fps video, though, and the picture is pixelated and pretty much unusable.

The telephoto camera offers 4K and Full HD at 30fps options and the quality is consistent with what we observed on the main camera. The 4K clips are average in detail but excel in everything else. The 1080p footage is excellent across the board.

Electronic stabilization is available on all modes (4K@60fps included), you just have to enable it from settings (Steady Recording). The EIS works on top of the optical stabilization that's available on the main camera and tele cameras.

The LG V50 also offers a Super Stable mode, which uses the ultrawide camera, captures at 1080p at 30fps, and provides even more stabilized picture, action camera-like.

Once you are done with the real-life scenarios, take a look at our video compare tool to see how it competes against other phones.

2160p: LG V50 ThinQ against the G8X ThinQ and V40 ThinQ in our Video compare tool