LG Goes OLED but Drops Dolby Vision

LG majored on its new V30S^ThinQ smartphone at the show. The phone looks very competent and LG said it had focused on ‘ABCD’ – the audio, battery, camera and display. The audio side uses a Quad DAC that the company said that LG Chem is developing better batteries.

The phone uses a 6″ QuadHD+ OLED with 2880 x 1440 resolution (18:9/538ppi) and is built around a Snapdragon 835 processor with 6GB of RAM and running Android 8.0 Oreo. The V30S has 128GB of ROM, while the V30S+ has 256GB and each can support up to two terrabytes of microSD capacity.

There are dual rear cameras, a 16mp standard unit and a 13mp wide angle secondary camera, with a 5mp selfie camera. The camera has an AI feature that automatically sets one of eight special scene-based modes. There is a low light mode that can automatically increase the brightness of images without adding noise. It also has an F1.6 ‘crystal’ glass lens, an upgrade from typical plastic lenses.

The battery is a 3,300 mAh unit.

LG is supporting VR via Google’s Daydream. Image:Meko

Other features include IP68 water and dust resistance and Mil-std 810G for ruggedness. The phones have support for HDR10 HDR and Google Daydream. We tried the phone in a generic Daydream headset and the image quality was quite good, with relatively little pixellation. The phone has face recognition and wireless charging. It also has a fingerprint sensor. Google Assistant is supported and LG said that the voice performance is helped by AI technology.

LG also announced two new lower end phones that are designed for high volume, the K10 and K8.

K10 Key Specifications:

• Chipset: 1.5 GHz Octa-Core
• Display: 5.3″ HD In-cell Touch (1280 x 720 / 277ppi)
• K10⁺: 3GB RAM / 32GB ROM / microSD (up to 2TB)
• K10: 2GB RAM / 16GB ROM / microSD (up to 2TB)
• K10^α: 2GB RAM / 16GB ROM / microSD (up to 2TB)
• Camera
• K10⁺: Rear 13MP / Front 8MP or 5MP (Wide)
• K10: Rear 13MP / Front 8MP or 5MP (Wide)
• K10^α: Rear 8MP / Front 5MP
• Battery: 3,000mAh (embedded)
• Operating System: Android 7.1.2 Nougat
• Size: 148.7 x 75.3 x 8.68mm
• Weight: 162g
• Other: Fingerprint Scanner / FM Radio / Flash Jump Shot / Music Flash /Time Helper / Quick Capture / Quick Shutter

K8 Key Specifications:

• Chipset: 1.3 GHz Quad-Core
• Display: 5.0″ HD On-cell Touch (1280 x 720 / 294ppi)
• Memory: 2GB RAM / 16GB ROM / microSD (up to 32GB)
• Camera: Rear 8MP / Front 5MP
• Battery: 2,500mAh (removable)
• Operating System: Android 7.1.2 Nougat
• Size: 146.3 x 73.2 x 8.2mm
• Weight: 152g
• Other: FM Radio / Flash Jump Shot / Music Flash / Time Helper / Quick Capture / Quick Shutter

Analyst Comment

Last year’s G6 from LG had an LCD display with the same resolution and the phone supported Dolby Vision, but it looks as though this year’s V30S doesn’t.

LG’s V30S has switched to an OLED display. Image:Meko