LG released the V series in 2015 to serve as their high-end answer to the smartphone market. Although the LG V10 was impressive, it still looked like a budget phone compared to the competitors. The release of the LG V20 put them on more even footing, and the LG V30 made things interesting.
Not only did the company surpass expectations, but they took a nice chunk of attention away from the growing Huwuei and Xiaomi customer base. And with a little bit of clever marketing, they stole some sales away from Samsung, and to a lesser extent Apple. The LG V30 isn’t the best phone from their catalog, but it is the one that made the world take them seriously.
Design
The small bezels of the LG V30 fall in line with many other phones like the V35 ThinQ. The company received a lot of praise for the design of the LG G6. They took the best notes about the looks of the V6 and applied it to a much larger screen. With the V30, users get the functionality of a small tablet without any of the bulk.
Make no mistake about it – this is a beast of a smartphone. Most people won’t need two hands to operate it, yet will find it uncomfortable for a few tasks. Trying to browse the web with one hand is doable, but never as comfortable as it should be. Medium to large hands will get the most benefit out of this design.
Available colors are Moroccan blue, cloud silver, lavender violet, and aurora black. Even the LG Stylo 4 had more options, and it’s not even considered a flagship. The LG V30 may lack interesting colors, but they all look great in phone-form. The LG V30 is a phablet that is all screen, so the actual phone color comes secondary to the display.
Display
Featuring an 81.2 percent screen-to-body ratio, the six-inch screen is a standout on the LG V30. The resolution is a crisp 1440×2880 and is gorgeous at multiple angles. For protection, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 does a good job of keeping micro-scratches to a minimum. Although it isn’t recommended, you can safely use the phone without a screen protector.
Pictures and movies look fantastic on the screen. If you load up an HD wallpaper, prepare to stare in awe as you scroll through your apps. There is HDR10 support out of the box, and it is backed by a great P-OLED capacitive touchscreen. P-OLED may seem like a drawback when compared directly to AMOLED, but with the beautiful display on the LG V30, the company proves it is more about the quality of materials than the technology used.
Durability
Out of all the great points of the LG V30, durability is the only one that is questionable. The weakest part of any phone is the screen, so screen quality and design matters. With the LG V30, you get an exquisite looking phone with a screen that is highly resistant to scratches. Those looks come at a price when the screen receives any kind of impact without adequate protection.
The ‘all screen’ look of the phone means that dropping it turns it into an instant paperweight. There are hordes of used LG V30’s with shattered screens being sold online. Once a crack is introduced to the screen, it will spread like a virus. It doesn’t matter what angle you drop it from since the screen’s kryptonite is anything above standard abuse.
Buyers should immediately invest in good protection for the LG V30. This is not the time to go for a cheap option since the phone is so brittle. Plastic screen protectors should be ignored in favor of more reinforced glass protectors. And if you opt for a silicone case, make sure the edges are reinforced with a hardened material.
Hardware
The glorious screen of the LG V30 would be useless without beastly specs to back it up. LG dumped the quad-core of the LG G6 and went with an octa-core processor instead. This is a big, but necessary CPU upgrade for a phone that is the size of a tablet. The Snapdragon 835 is strong and is paired with an Adreno 540.
This is only a slight upgrade from the 530 found in the Lg G6. You’re not going to notice the upgrade in graphical performance, and you won’t be locked out of using intensive apps or games. The LG V30’s GPU is geared more towards providing a smooth media driven experience rather than a gaming one.
Camera Quality
When you use the front-facing camera, there is a noticeable drop in quality compared to competitor smartphones. The LG V30 front-facing camera isn’t bad at 5MP, it just stands out as an above-average addition. Although it could have been better, quality is still superb when using it for video calls.
With 4K capabilities, the star of the show is the 16MP rear cameras. The dual-camera setup on the back still holds its own, even as more phones move to a triple or quad lens setup.
When taking wide-angle shots, users can expect some really good photos in all lighting conditions. Even if you hate the automated settings in the software, LG made the manual mode user friendly. Experienced picture takers will have no trouble navigating the advanced settings.
Audio
As smartphones like the iPhone 11 Pro Max move away from 3.5mm headphone jacks, LG is one of the few companies to make it a staple of their flagship products. The LG V30 keeps it on top and avoids putting the input in a weird out of the way place. Bluetooth 5.0 is supported for users that need wireless sound.
Call quality is great, but this is carrier dependent. Since the LG G2, the company has been popular for making some of the best multiband phones. If focusing solely on what the audio hardware can do, the LG V30 provides respectable quality for calls, music, and media.
How Does the LG V30 Compare?
The LG G7 ThinQ is one of the most formidable models from the G series, so it’s only fitting to put it against a phone from the high-end V series. With ThinQ being the new rebrand, the lines are a bit blurred about what it means to be high-end. Both phones feature removable memory, fingerprint readers, USB-C 3.1, and wireless charging.
| LG V30 | LG G7 ThinQ | |
| Screen | P-OLED | IPS LCD |
| Size | 6 inches | 6.1 inches |
| Resolution | 1440×2880 | 1440×3120 |
| GPU | Adreno 540 | Adreno 630 |
| RAM | 4GB | 6GB |
You Can’t Go Wrong with the V Series
Going for a high-end phone is a big financial decision, and LG makes it sensible by making the purchase price more realistic. Take the money you save on buying the phone to get the best protection possible. The LG V30 is an excellent smartphone, and there is nothing about its technical specifications that says budget.
