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LG V10 smartphone review: And now for something completely different

By James Lu - 13 Feb 2016
Launch SRP: S$1088

Overview and Design


Overview

The LG V10 is a pretty big departure from LG’s previous flagship, the G4. It isn’t curved, it isn’t plastic and it doesn’t have a leather back. What it does have is two selfie cameras, two displays (a small always-on secondary screen sits above the main 5.7-inch display) and a textured, rubberized rear cover that feels like the grip of a power tool.

  LG V10
  LG V10
Operating system
  • Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
Processor
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 (quad-core 1.44 GHz & dual-core 1.82 GHz)
Built-in Memory
  • 4GB RAM
Display
  • 5.7-inch / 2,560 x 1,440 pixels (515ppi) / IPS
Camera
  • Rear: 16-megapixel with f/1.8, optical image stabilization and laser autofocus
  • Front: dual 5-megapixel
Connectivity
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, A-GPS, GLONASS, CAT 6 LTE
Storage Type
  • 64GB internal storage
  • microSD support up to 2TB
Battery
  • 3,000mAh
Dimensions
  • 159.6 x 79.3 x 8.6 mm
Weight
  • 192g


Design

LG has finally ditched the all-plastic builds and gone for a really nice stainless steel frame with the V10. Two colors are available locally, a dark blue with silver sides, and a beige option with gold sides. We really like the stainless steel, which makes the V10 feel rugged and rigid in a way that its aluminum rivals just can’t match - there’ll be no #bendgate here.

Surprisingly, despite its stainless steel construction and large size, the V10 only weighs 192g, exactly the same as the iPhone 6s Plus. As with LG’s previous flagships, all of the buttons on the V10 are positioned at the rear of the phone with two volume keys framing one circular power button, all nestled centrally underneath the camera module. For the first time on an LG phone, the circular button also doubles up as a fingerprint scanner. The fingerprint scanner works reasonably well, but it isn’t quite as fast or accurate as the sensor on the other phones in our shootout. The V10 requires you to press down on the power button to wake it and then a second or so for the phone to unlock.

The rear of the phone has a rubberized finish with a heavily textured diamond pattern that has an industrial sort of feel to it - it reminds us of the grip you might find on a power tool. Obviously, it’s not as pretty as the leather on the back of the G4 but it provides a very reassuring grip, which is most welcome on a phone this size.

The back cover on the V10 is removable. Underneath you'll find both a microSD card slot and a removable battery, making it one of the last flagship smartphones to offer both and are highly wanted by enthusiasts and professional consumers alike. The microSD card slot is particularly noteworthy as it supports cards up to a massive 2TB. This is in addition to the 64GB storage of internal storage that comes as standard.

The micro-USB port and headphone jack can be found on the bottom of the phone, next to a single speaker unit:-

For even more photos and close-up of the phone, check out our First Looks article here!

 

Display

The main display on the V10 is a 5.7-inch IPS LCD with a QHD 2,560 x 1,440 (515ppi) pixels resolution. The display is ultra sharp and very bright, but colors look a bit muted and blacks, while deep, are naturally not as good as some of the AMOLED displays out there.

Above the main display there’s an always-on 2.1-inch secondary display. This little window displays notifications and other system status messages. It’s not quite as useful as I first thought it would be, but it does show the time and some notification icons when the main display is off, which is quite nice. There’s even an option to display your name or any other custom message here in a faux-signature style, just for a tiny touch of personalization.

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8.0
  • Design 8.5
  • Features 8.5
  • User-Friendliness 8.5
  • Performance 7.5
  • Value 8
The Good
Solid stainless steel frame
Good handling
Option for fully manual camera controls
Removable battery
MicroSD card slot accepts cards up to 2TB
Built-in Hi-Fi DAC
The Bad
Lackluster benchmark performance
Short battery life
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