LG Velvet MORE PICTURES

LG Velvet

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XLR8R, 22 Dec 2020The Velvet packs an audio punch even without the quad DAC. ... moreLG Velvet (Snapdragon 845) most probably uses Qualcomm's flagship Aqstic WCD9341 audio codec. They have used it prior with their LG V30+ in standard mode (HiFi Mode disabled). I don't know if my LG G8X uses the same chip like my V30+ in standard mode.

I found WCD9341 is a dedicated audio chip with ADC, DAC and headphone amplifier built in and mates with their flagship SD8XX lineup. It is not just a random low cost audio codec shoved into a Qualcomm power management IC. This chip contains a very good DAC section and can produce nearly 1 Vrms headphone-out when implemented in high performance mode.

WCD9341 supports PCM playback of upto 384 kHz, native DSD steams upto DSD128 and also DoP (DSD over PCM). However most manufacturers does not implement native DSD/DoP. So we also have a WCD9340 which is identical to WCD9341 but this time without DSD/DoP. Redmi K20 Pro implements WCD9340. With an advertised dynamic range of 130 dB & distortion of -109 dB during audio playback the WCD9341 is quite close to ESS ES9218P SABRE (LG's Quad DAC) or Cirrus Logic CS43199 (Vivo NEX S). Digging deeper I even found Qualcomm partnered to further tune their flagship WCD9341 audio sound signature under guidance given by a group of audiophiles known as "Golden Ears". It just proves Qualcomm was serious with their WCD9341 & WCD9340.

Going through the spec sheet I found WCD9341 is designed to consume power anywhere between 6mW to 34mW to operate. In high performance mode it will require all of those 34 mW and maybe LG is providing all the power it needs by dedicated power supply rails to WCD9341. On other hand LG's QuadDAC consumes 2.5 times more power at 80mW but provides over 2 Vrms output, more than twice that of WCD9341. The key however is to find a smartphone manufacturer who understands & values analogue audio and implements WCD9341 in high performance mode.

Last year I bought the Meizu 16th (Meizu 16 in China), which sadly was their last flagship with a headphone jack. At $240 in India, it came with Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC & 8GB RAM. Meizu India provided us a fully Google certified device with Google Playstore (GMS) pre-installed. In short, pretty awesome performance & flagship built quality at a nominal price.

All knows Meizu have a rich history of making portable music players before they ventured into smartphones and still today makes some very good quality headphones & earphones. As such the company understands sound quality like LG & Vivo and many of their previous flagships smartphones came with dedicated DAC solutions. I believe where these three manufacturers excels in audio is internal circuit design & audio tuning which sounds appealing to our ears.

However for 16th, there was no press material indicated anything extraordinary in the audio department. I took for granted it was using some low quality audio codec from Qualcomm. However more I listened music through my Meizu 16th, more I fell in love with this device. One day just for fun I sat down a did some critical listening with some good earphones, and immediately noticed the sound quality is above ordinary through the audio jack. It has to do with both the audio tuning & hardware. I started reasoning my mind how is it possible with Qualcomm codecs and Meizu must have done something special.

After going through some Chinese websites performing detailed tear-downs, I found Meizu 16th was using the highest quality flagship audio codec available from Qualcomm, better known as Aqstic WCD9341. However in real life there still remains a certain gap in performance which Qualcomm needs to fill compared to ESS & Cirrus Logic. In Meizu 16th tear-downs by Chinese media, I found the WCD9341 audio chip sits under its own tiny metal plate cover with graphite & copper shielding on top. So the chip is well isolated from rest of the PCB and other ICs, eliminating a lot of induced noise on the analog stage of WCD9341. Frankly, quite impressed as Meizu shelled more money in the production line to make sure the sound quality remains intact through the 3.5 mm audio jack.

The other fact I noticed on 16th is the power available through audio jack is much higher than similar WCD9341 implementations like in OnePlus 6 (sadly the last OnePlus with audio jack). The OnePlus frankly sounds anemic in comparison, no drive. Meizu seems to have much more power and can drive same headphones much better. This is mostly due a better power supply stage to the audio chip. As such I believe the Velvet implementation is more like Meizu than OnePlus.

