LG V60 ThinQ 5G review

Three cameras (technically)

One major change to the V60's camera is the lack of a dedicated telephoto camera. We're seeing more smartphones outfitted with depth sensors, and the V60 is one of those. LG's main camera is a 64MP (9248 x 6936 px) sensor with 0.8 µm pixels (1.6 µm accounting for pixel binning) and normally outputs 16MP images. The main sensor has an f/1.8 aperture lens and a 78-degree field of view and the main camera is the only one that is optically stabilized (OIS).

Next, the ultrawide camera has an f/1.9 aperture lens and 1 µm pixels. This one has a 117-degree field of view, and over the years, LG has done a great job of reducing lens distortion through this lens. This one uses a 13MP sensor.

Finally, the third camera is a ToF sensor with f/1.4 aperture and 14 µm pixels. LG calls this its "Z Camera" but it's just a fancy way of naming its depth sensor.

The front-facing camera is a 10MP shooter with a 72.5-degree field of view, f/1.9 aperture lens, and relatively large 1.22 µm pixels. Last year, the V50 featured dual front-facing cameras - one of which was an ultrawide. Perhaps putting a second selfie camera was not worth the trouble (nor the wider notch).

LG's camera app is straightforward to use. Swipe across the screen to switch between modes or swipe vertically to switch between the front and rear cameras. The top row contains toggles and settings for each mode like flash options, aspect ratio, resolution, and the timer.

Camera app

For a few years now, LG's been offering manual video and manual still photo modes with control for ISO, shutter speed, focus, white balance, and the video camera offers all the latter, plus manual audio gain control. A histogram and gyro-level are both welcome tools for composing shots.

Manual: Video • Still camera

There are also a couple of video modes that take advantage of the multiple microphones on the V60. New here is an ASMR mode for recording this recent trendy type of video. We saw that mode on the LG G8X first and now it's making its way to the V series.

Voice Bokeh uses the surrounding mics to reduce background noise and focus on vocals in front of the camera.

Video viewfinder • Audio modes: Normal • ASMR • Voice Bokeh

Image quality

Images shot with the LG V60's main camera look excellent. Although it has a 64MP sensor, 4-to-1-pixel binning results in 16MP images in the end.

Image quality is great, and the dynamic range is quite good as well. Upon close inspection, we notice that sharpness is just a tad bit on the strong side, but that's only noticeable once we peek at the pixels at 1:1. Although shadows look darker than perhaps some other competitors' cameras, the scenes are captured more true to life.

Camera samples

Noise levels and contrast are both great. We are liking what we are seeing so far. Colors are deep and true to life as well.

Here are some samples to compare with the OnePlus 8 Pro's 48MP camera (which has a larger sensor and outputs 12MP images). The OnePlus tends to make shadows brighter and cooler (bluer). The 8 Pro also seems to capture details that represent true life.

OnePlus 8 Pro samples

We don't imagine that many folks will shoot in full resolution - after all, a full-res photo does take up about four times as much storage. If you would like to, however, the option is easily accessible from the aspect ratio setting in the viewfinder. Full size images are 9248 x 6936 px in resolution.

White balance and colors are consistent with the regular photos. We're happy with the camera images so far.

Full-res camera samples

We see less noise than we expected. There's a lot of detail in these images, and shooting handheld is no problem here. Just know that it may take a short moment longer to capture than the standard 16MP photos.

For comparison, here are a few full-res 48MP images from the OnePlus 8 Pro as well.

OnePlus 8 Pro full-res samples

The ultrawide camera captures 13MP images, and its photos are consistent with the main camera's in white balance, colors, and contrast. Over the years, LG's ultrawide cameras have consistently reduced lens distortion (the fish-eye effect), and the V60 has no noticeable distortion. The exception is the garage door in one of the shots, but that's due to the angle.

Ultrawide samples

Details and sharpness can get a little murky towards the edges of the frame, but this happens on many ultrawide smartphone cameras.

