To understand what is going on in the mind of smartphone buyers, it is very difficult — beyond the traditional wishes of “I want a lot cheaper” still no win-win recipe for the flagship model. Metal housing and solid design? Sluggish sales of the HTC One M9 prove, what not in this happiness. Record characteristics? Apple iPhone 6s is complete without eye-popping numbers in the specs, and even the Chinese in the face of Huawei succeed without chasing power of the cores and the number of megapixels. Constructive “highlights”? Not bloody likely — the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 in many countries was never going to sell, because instead of supporting the stylus buyers simply choose something premium but with a bigger screen.
And even luxurious materials (a G4, though not a pioneer in the use of leather in the housing, looks and feels very cool) other things being the flagship characteristics of speculative sales are not guaranteed.
But Koreans never give up: even before the life-giving reshuffles in the leadership of the company’s engineers were preparing to release a model with a bunch of experimental “chips” in case the previously released flagship not “shoot”. Thus was born not in a”Algernon” strict and futuristic V10. We will check whether its innovations in practice, and generally see whether the new flagship G4 banal “on steroids”.
LG V10
Features
Operating system
Android 5.1 Lollipop
Screen
main: 5.7 inch 2560×1440 pixels, IPS screen, ppi 515
more: 2.1 inches, 160×1440, 658 ppi
Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 MSM8992 1.8 GHz (6 cores, 4x Cortex-A53 + 2x Cortex-A57)
Graphics
Adreno 418
Operational memory
4 GB
Permanent memory
64GB, microSD slot
Link
4G (LTE Cat.6), 3G, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, GLONASS, NFC
Camera
primary: 16 MP, autofocus, video recording 3840×2160
front: dual 5MP
Battery
3000 mAh, removable
Sizes
159,6×79,3×8,6 mm
Weight
192 g
The price at the time of publication
60 000 rubles
Price according to price.EN
Design and management
But in the commercials it looked much less menacing: blackest black LG V10 with no less than a black back cover and easy grip side faces of steel is felt a hefty mighty gadget, how to turn it on.
And first impressions don’t lie: it really is very great and weighty smartphone. LG V10 for all parameters larger than the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ and in General dimensions comparable to a six-inch Huawei Ascend Mate 7. And it’s the heaviest smartphone with a display diagonal of 5.7-5.9 inches.
Rear panel LG V10
However, in reality such features cause much less inconvenience than would expect: simply, if the majority of today’s phablets are surprised by its “toy” proportions, V10, opposite as it looks — and feels. However, when “six-inch” altitude Trouser pockets our phablet gets hard and feels like a hip outfit of Lara Croft — I want the first chance to put the gadget into his jacket pocket.
LG V10 in comparison with Meizu Pro 5 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4
Rear panel made of rubberized plastic relief. Feels like a mesh of the speakers of the radio, coupling properties as the eraser school supplies. We can safely argue with the owners of Sony, who will fly the smartphone if push Xperia Z3 and V10 along the glass table. But, unlike the simulated tires, a rear panel, no dents, and in General coating looks very durable.
The left side LG V10
The lower bound LG V10
Right face LG V10
Rear camera, although not projecting so sloppy, like Huawei Honor 7, but for the period Dating (a few weeks) started to lose the paint on the edging. Now the power button on the rear panel is now set up is not hard, as in G4, and “floats” under the index finger, as the head of the razor, but still creaks. Perhaps because of the built-in fingerprint scanner in the old way do not work out, but the feeling of such innovations remain unique.
Steel panels on the sides — the adornment of the smartphone. Durable (not particularly deformed after falling on concrete), always shining and well fit into the design. As befits metal, they fundamentally give up cold in hand and wet hand prove to be quite slippery. But in LG V10 they are bent so thoughtfully that the smartphone with a very narrow lateral part, you can keep everything without fear of accidentally touching the display.
The fingerprint scanner in LG V10
LG V10 with the cover removed
To the delight of geeks conservatives, our hero is equipped with and removable battery, two slots for nano-SIM (two of them are here), and microSD. Therefore, the engineers in LG while winning designers and marketers — and for the Koreans it is definitely worth a praise.
The main screen
The more experienced the manufacturer of the displays than LG, it is difficult to find: in the segment “9 inches & above” (monitors, TVs, etc.), the company ranks first in the world in terms of sales. When it comes to the screens of smartphones and smart watches, the leaders are LG and Samsung, and compete with similar market shares. The main Forte of LG smartphones — cool IPS panels and Samsung makes the traditional emphasis on AMOLED. Only here the Super AMOLED, for all their faults, are becoming increasingly popular, and, to put it mildly, affecting the tastes of buyers.
