LG V60 ThinQ 5G review

Software

The V60 comes with version 9.0 of LG UX running on top of Android 10. The overall interface doesn't see any major changes from the previous iteration based on Android Pie, but it does of course bring changes from Android 10 like the baked-in gesture navigation, improved privacy and granular location permissions, and a universal dark mode which works with supported apps.

The lock screen shows missed notifications, and the dialer and camera apps can be quickly accessed by left or right. Double-tapping on notifications will prompt for your password or fingerprint. If set up, there's also a shortcut for LG Pay by pulling on a tab near the power key.

Setting up a fingerprint

The AOD (always-on display) is highly customizable with lots of different clock styles to choose from, as well as the accent color. It can be set to come on for 10 seconds when you tap the display, or you can keep it always-on.

We like that there's a nifty toolbar for quickly accessing quick settings, volume profile, and the flashlight - along with shortcuts for the camera and Quick Memo.

Lock screen • AOD settings

The interface is clean and simple with no complicated menus or endless list of settings.

Settings

We like that during setup, you're given the choice of whether you want an app drawer or not. However, like Samsung's, the LG app drawer puts apps in the order they were installed, but its easy to switch to alphabetical.

Swiping to the far left will get you to your Google Feed, but at the top of the feed is a T-Mobile tab (this is a T-Mobile variant, after all), which offers a feed of video clips and episodes provided by the carrier's on-demand video service - T-Mobile Play.

Home screen 1 • Home screen 2 • App drawer • Drawer sorting • Google Feed • T-Mobile Play

The notification shade is dark with blue accents, and there are a bunch of quick settings when you swipe again. Some notable shortcuts are toggles for HiFi audio through the headphone jack, screen recording, data, screen sharing, and comfort view.

Here we reach the first thing we don't like about the software, and it's the way that auto brightness adjustment works. If you have the brightness set to automatic, but you'd rather nudge it up a bit, the slider is locked until you toggle off the "auto" button.

Thankfully its right next to the slider in the notification shade, but we prefer an adaptive adjustment that would learn our brightness preference over time.

Quick Reply • Notification shade • Quick settings • Edit quick settings

Users have a choice between the navigation bar and Android's gesture bar. As before on LG devices, you can customize the navigation bar with up to five buttons including a screenshot button and a button to pull the navigation bar down.

Navigation bar • Customize bar • Gestures control

Built into Android 10 is the universal Night theme, which blacks out the interface, menus, and core LG apps like the dialer, messages, contacts, etc. Supported third-party apps will also be seen in Night mode, and we like that you can schedule night mode on a scheduled time or based on the sunrise and sunset times.

Night Mode settings

LG Pay has been available in South Korea since 2017, but it only debuted in the US in July. What separates LG Pay from Google Pay and Apple Pay is that (like Samsung Pay) LG Pay can simulate a magnetic card swipe if the terminal doesn't support NFC tap payments.

In the US, there's not a very long list of banks that are supported. American Express and Discover are not yet on the list. Chase it the biggest partner at this stage of LG Pay in the States.

You can quickly access LG Pay by swiping in from the LG Pay tab from the lock or home screens.

LG Pay • Signing up • Supported banks • LG PayQuick

One last thing worth noting is that LG still offers you the option to "hide" the notch. Back when the V30 came out and LG decided to get rid of the secondary display over the screen, it began calling the upper portion the "New Second Screen". If you'd rather keep the notch hidden away in a black bar, you can.

Hiding the notch

Finally, here are some of the LG apps.

LG Apps: Dialer • Messaging (SMS) • Contacts • FM Radio

The HD Audio Recorder is fully featured and offers an ASMR mode and fully customizable audio (gain + low cut filter + limiter) and recording at up to 24 bit / 192 kHz. It even has a "Studio mode" that lets you record voice over a track you might have on your phone.

HD Audio Recorder

Synthetic benchmarks

The LG V60 is powered by the Snapdragon 865 chipset and paired with the X55 modem with support for sub-6 or mmWave 5G networks, depending on your market and carrier. The 865 uses 8 Kryo 585 cores in the following configuration: 1x2.84Ghz +3x2.42GHz + 4x1.80GHz with the first four being Cortex-A77 and the latter four are Cortex-A55 cores, all built on the 7nm+ process.

The V60 only comes in an 8GB RAM configuration paired with either 128GB or 256GB of storage. The US variants only come in 128GB (UFS 3.0), though the V60's storage is expandable via microSD card up to 2TB.

LG was adamant about offering the V60 with 8GB of RAM. Once could argue that it isn't enough compared to its competitors, but the phone maker is confident that this amount of RAM is ample for smooth operation and performance of the V60, whether you decide to use it with the Dual Screen case or not.

As expected, performance of the LG V60 is great, but it doesn't top the charts among other devices with the same chipset. Let us see just how the V60 is stacking up against the others.

In the multi-core tests, the V60 is certainly a step up from the LG G8X and V50, but its bested by just a couple of other devices powered by the same chipset. Single-core performance doesn't vary too much down the list, and Apple's A13 beats anything out there in this regard.

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  3503
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  3466
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  3402
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  3387
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  3349
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  3331
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  3289
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  3269
• Huawei P40 Pro
  3197
• LG G8X ThinQ
  2870
• OnePlus 7T Pro
  2803
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  2728
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  2697
• LG V50 ThinQ 5G
  2672

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  1333
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  1332
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  929
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  928
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  910
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  910
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  906
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  905
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  904
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  900
• Huawei P40 Pro
  780
• OnePlus 7T Pro
  773
• LG G8X ThinQ
  746
• LG V50 ThinQ 5G
  739

Graphics performance is great. The V60 may even have an advantage over other flagships thanks to its FHD+ display, thus making games less demanding compared to pixel dense QHD screens.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  120
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  118
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  87
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  86
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  86
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  86
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  86
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  86
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  85
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  85
• OnePlus 7T Pro
  80
• Huawei P40 Pro
  75
• LG G8X ThinQ
  70
• LG V50 ThinQ 5G
  70

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  75
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  74
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  61
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  60
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  60
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  59
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  59
• LG G8X ThinQ
  58
• Huawei P40 Pro
  52
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  43
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  43
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  42
• OnePlus 7T Pro
  40
• LG V50 ThinQ 5G
  36

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  57
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  57
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  44
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  43
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  42
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  42
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  41
• LG G8X ThinQ
  38
• Huawei P40 Pro
  31
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  25
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  25
• OnePlus 7T Pro
  24
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  24
• LG V50 ThinQ 5G
  22

Finally, Antutu 8 puts the V60 almost at the median of the devices compared here. It managed to outperform the Galaxy S20 Ultra by a little bit, but other Chinese competitors and the iPhone 11 Pro Max still scored higher.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  595246
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  593717
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  585764
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  575601
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  557056
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  536883
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  528631
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  527612
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  514485
• Huawei P40 Pro
  496356
• OnePlus 7T Pro
  493901
• LG V50 ThinQ 5G
  421934
• LG G8X ThinQ
  411980

In raw numbers, competitors with the same chip are seeing higher numbers, but that is not to say the V60 is slow. We've seen great performance and stability from the V60 all around, but these benchmark tests are meant for those who care about raw performance numbers as an objective way to compare performance between brands.