LG V60 ThinQ 5G review

19 April 2020
While we were all expecting a successor to the G8, LG instead announced a successor to the V50. The LG V60 ThinQ 5G is the latest fully featured flagship smartphone from Samsung’s Korean rival. LG doesn’t go quite as hard with the spec sheet as others like Samsung and Oppo, but it also doesn’t go as hard with the price point.

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Not sure about anyone else, but I for one could not give a single crap about their "dual screen" feature, even if it came bundled.

I mean why on earth would I make the phone more bulky just for an extra screen? Besides I don't see any practical scenarios in where I would use two screens. And please don't reply a long list of practical scenarios. Yeah, I know there are obviously benefits to dual screens for certain kinds of people (e.g. businessmen, photographers), but I am talking about myself, and I don't really have any sort of "thing" that requires that. And I'm pretty sure 95% of all consumers don't either, therefore making this just another gimmick.

    Is it really an Adreno 640 GPU?

      • R
      • RR
      • 4{c
      • 04 May 2020

      maga, 20 Apr 2020LG makes really good phones. But their Waterloo has always ... morethanks, how can I trust that this is safe. and it says for Lg v50? not 60

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        • Phonebutthead
        • 4AB
        • 03 May 2020

        Great phone. Doesn't follow industry trends and has stand out features that matter, not just flashy gimmicks. Seems about 1000x more practical than single screen folding phones at the moment, but perhaps that will change in the future.

        But who were the donkeys who decided to call brand this thing as "ThinQ", especially when it's not particularly thin in any way. What a ridiculous name. I know it sounds small, but I guarantee more people would be interested in this phone if it had a more eye catching name.

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          • Loveyoukrishna95@gma
          • XPA
          • 28 Apr 2020

          Hlo

            RishiGuru, 27 Apr 2020Great to know you restored an old legend. Pioneer Monitor 1... moreI like more Creative Aurvana Live over the Phillip's SPH9500. They are more fun to me and more airy in highs, while they are bright they aren't sibling at all. There's a roll of in highs over 15 KHz & in low bass under 63 Hz, a tad of the mid bass bost and a deep in upper mids at 3.5 KHz. They are great for not critical listening especially wire accustic instrument's and vocals, rest you can tune with EQ. Aurvanu Air sounds similar minus the mid bass boost (as they are open dedign) and with a little bigger roll of in sub bass (also related to design). Got mine two years ago on Amazon UK prime day For 44£, Live I got for similar price last year. My best man lives there so he brought them to me. Be careful regarding Aurvanu Air they have sharp edges and are rather big for earphones so it's important that you can fit them tight enough naturally & not to have to push them in hand as that won't work. Without a good fit bass won't line up & they won't sound good, if you push them to much they can cut you. Luckily they fit me. Creative is very odd firm they don't sell in either China or even in Singapore. Wanted to try some planar and would probably go with some Audeze budget model regarding that, seen a nice EMI's couple days back the FiiO FH1s & all do I won't use them much I am still tempted to get a pair those are just last thoughts regarding that I had recently.

              ZolaIII, 26 Apr 2020Well the best headaphones I own are old Pioneer Monitor 10 ... moreGreat to know you restored an old legend. Pioneer Monitor 10 II seems to have excellent track record for sound quality. To me Philips SPH9500 & Brainwavz HM5 are the cans to beat in its price range. One is open back and the other closed. I get both flavors.

              Always wanted Creative Aurvana Live I but never available in our country. Creative Aurvana Live II was available for a certain period of time, grabbed one when the time was right. No complaints though, I love Live II. A different take on sound with those Bio-Cellulose speaker diaphragms, very natural sounding with no part of the audible spectrum being exaggerated.

              Since you own both SPH9500 and Aurvana Live I, which one do you prefer more and why?

              I am dearly in lookout for Creative Aurvana Air for the last few years, even ready to ship from China. Please let me know if I can import from some other country at a reasonable price. For example I got the SPH9500 from AliExpress China but cannot find the Air.

              Lastly, it will be of great pleasure if you share your choices of headphones & IEMs within $200 that you own or love to have.

                RishiGuru, 26 Apr 2020The snake oil part is so true. Especially for audio where y... moreWell the best headaphones I own are old Pioneer Monitor 10 II from second half of 1970 which I bought & restored but I don't use them often. Have both Philips SPH9500 & Superlux HD668B. All do they sound very similar Philips is actually better buy as Superlux will cost you the same when you change audio input jack, get a deacent cable & ear pod's, Fidelio series bring little better sound & build quality for lot more money. I actually like Superlux HD668B frame (old AKG like) more. Have Creative Aurvana Live first gen which I think are a little better than second gen and a little cheaper those I use almost regularly. My actual favourite daily driver are Creative Aurvana air which are earbuds because of comfort, design and how they sound. Cheaper alternative to recommend would be Edifier H/P 190. Old Senn's where actually rather good but just not so anymore. Have a lot's of EMI's collecting dust as I really don't like them all do it took me a lot of time to understand that. Of course I have & a long wish list all together.