Therefore, the release of the smartphone-balanced IPS-matrix without any kinks in the characteristics of today has become a failed marketing idea — lovers flagship smartphones are used to “bright colorful”, and even deliberate redundancy of these flowers they don’t care.
Color gamut LG display V10
And here’s another LG since the release of G4 is actively trying to reconfigure IPS-matrix to the tastes of buyers. In principle, the firm Quantum matrix IPS have enough strengths: brightness in the manual adjustment mode it will put to shame the same Galaxy S6 edge+, by definition — just luxuriously for 5.7 inch, good contrast (1400:1), but the much-vaunted “theatrical” color gamut is not an advantage and a disadvantage. Because of such adjustment of the display’s color is oversaturated, so the display looks a little darker and “Nazarite” in comparison with a properly calibrated IPS. Color temperature (8500K) noticeably skewed, so the white color is closer to a blue hue. Color accuracy (deltaE) is 4.3 for the flagship is too much, and once again confirms that LG chose to make “cute” but not correctly.
And it really came out nice! Bright and colourful, with good viewing angles and high-quality grease repellent coating display. But here is the color we can say that LG was trying to turn a bodybuilder into a boxer. With “scientific measurement” point of view was so-so: i.e. muscles are in place, and, in principle, “move in the face” this character is capable of, but in the ring he faces the failure because they need other skills.
Additional screen
The first public reaction to the extension display on top of the base — rejection. Why do we need such a vestige, still not in full width of the main screen? God Google gave us the notification bar, so why another one?
But in fact function very curious, and on a separate segment can show off the inscription “Vasya was here” (or any other on request), and running/favorite apps, control panel, audio player (not only standard, but any), you can keep your eyes reminder from the calendar or simply display often necessary contacts for quick call.
An additional display in LG V10
By default, additional screen “drop” notification along with the notification bar is useful in cases, when this same string open once. And switched off the screen of his new assistant carefully shows the time, date, battery, weather one icon and the number of missed messages/calls, if any. In shooting mode on the camera there in single file line up the shooting modes, video or photo.
This display has only two drawbacks: first, due to the fact that it used IPS and not AMOLED, it often operates on a “do not sew to a Mare a tail”, for example, in games is ridiculous glows a dark gray (almost black) color together with the display. And secondly, for all the followers of the classical roller blind notice the piece of matrix will be a reminder that the smartphone is stood at a height of 6-inch class for tiny and not very important “widomski”.
In General, I advise you to have a look at this innovation live: in our view it is certainly useful clever tricks with curved edges the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge.
The functionality of the secondary display LG V10
The sound
The sound quality in the LG V10 can be described in three words: typical flagship smartphone. Speakerphone it is very loud, but the sound only consists of medium and mostly high frequencies. Therefore nobly “subnet” motif audio tracks and beautiful to work “drums” the speaker is not able, and rock music or dubstep the ringtone merge into something shrill and unintelligible — it is better to put on a ringtone, some “ballads”. And yet — perhaps due to the steel side faces — these “railway tunes” mixed in the sound. Whirlings equalizer this lack of leveling does not help.
As I recall, LG G4 pleasantly surprised us with the opportunity to give a little bass, which is lacking in the typical smartphone speakers. In any case, the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ gives comparable sound (LG V10 in comparison with it a little more treble and sharper audible vocals), the Huawei P8 sounds very similar, but noticeably quieter, the ASUS ZenFone 2 will give a more distinct sound, but only because they are really loud he can’t play.
Music player and audio Manager in LG V10
The headphones sound good, but from a dedicated audiochip ESS Technology, we expected more: in high-quality audio tracks in MP3 format or in FLAC, no vacuum cheap headset, no fancy headphones (tested in battle Oppo PM-3) the difference was not impressed. “Shake” with LG V10 will even high impedance headphones, but in the “spetsrezhimom” sound… ordinary for any other top-end smartphone based on Snapdragon. Slightly more pronounced vocal sounds are added Yes a tiny part of the volume is here and all the improvements, the perceived. So it makes sense to additionally bother with the equalizer to “modify a file” the sound to your taste.
Earpiece volume is pleasantly surprising — there is a huge margin, and the maximum volume will be useful except near a running lathe. Interlocutors hear owner LG V10 well.