Qualcomm deserves credit & also Meizu & LG deserves a pat on their back for bringing to us perhaps the best implementations of Qualcomm Aqstic WCD9341 on a smartphone till date.

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    • XLR8R
    • tTb
    • 22 Dec 2020

    Muzik, 22 Dec 2020I never tried any Chinese brand ever. Lets see if croma sto... moreI dont know how it compares to past G/V series phones, but what I can say, and I am quite sure the measurements will confirm, is that its better than almost any non-LG phone launched in 2019 or 2020 (dont know about Xperias though).

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      • XLR8R
      • tTb
      • 22 Dec 2020

      joe nodden, 22 Dec 2020Jeez what are you, an LG marketer? You literally just said ... moreIts about as useless as IP68, seeing no one warrants that for water resistance anyway.

      This is the first LG phone I felt worth using in the last five years. You have grudges against a company, take them elsewhere. LG is about as good as any brand you can think of, in some respects better.

        XLR8R, 22 Dec 2020I checked this, the Velvet is tested according to MET labs ... moreJeez what are you, an LG marketer? You literally just said the durability certification after I just said how useless it is.

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          • Muzik
          • sGP
          • 22 Dec 2020

          XLR8R, 22 Dec 2020The Velvet packs an audio punch even without the quad DAC. ... moreI never tried any Chinese brand ever. Lets see if croma stores have this mobile, i will check sound quality by myself. Just want to be 100% sure if this match LG G7+ sound. If not better at least this should have equal experience. Thanks for the information.

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            • XLR8R
            • tTb
            • 22 Dec 2020

            YUKI93, 28 Jul 2020Being a 4G-only device, I can understand why LG is still st... more5G does not make sense yet as the major countries in the world have not yet finalized the bands of the major carriers. Vo5G (voice) is still an issue, and to my knowledge there's no phone that actually does carrier aggregation over 5G today. 2022 is probably a better year for buying a 5G phone.

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              • XLR8R
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              • 22 Dec 2020

              joe nodden, 07 Aug 2020Hahahahaha they finally added the warning under the "m... moreI checked this, the Velvet is tested according to MET labs tests under MIL-STD-810G for Transit Drop and temperature shock conditions.

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                • XLR8R
                • tTb
                • 22 Dec 2020

                Muzik, 26 Nov 2020Yup, that decision is taking us away form LG. But lets see ... moreThe Velvet packs an audio punch even without the quad DAC. Using the same earphones I was hearing notes I never knew existed when I was listening on a Xiaomi device....Do not worry.

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                  • XLR8R
                  • tTb
                  • 22 Dec 2020

                  RishiGuru, 20 Dec 2020What are your initial impressions with the LG Velvet (4G)? ... moreImpressions are very good. The main improvement over G8X is actually in software. The UI runs the smoothest I ever saw on an LG phone, and is also better than a few competitors including Samsung (Exynos), Mi and Vivo. The build quality is very premium and apparently the rear glass has oleophobic coating as well, something overlooked on other brands. The battery backup is probably the best I've seen from an SD845 device, but you'll need to charge it once a day anyway. There's no quad DAC but the audio output is awesome from both the stereo speakers and the headphone jack. It probably uses a Qualcomm higher end Aqstic DAC chip. UI feels different, like a cross between One UI and XOS from Infinix. Gaming is smooth, and it runs very cool, heats up noticeably lesser than the Note 20 exynos edition or the Oppo Reno 10X Zoom.

                  Camera wise, it actually captures a lot of details but tends to produce softer images than what you would expect on an oppo or samsung high end phone. Low light camera also has the same drawbacks. But it has interesting features for audio or video recording including ASMR mode. I would like to say this phone is a treat for indoor photos because it allows consistent photo quality between the main and ultrawide cameras, which is a rarity on smartphones. It does lack advanced macro and telephoto capabilities though.

                  This phone is the best LG has been for a while and I hope they continue this momentum. If they can fix their Android update frequency and provide regular security patches, they'll be back in all markets as a hot item.

                    XLR8R, 19 Dec 2020It's battery life is a bit better than the Galaxy Note... moreWhat are your initial impressions with the LG Velvet (4G)? Do you think it to be better device than LG G8X?

