LG schtum over whether Europeans can get the powerhouse phablet V30 Europeans, once so smug about the global success of GSM, have had to get used to advanced mobile networks and devices arriving in the US first. The American market was once the butt of all jokes, but no more. Take LG, for instance, which gives itself two bites of the cherry each year – once with the G series flagship and again …
If you're comparing it to a 16:9 screen then using 18:9 is not unhelpful.
Of course the screen size is still given by the diagonal(in the case of the v30 it's 6"), so more math is required to get the actual dimensions (plus knowledge of bezel thickness), and people concerned with ergonomics will still benefit from knowing its width in relation to an existing headset they are familiar with.
It was envisaged about 25 years ago or more, that there is less limit on length of a hand-held gizmo than width. A Slide rule is maybe the ultimate (invented 17th C.).
A phone needs to fit in one hand and perhaps be no longer than 50% more than pocket depth (2/3rds in pocket so it won't fall out).
I think that the original LG Chocolate (2006?) was first tablet style phone with long screen. The Nokia Communicator 9100 and 9200 series may have been the earliest smartphone with a very long form factor and very wide "letterbox" format screen, from about 17 years ago. I had both.
So quite logical for a phone. Multiple windows would be good? I think LG did have that years ago.
Some friends of mine are currently trying to get a fix for their LG boot loop issue. Fortunately they bought the phone outright so are covered by the Sales of Goods Act (and can insist on a refund if they choose), instead of being messed around by their network operator.
A bit more transparency about the issue would benefit LG. If people know what the issue is and that LG have addressed it, consumer trust will return less slowly.
> Even if it is released in the UK past precedence tells us half the components will be missing anyway.
I don't understand why LG cause confusion by releasing different handsets under the same name in different countries. Korean? Lovely audio. American? Wireless charging. European? Neither!
Operators plural, possibly. It's Europe in general that the LG V-series has shunned of late.
I quite their flagship strategy: G series being a bit weird and experimental, V series being passably normal powerhouses (stealing back some display pixels from around the user-facing camera seems to be the new trend - see Rubin's Essential Phone, the Mii Mix, and an iPhone 8 rumour. )
Google tells me that a dual SIM 64GB version of the V20 can now be had for around £280, though I'm not familiar with the retailers offering it.
The DAC (and likely amp) is made by ESS, considered to be the dogs bollocks as once Wolfson and Burr Brown were. That it it can play back 32bit files is a by product, not its raison d'etre. Whilst some people might buy the phone and use cheap earphones, there are other Android phones available with other strengths - suggesting that at least some people who choose this phone deliberately will pair it with some decent headphones.
It was LG, ahead of their G2, who contributed code to the ASOP for handling 24bit audio files. Not always useful in a phone (unless it saves you transcoding) but allows for Android-based recording equipment (where the extra headroom is genuinely useful).
I have a V20 sitting right here and I pair it up with a $500 pair of Westone in ear studio monitors and the sound is amazing. You do not need to use LG's apps to engage the DAC's you just plug a set of headphones in. Thus, no DAC's for example in Bluetooth but it comes with a passable set of B&O in ear headphones.
For all the naysayers, this handset has excellent build quality and is an utter pleasure to use after the horrible UI and weight of previous Huawei Mate7. It is relatively free of bloatware too. I'm not aware of the loop boot issue remotely affecting this handset. The battery doesn't last as long as competitors but it is changeable and the only fault really is that it doesn't seem to have quite as strong reception when on the move through valleys and blackspots in car or train.
Gotta question LG though. They only sold it through JB HiFi in Australia (got a decent price - $A850), extra batteries really need to be sourced overseas as did protectors and the link software to offload files is tedious and slow making copying to the SD and putting in a laptop the far better option.
Any manufacturer half-on-the ball
...and ABSOLUTELY confident they have NO issues at all, nor any likely in the next few months....
You'll have noticed how when the wolves were savaging the carcass of VW over diesel emissions fraud, none of the other makers sought to take advantage. There's a small range of very good reasons why they didn't.
I really don't understand how a massive firm like LG can get its strategy so wrong.
Customer Service - I've had two LG's with faults (LG G4 - bootloop, LG G5 - GPS radio failure) and the struggle to get these repaired is just ridiculous. It feels like a consumer is dealing with a small independent manufacturer, possibly based in some remote part of the world where English is not even a second language.
Marketing - Instead of getting ahead of the curve and building potential excitement(!) for its unveiling, LG give a bland "no comment" to potential markets for a device. Even HTC get that right (although possibly guilty of over-hype in recent years - A9 anyone?).
There's a struggle to build fans for LG, let alone potential new customers. Many can't see past Apple or Samsung anymore. LG are clearly not going to change this if they don't set their stall out early and market their best phones in the biggest markets.
I've learned the hard way that despite some nice features, a dependable phone is everything.
I have an LG v20, an imported dual SIM h990ds variant. It's fantastic for the price. Razor sharp screen with really good contrast and vibrant colours.
In particular, it has a headphone jack, removable battery and memory card slot, things you can't take for granted.
The audio quality is very good. Ironically many people seem unaware you need specific formats and have to use the LG music player to get advantage of the DACs.
Sadly, apart from a CPU and GPU upgrade, I don't think the v30 will be a worthy successor.
The v20 DAC will sound better than most devices playing any music file if you want it to ( it's full DAC eats into your battery life, and doesn't aid a lot of audio like podcasts).
3rd party app (eg Spotify) support for high resolution audio has been added to your settings menu since some Android update or other. Initially it required a work-around to enable.
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