Iron
Astrologers have announced the year hexa core flagships LG: G4, Nexus 5X, V10 — all they are running the Snapdragon 808. Enthusiasts despise the chip and consider it a “rejection” of osmeteria flagship Snapdragon 810, and not without reason, to be honest. The thing is that Qualcomm loudly disgraced with the release of their “the processor-kettle” Snapdragon 810, so those who could, did their own processors (Huawei and Samsung, for example), and the remaining partners had to decide how to deliver the scandalous cosmedent from overheating, or opt for the less powerful six-core chip that already does not suffer from the mentioned problems.
Performance (Antutu Benchmark test)
City exotic cooling in smartphones with removable batteries and back covers — a very troublesome and thankless task, so in smartphones LG has firmly settled shestiyaderny Snapdragon 808. If we do not take into account the modules “bright future” based on a new Kirin 950 or desyatiletnij MediaTek — the aforementioned Snapdragon inferior in performance to the older brother, the Snapdragon 810 (Sony Xperia Z5, Nexus 6P) and manufactured by Samsung Exynos 7420 processor (Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+, Meizu Pro 5). The rest of the smartphones on the market will be or the same power or weaker.
Optimization at shell LG — level, RAM is very much (4G), to switch programs, games and Internet without problems. Of course, the loss of two powerful cores ever will backfire on the smartphones based on Snapdragon 808 early “brakes” when updating Android or the weaker graphics in games, but until all these problems with cut-down functionality of the chip Snapdragon was not revealed.
Gaming performance (the test 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme)
Processor speed test (Geekbench)
The hottest part of the case in LG V10 — the power button: it heats up to 41 degrees. The segments on the back cover on the sides of the chamber are heated to 38 degrees Celsius, and almost the entire area of the hull smartphone retains room temperature.
Software
The shell is almost entirely moved from the LG G4, but with the additional support of the screen. Multiple Windows (desktops), unlock the display, double tap, handwritten notes, turning the smartphone into a remote control for digital technology and center of stuff (fitness data, music, calendar) Smart Bulletin have not gone away. Except that pre-installed software has been less that pleasing. Cartoon style LG UX 4.0+ on screen brutal black V10 looks ridiculous, but the standard Android Lollipop would look in this role a little better — cheerful (as heroes advertising washing powders) design system today has become the norm.
The shell interface LG UX 4.0+ LG V10
Camera
With cameras LG V10 all very well to take at least a couple of two 5-MP selfie camera on the front panel. Unlike the Lenovo VIBE S1, which this Duo allows you to change the depth of field after shooting, the tandem sensors ‘ on the smartphone another mission: convenient switch between under one person under the same or a whole crowd waiting for the portrait. To command the shot a selfie by voice using a timer or hand gesture, although the shooting screen use the volume keys also available. Two presses of the “Volume –” the camera instantly starts with a locked phone.
Example photos taken with rear camera LG V10
Rear sensor here is an “improved and augmented” version of the 16-Megapixel camera module from the LG G4. The potential photovideoediting iron impressive (laser autofocus for quick aiming at an object, the optical stabilization to combat bumpy during shooting, a powerful system of active noise cancellation in the microphones when shooting video), but to get acquainted with all these “krutilki” not necessarily — LG offers to choose from manual, automatic and automatic modes for simplified interfaces camera.
Example photos taken with the front camera LG V10
On a cloudy December in Moscow — not the best time to demonstrate the potential of cool cameras, but believe me — LG-V10 has one of the best (if not the best, as we have seen in the example G4) rear camera in modern smartphones-flagships. Fast work, excellent sharpness, very smart software and the openness of the chambers for experiments likable: you can shoot even in RAW, and adjust ISO and shutter speed really comes in handy when shooting something static in difficult conditions. Just look at the boxes of the builders in the first row of sample pictures from earth what he can see on the boxes of the buildings failed, and podi you — do the pictures on my V10 and can read the name of the provider of builders with boxes on the 9th floor!
Video recording is possible in “super-slomo” (720p, 120 fps), capture believable movements (1080p, 60 fps), with “cinematic” 30 fps in 1080p, but with image stabilization, and without stabilization at 30 fps in 4K — mode is enough for every taste. In day-to-day tasks most use from stable image in Full HD — in this mode, the camera reduces the number of jerks in the frame to a minimum and is very solid.
Autonomy
Well the engineers LG imagined weaknesses on G4 with the formation of our phablets, because the mediocre duration of battery life in a leather flagship here was clearly offset. V10 LG still holds the record for endurance, but in most modes of operation the autonomy of the new complaints.
