LG V40 ThinQ

LG comes out with some significant modifications with its model LG V40 ThinQ. Arriving at a price of Rs.44,991, the phone is expensive, but it holds its value with its efficient hardware.

The LG V40 ThinQ appears healthy, and it keeps strength internally as well, due to its potent processor and brilliant camera. However, it does not prepare itself well regarding the battery, which falters when put up against its competitors. If you are looking for a camera phone with the LG-guaranteed brilliant audio, then LG V40 ThinQ is all set to fulfil your desires.

The LG V40 ThinQ comes with fantastic build quality. The phone looks premium and immediately shows an improvement from the G7+ ThnQ. The metal frame has a matte finish, and the glass back makes sure that no fingerprint smudges remain on the phone. The front and back glass taper towards the side and then blend with the frame so perfectly that you cannot feel the edges that well. The phone, however, is not grip-friendly, and because of its slippery nature, it can be risky or uncomfortable to hold with one hand. The phone itself is quite large, and that makes the buttons on the sides of the phone challenging to reach. The button feedback, in general, is responsive, and there is a Google Assistant button on the left, which is not customizable. The V40 ThinQ is one of the leftover flagships which still offers the 3.5 mm headphone jack, the USB Type-C port, and a speaker.

It is IP68 water and dust resistant, with the cameras, back, and front being protected by Gorilla Glass, and it comes with MIL-STD-810G military certification for shock resistance. The phone does not have an LED notification though. The fingerprint scanner is well-located on the back panel, and it works fast and is quite secure.

The LG V40 ThinQ arrives with a 6.4-inch QHD+ display which could have been quite immersive but for the thick black bezels present on both sides. The phone comes with a P-OLED panel which brings out the punchy colours and the depth of contrast between the deeper colours, therefore, giving a fantastic experience when you watch movies. There are also different colours profiles which you can use according to your needs. The brightness is quite good too though sunlight legibility under harsh sunlight can falter.

The LG V40 ThinQ gets its power Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 octa-core chipset, which is the right choice for a phone that boasts itself to be the company’s flagship. The processor offers impressive speed, and the apps load fast. It allows several apps to run in the background without a problem and switching between apps is also handled swiftly and efficiently. Games like PUBG can run efficiently on this phone without a lag.

However, gaming can see the metal sides get warm a bit too fast. Even prolonged use of cameras can heat the metal frames. It receives 2,62,210 points in AnTuTu, which is pretty decent.

The V40 ThinQ comes with three cameras at the rear panel: a 12MP shooter with an f/1.5 aperture coming with OIS, dual PDAF and a pixel size of 1.4 microns, a 12MP telephoto camera which gives you the opportunity of getting 2x optical zoom, and a 16MP wide-angle camera with an f/1.9 aperture but with no autofocus. It also comes with AI integration which helps to detect the scene accurately so that you can shoot images with the right setting. There is also a feature called Triple Shot, which allows you to take three photos with all three sensors to get you three perspectives. The autofocus is quick and can capture great pictures with excellent details and great accurate colours even for landscapes. However, when you click images in the wide-angle camera, there might be a bit of barrel distortion observed. Macros turn out to be quite sharp.

In low-light, the camera fails to enter into the telephoto mode, but it clicks decent macros. Portrait mode is quite good too as the edge detection is almost perfect and the blur is not too artificial. In good light, the telephoto lens captures brilliant shots.

In the front, there is an 8MP selfie camera and a wide-angle 5MP selfie camera with an f/2.2 aperture. In daylight, the selfies turn out to be quite detailed, and better than the ones in the nighttime. However, HDR makes the selfies overexposed.

The phone can shoot 4K videos at 30 or 60 fps. It combines both optical and electronic stabilization, and the colours look good. The video quality dips with 1080p, with the colours getting washed out and images lacking definition. Low-light puts in some visual noise in 4K videos too.

The V40 ThinQ comes with a 3,300mAh battery which seems small, but due to the QHD+ display, it is quite adequate, and can provide you with a full day’s worth of charge. However, prolonged use of the camera can drain the battery a lot fast. You can switch to full-HD+ mode to save battery. Running a QHD+ video on a loop found that the phone was able to get up to 11 hours and 49 minutes, which is just passable.

The phone supports QuickCharge 3.0, and this can get the battery to 77 percent within an hour. Plus, the phone comes with wireless Qi charging though it is very slow. With a 10W Qi wireless charging, it takes 3 hours and 10 minutes to get the phone go from 0 to 100%.

The LG V40 ThinQ is a great flagship that comes with a top-end processor and a great camera, without lowering the quality in any of the five that comes with the set and impressive display. The battery, however, seems underwhelming. The phone, in general, is an excellent find for any LG enthusiast.

One of its chief competitors is the Samsung Galaxy S9+, which is priced a tad bit higher and comes with a similar processor but less number of cameras. It does not have shock resistance. The V40 ThinQ is a versatile phone which will not disappoint you.