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                      • XLR8R
                      • P%0
                      • 19 Dec 2020

                      star1337, 10 Dec 2020Bought this phone a week ago. Had to return it because I wa... moreIt's battery life is a bit better than the Galaxy Note 20 4G Exynos version. There are probably better phones at this price point in terms of battery life though (S10 Lite, Oppo Reno series).

                      However, if you are using S20/Note 20 series (Exynos), you'll only miss some performance and camera quality with the LG Velvet. This phone is very premium!

                        Bought this phone a week ago. Had to return it because I was unable to call someone, the call would end as soon as the person on the other end picked up. The battery life was also pretty poor, just watching Youtube or using Whatsapp drained the battery pretty quick.

                          I still wonder why the fast charger trick can't work for the big companies but for Chinese it works well

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                            • 30 Nov 2020

                            Hajlorr, 26 Nov 2020Snapdragon 845?Yes, in India. They used SD 845 because they didn't launch 5G model in India

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                              • not pleased
                              • 81e
                              • 28 Nov 2020

                              Bought the LG Velvet at Walmarts. Salesman "set it up". Got home and could log in ONCE. ONE phone call. ONE photo taken - then the phone was nonfunctional. Four Hours on "Chat" , then emails trying to fix problem - different instructions sent - totally opposite info. Phone jammed, no fingerprint ID able to be used. Sent for repairs. Waiting for SLOW return by Canada Post. Email claims it got new tabs, back, inside redone- so really?? This is a NEW phone now?? Then my address book reveals photo of salesman and the person is downloading all my photos. Extremely dissatisfied with the junk quality of the phone, the poor service instructions, the invasions of privacy and now a "new" phone majorly repaired.

                                bought this phone today in sale fore 299 euro at saturn germany.
                                its so great,supers build quality,fast software,cameras are nice etc etc.
                                great phone from Lg for sure.

                                  Snapdragon 845?

                                    Muzik, 26 Nov 2020Yup, that decision is taking us away form LG. But lets see ... moreSwiveling phones with moving parts like LG Wing are always made with some compromises. A traditional bar shaped phone like LG G8X have some inherent advantages like no moving parts which helps it easily achieving IP68 rating, inclusion of big 4000 mAh battery & still space left to cram in a 3.5 mm audio jack with awesome QuadDAC.

                                    For Wing, there is a huge mechanical hinge assembly inside the phone holding the display to the phone back side to provide the swiveling movement. This assembly eats up lot a space inside the phone. When ever we have moving parts, water may also sip in through the hinge. So we get lower IP54 rating.

                                    Then there is a second display which eats more space. From what I read LG wanted to give Wing a reasonable sized battery to power two screens, so after fitting the same battery of G8X (4000 maH) there were no room left for the audio jack. Two displays will eat up a lot of battery so this size in minimum i believe. Mind you Wing 10 mm taller than G8X, with the same size battery but still the hinge mechanism ate of lot of valuable internal space. This is why LG Velvet with similar size of Wing has a bigger battery and audio jack because it is a traditional bar phone.

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                                      • sGP
                                      • 26 Nov 2020

                                      RishiGuru, 22 Nov 2020Well, design & looks are subjective and personal. It is... moreYup, that decision is taking us away form LG. But lets see what comes next with a Quad Dac. I am afraid if they totally discontinue this sound quality line up in future. Because LG Wing is of 70k and still missing Dac which I think was not a good move. I checked many reviews but didn't get what i wanted. Hope for better future for LG (Sound Lovers).

                                        Muzik, 21 Nov 2020Thanks for suggestions but to be very frank, I didn't ... moreWell, design & looks are subjective and personal. It is upto the buyer to suite his/her needs and preferences. Regarding android security patch updates, LG never had a good track record. Forget about monthly or bi-monthly patches my LG V30+ had bi-annual updates. So it is fair to say LG is weak on the software side, but their software is stable.

                                        Us music lovers still overlook above issues for ultimate sound quality over headphone jack, but with current commission of QuadDAC due to change of LG strategic business decisions have left us further away from LG. I completely understand your point.

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