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                  • jj
                  • nTb
                  • 26 Apr 2020

                  RishiGuru, 26 Apr 2020The snake oil part is so true. Especially for audio where y... morePhilips Fidelio in the price bracket beats them all

                    ZolaIII, 26 Apr 2020Be careful there! Sweet, fussy and warm are usually charact... moreThe snake oil part is so true. Especially for audio where you get the same product re-branded and slapped with three different prices.

                    Below are the cans I generally tend to use with my LG V30's, Vivo NEX & Lenovo Vibe X3. At-least these phones have respectable output power to drive below headphones with ease:

                    1) Brainwavz HM5: Very revealing cans. Actually studio monitors they reveals every micro-detail of any song. Flat & tight lows, neutral middle, transparent & extended highs in a closed back design. A badly recorded music will sound terrible through it. With NEX & V30+ triggers the high gain mode. Built quality is not so good but extremely comfy to wear. Spent $80 for them.

                    2) Philips SPH9500: Natural open sound, a little less clinical & forgiving than HM5 and a tad more musical. You cannot go wrong with SPH9500. You cannot great wrong with SPH9500 @ $68.

                    3) Creative Aurvana Live 2: Good match with V30+. The sharp & clinically accurate nature of B&O tuned V30 are slightly tamed by a very balanced sound signature with more emphasis in lows & mids. Highs are very much present but not as revealing as HM5's or as natural sounding as SPH9500. A very underrated but great headphone. Good buy at $78.

                    4) Edifier H840: A fun loving $20 headphone with can a $60 can run for its money. Seriously, you cannot go wrong with either H840 or H850 for its price.

                    5) Superlux HD681: You will get headaches with this can while using with V30. More suitable with NEX. Detailed & reveling sound for just $22. Poor built quality but unheard sound quality for its price.

                    6) Sennheiser HD518: Overrated headphones and most expensive of the lot, with dark and very un-revealing type of sound. Complete waste of money.

                    Thanks for clearing the doubts regarding my Vivo NEX hifi mode & CS43198. I thought when HiFi mode is switched OFF, NEX was using its inbuilt WCD9341 and when switched ON:

                    Normal Gain (1 Vrms): CS43198 + 1 X SSM6322
                    High Gain (2 Vrms): CS43198 + 3 X SSM6322

                    Thanks for such lovely & truly educational conversations. This types of mature posts are ultra rare in GSMArena.

                      S13, 26 Apr 2020truth be told, a lot of the spec wars re pretty useless. ... moreIts all about bringing something new to the table year on year, useful or useless. Something new so that the company can differentiate its new products and get brain washing sales pitch. It is a very good & effective business strategy.
                      I

                        RishiGuru, 26 Apr 2020I also like the "keep it simple" approach in design. To man... moreBe careful there! Sweet, fussy and warm are usually characterised as bass bost in a good way.

                        Why do you think there's more snake oil in audio than anywhere else? Answer is quite simple. Because there's no place with more snakes.
                        Fot instance when I told how Aurvanu Live are great and how you can find them for 70$ I meant that, you can buy very same ones with Denon branding slapped on for more than 200$ or similar Fostex one's for around 350$. All with same Foster 40 mm driver's. This is just one of many examples. I currently am in Foster dynamic driver's paper tin cone phase & will probably stay there for a long time.

                        Saga never really ends but DAC is not where you should be spending more money than you should. So you can buy great DAC; portable for 43~70$, desktop 90~150$ & around twice that much for balanced one's and that's just it you won't need better one for life. You also can fairly cheap buy a great headaphone amp fairly cheap; 70~100$ portable, 100~200$ desktop & again about twice that much for balanced.
                        Great power amplifiers are rare and very expensive.
                        Most important part is always analogue transmitters (headaphones, speakers) and that's where you need to invest most of your time & money finding what you like and how you like it. That's where you will color it and a reason why you need a transparent DAC in the first place.

                        NEX "HiFi" switch is nothing more than than software On/off switch for third SSM6322 used as OP Amp & adjusted at +7 dB gain.

                        Let me answer & CS43198 output question if I understand it correctly. It uses both at it's hybrid design (all new one's are) has separate line's for PCM and DSD & acording uses different transformation methods.

                          ZolaIII, 25 Apr 2020Didn't really understand question about CS43198 output. Did... moreI also like the "keep it simple" approach in design. To many components or complex schematics does not always equate to better audio quality. And then audio quality are like two sides of the same coin with objective & subjective tests. In many cases I rather choose a component with few dB less SINAD if it happens to sound more sweeter in my ears. And I believe if a person is happy with the sound of a $50 USB DAC, then there is no need for him to upgrade.