The V60 doesn't have a dedicated zoom camera, but the V60 will shoot "2X zoom" by cropping it from the main camera. We're not upset by this; images are quite good in details and the sensor has plenty of resolution to cut a good zoomed image from it.

2X zoom samples

We put the LG V60 in more demanding low-light tests than we normally do, but we can still gather a conclusion from our tests. Like many cameras, shooting in low light results in softer details, duller colors, and noisier areas.

Low-light samples

By default, the Night View mode is in the "More" tab, so it was a little annoying to have to dig for it every time we wanted to use it.

But using Night View was worth it. The mode does a great job of making out details in the shadows, and it did a pretty good job with foliage. Of course, if it's a windy night, you can expect some mushier details like in the palms above the house but that doesn't have anything to do with the camera's properties.

Night View samples

In some cases where there might be a decent light source available, Night View may not make a huge difference. One example of that is the red-lit gate. Although Night View does make some improvements to the scene, you can only notice them if you look up close at the pixels.

Here are some lowlight photos shot with the OnePlus 8 Pro for comparison.

OnePlus 8 Pro lowlight samples

OnePlus 8 Pro lowlight with Nightscape

Night View didn't do much to save the ultrawide camera's low light shots. As is the case with many smartphones (and there are some exceptions) we don't even recommend you bother with using the ultrawide at night as you'll get much better images with the main camera.

Low-light ultrawide samples

Night View ultrawide samples

The V60 shoots portraits with the help of the third "Z Camera" as LG calls it. The depth sensor helps the main camera detect the subject and soften the background.

Portraits shot with the V60 are nice. We do wish there were an option to zoom in portrait mode, however. With a real camera, the proper way to take a portrait shot is using a longer lens (one that zooms) and shoot the subject from further away as it adds for a more flattering perspective on the person's face.

Portrait

Anyway, portraits aren't bad. Skin tones are good, and the bokeh is smooth. We just wish the subject line were better defined. It's acceptable, but you really start to notice when you zoom further in or when you enable any of the other portrait shooting modes.

Portrait modes: Color focus • Stagelight • Backdrop

The front-facing 10MP camera is great, and autofocus here is a bonus. Selfies are flattering with nice skin tones, great details, and a natural bokeh that keeps the focus on faces. Exposure is also even while dynamic range and colors are consistent with the main camera.

Selfie samples

Selfie portraits are okay. Again, the subject line is not accurate, but here it's perhaps more noticeable than the main camera's portrait shots.

Selfie Portrait

8K Video

The LG V60 is one of the very few smartphones that can shoot video in 8K resolution out of the box. The other noteworthy camera with this capability is the Samsung Galaxy S20 lineup. The resolution comes out to 4320x7680 px with a resulting bitrate of 47Mbps at 26 frames per second.

The truth is, there is no real need to record in this high of a resolution. The only reason we can think of is if you plan to grab frames from the video, which come out to around 33MP images.

Resulting video looks good, the washed-out colors are due to an overcast sky, so if you watch past about halfway, you'll see the sun peek out, and you can get a better look at the shadows. Exposures are even, and the dynamic range is good. White balance and skin tones are both great as well.

The video quality is quite good with lots of details. The reality is you probably don't even have a display or even a computer that's capable of playing back this video. The turth is you can't tell the difference between a 4K video and 8K video just watching it on the phone's screen or on a 1080p computer screen.

4K video shot at 60 fps is sharp and full of details. However, we do notice noise throughout the 60fps 4K video.

For the record, 4K@60fps video samples have a bitrate of about 63Mbps while 4K@30fps is doing 49Mbps - both in the H.264 codec. You can switch to H.265, where 4K@30fps will be recorded with a bitrate of 38.5Mbps thus saving you some storage.

The noise present in 4K@60fps video is not present here. Colors, white balance, and dynamic range are consistent with the other video modes.

The same noise we saw in the 4K@60fps video is also present in the 1080p@60fps video, though not as much of it can be seen throughout the video.

In practicality, we'd recommend recording in either 1080p@30fps or 2160p@30fps.