Use (brightness 200 CD/m2)
The duration of work hours
Video from a memory card
12.5 hours
Game
3 hours 10 minutes
Reading
9 hours
The little things, really, to complain about have something: for some reason failed to achieve a result that reading an ebook with auto-scrolling (in this case in Moon+ Reader) would lean more to the battery than viewing a 720p video in MX Player with hardware acceleration. Autonomy in games is also not breathtaking, but for a IPS display of about 5.7 inches and a standard capacity battery indicators are quite logical.
The duration of the mixed workload tests (PCMark, 200 CD/m2, min)
Power-saving function in LG V10 normal — mode save battery you can disable the secondary display and limit the applications running in the background. There are also “optimizing games”, which, according to the developers, allows players to play extra minutes in high load conditions. True study question we failed, but the numbers in benchmarks it definitely reduces.
Competitors
LG V10
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
Operating system
Android 5.1 Lollipop
Android 5.1 Lollipop
Android 5.1 Lollipop
Screen
main: 5.7 inch, 2560×1440, IPS screen, ppi 515
more: 2.1 inches, 160×1440, 658 ppi
5.7 inch 2560×1440 Super AMOLED, 518 ppi
5.5 inch, 3840×2160, IPS, 806 ppi
Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 MSM8992 1.8 GHz (6 cores, 4x Cortex-A53 + 2x Cortex-A57)
Samsung Exynos 7420 At 1.5-2.1 GHz (8 cores, 4x Cortex-A53 + 4x Cortex-A57)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994 2.0 GHz (8 cores, 4x Cortex-A53 + 4x Cortex-A57)
Graphics
Adreno 418
The Mali-T760 MP8
Adreno 430
Operational memory
4 GB
4 GB
3 GB
Permanent memory
64GB, MicroSD slot
32 GB
32 GB, MicroSD slot
Link
4G (LTE Cat.6), 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 (IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, GLONASS, NFC
4G (LTE Cat.9), 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 (IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, GLONASS, NFC
4G (LTE Cat.6), 3G, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, GLONASS, NFC
Camera
16 MP main with autofocus, video 3840×2160, front — dual, 5MP
16 MP main with autofocus, 3840×2160 video, front — 5 MP
main: 23 MP, with autofocus, 3840×2160 video, front: 5.1 MP
Battery
a removable, 3000 mAh
non-removable, 3000 mAh
fixed, 3430 mAh
Sizes
159,6×79,3×8,6 mm
154,4×75,8×6.9 mm
154,4×75,8×7,8mm
Weight
192 g
153 g
180 g
The price at the time of publication
60 000 rubles
55 000 rubles
60 000 rubles
Price according to price.EN
Call for price:Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+28011
Quote:Sony Xperia Z5 Premium28011
Conclusions
It is difficult to immediately characterize such an original smartphone LG and to tell what it was. Better denote what it was not: it is not the “raw” experimental software without specific application, what we feared the most. Its design is a lack of exotic parts, but they do not turn the phone into a “stranger from another world” — and the additional display, and dual selfie camera, and the original materials turn out to be quite useful in practice.
This is one of the coolest leaders in the photographic part, is extremely practical from a constructive point of view (removable battery, Micro SD slot), and without flaws of its predecessor, which was made to justify the phrase “but it’s beautiful!”.
Contraindications now can only be three: first, it is a very large smartphone, but it can not be confused with any of the competitors, and the phablet is phablet. Secondly, it is not high performance — Qualcomm “not light” cherished two cores, but in this case, to combat the overheating of the smartphone would get the heat pipes at the rear, non-removable battery and possibly combined SIM tray + Micro SD.
Such “stuff” on the market now in bulk, and a hypothetical performance gain, probably not worth it.
And, of course, what the review in 2015 the need to criticise the price tag? Yes, 60 thousand rubles looks very impressive, but competitors look better, and LG are famous for their loyal prices of smartphones after they lose their status as the hot new drink.
Hand on heart — additional display nice stuff, but not drawn to the loud title of “innovation”. But the smartphone as a whole, with all its advantages and disadvantages, slays his personality after many faceless competitors 2015 release. And that nagging feeling of “something is there”, coupled with the design features of the hero of the review — a sure sign that LG V10 is worthy of “best design”.
LG V10
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
+ Respectable design, original and practical materials
— Not the most powerful CPU in the class
+ Useful in case additional display
— Impressive dimensions, excessive (by the standards of the 5.7” phablets) weight
+ High quality front and rear cameras
— Speakerphone is inferior in clarity to many competitors
+ Clear and bright display
— A dedicated audio chip almost does not affect the sound quality of the headphones
+ Outstanding practicality by the standards of the flagships (removable battery, Micro SD slot, separate slots for Nano-SIM, IR port, FM radio)