                          But we audio lovers are always bitten by this UPGRADE BUG, and spend thousands of dollars on it.

                          I think we should stop bothering about the audio configuration in NEX ans rather enjoy the sound. A measured SINAD of 114 db is truly phenomenal achievement for a smartphone, and NEX beats the LG G7 which tops out at 109 dB in this regard.

                          Lastly, there is one part of all Soomal technical audio reviews that I always understand less and that is the phones output power or voltage through audio jacks. Vivo NEX have a system-wide HiFi ON/OFF switch. The Soomal review said on HiFi mode the output through audio jack is line level (0 dB) and on standard mode -7 dB. So correct me if I am wrong the output is 1 Vrms in HiFi mode. And I have seen from other audio reviews from Soomal they never stretch the amp, so that 1 Vrms is most probably the 1st gain step. I am assuming all these in my limited technical abilities and will love if you shed your technical abilities here.

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • IWR
                            • 26 Apr 2020

                            Anonymous, 25 Apr 2020Duh it's a good phone for the price and definite contender ... moreTelephoto lens will be only used for portrait
                            Ultrabwide better and equal with other flagship
                            Main camera also better and equal with other flagship of you want just go see camera review in youtube
                            It has ufs 3.0 not 2.1
                            8gb rqm is enough iphone 11 pro max hqs only 4gb ram and its doing its work smoothly unlike samsung and oneplus lg and iphone won't lack after 1 year update
                            I have s9 plus and i am using it in 1080p if i switched to 1440 p it won't last even for 13 hours

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                              • S13
                              • T6E
                              • 26 Apr 2020

                              RishiGuru, 25 Apr 2020Thanks again!!! So by nature the SSM6322 are single ende... moretruth be told, a lot of the spec wars re pretty useless.
                              90mhz and 210mhz weren't even a need we thought about a few months ago.
                              some ofthse periscope 10x zoom and what not are pretty useless. nobody really zooms in to see the detail , etc.

                              there's a reason people are unhappy these days in general and on meds etc. they need validation via social media likes and they spend too much time online and create a false sense of need.

                              i give you a phone and dont tell you if it's snapdragon 865 or 90hz display or tell you what brnd name it is... you will ot know. if you like the product it's good. if you don't that's cool.



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                                • Art
                                • KAq
                                • 25 Apr 2020

                                sonyhavana, 25 Apr 2020This review is unfair. The phone is almost perfect...and wh... moreIt is price rating

                                  RishiGuru, 25 Apr 2020Thanks again!!! So by nature the SSM6322 are single ende... moreDidn't really understand question about CS43198 output. Did swipe fast trough SSM6322 data sheet seams it has a high power point rejection rate but its tied to higher frequency range & falls dramatically in low end. It has a 1 DB claimed better THD+N than Sabre9601k or OPA1622 but its a very low power one up to 32 Ohm's designed for phones specially probably up to 30 mW. It's strange they used it, bi Amp-ing is never a very good way to go if you have other choice. It's even stranger because CS43131 with it's own Amp in Sonata HD Pro (14 mW @ 300 Ohm's) menage to outperform both Meizu Pro and LG G7 (10 mW @ 300 Ohm's). Of course neither of these is for more than 64 Ohm's can's at best, ideally for 32 Ohm's ones. All together if you need an Amp for anything over 100 Ohms you have to go either balanced or dedicated or both. Today you can buy great portable or desktop headphone Amp for 70~100$ so why bother. Simple design is always better & so is self stand over multi practice intercontinental. :)

                                    ZolaIII, 25 Apr 2020They probably used two as in line amplifiers (it's not bala... moreThanks again!!!

                                    So by nature the SSM6322 are single ended stereo line amplifiers specially designed to interface with DACs with differential inputs and single ended voltage output. And two of them are in series amplifing the current and voltage. Then why there is even a need for the third SSM6322? As you previously stated pretty strange configuration.

                                    Are CS43198 voltage or current output DACs?

                                    I was speaking about drive capibility of Vivo Nex related to high impedence headphones. It is pretty much their with my lg v30.

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • Kxr
                                      • 25 Apr 2020

                                      sonyhavana, 25 Apr 2020This review is unfair. The phone is almost perfect...and wh... moreDuh it's a good phone for the price and definite contender for budget flasghip of the year especially in the US.

                                      But It's far from perfect flagship. How can it get max score?
                                      -Lacks periscope zoom lens.
                                      -Lwer resolution screen downgrade.
                                      -Lacks high refresh rate.
                                      -Main camera is weaker compared to other flagship especially in low light.
                                      -Slower UFS 2.1
                                      -lack of 12gb ram option.
                                      -lack of dedicated cooling.
                                      -Ultrawide is weak compared to other flagships.
                                      -Weak fast charging.

                                        This review is unfair. The phone is almost perfect...and why 4 stars? I have seen here other phones with other flaws..like poor battery life having almost the max score...

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