LG announced its latest phone, the dual screen V20, today at an event in San Francisco, California.
The first V-series smartphone set to come to Canada, the phone is something of an amalgamation of the G5 and V10.
The handset features a unibody aluminum and silicon polycarbonate design that houses a Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of expandable storage and a 5.7-inch 2560 x 1440 pixel primary display. In terms of connectivity, the V20 comes with Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2 and NFC. We’re waiting to hear back from LG on bands and frequencies, but the phone should be compatible with all most all Canadian networks.
LG used its presentation to highlight the many ways in which the V20 is a multimedia powerhouse. To start, the phone builds upon the G5’s impressive camera package.
Like the G5, the V20’s 16-megapixel back-facing camera has two lenses — a 35mm equivalent F1.8 lens and a 135-degree wide angle lens. On the front of the device is another wide-angle lens, perfect for taking selfies.
When it comes to audio, the V20 is also no slouch. As the company teased in the lead up to today’s reveal, the V20 is the first smartphone to include a 32-bit Quad digital-to-analog converter (DAC) supplied by ESS. Company CEO Bob Blair spent a lot of time talking about the V20’s DAC, mentioning things like signal-to-noise ration, but the important thing here is that the V20 will sound great with a pair of headphones.
Best of all, however, the V20 does not ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack, meaning consumers won’t be forced to buy an unsightly adapter, or, worse, a new pair of USB-C headphones to listen to music and take calls while using their new smartphone.
Of course, since the V10 came out last year, the story of this particular series of smartphones has been its second screen functionality. LG didn’t spend too much talking about the secondary 160 x 1040 pixel display, but the company did mention users will be able to turn off this screen if they want to save battery power. Speaking of battery power, the V20 comes with a user-replaceable 3,200mAh power source, as well as Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.
On the software side, the V20 is notable for being the first smartphone to ship with the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system, Android Nougat, preloaded. The updated OS brings with it a number of new features to Android, including multi-screen multitasking and in-app search.
From the multimedia front, the most relevant improvements are Steady Record 2.0, Qualcomm’s latest software for capturing blur-free photos and videos, and a new manual mode that is accessible even while capturing video.
We’re waiting on LG Canada to get back to us on Canadian pricing and carrier availability. We’ll update this article as we hear back from the company.
