LG V30+: Capable flagship contender with few caveats

New Delhi, Jan 9 : LG has been a dark horse in the flagship smartphone race, in a market that is dominated by the likes of Samsung, Apple and Google — not to forget Chinese smartphone players like OnePlus and Honor.

Just like Samsung, LG has been following the system of launching two flagships in a year: It launched its G6 early last year and the second one — the V30+ (4GB RAM and 128GB onboard storage) for Rs 44,990 — came in the fag end of 2017.

At first glance, the V30+ looks like a dependable device but is there more to it? Let’s find out.

Talking about the display, LG’s “FullVision” 6-inch QHD+ display with 18:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2880×1440 pixels takes up most of the space.

There are thin, understated bezels at the ends and the sides of the phone that lets the screen take centre-stage. However, the display with distinctly-rounded corners looks a lot like Google Pixel 2 XL.

In fact, the screen is the common factor between both the devices — that is the QHD+ P-OLED screen developed by LG.

The V30+, however, served up a brighter and slightly punchier screen than Google Pixel 2 XL. Having said that, there are options for tweaking the colour tones.

The rear of the device sees a liberal use of glass with the dual-camera system (16MP+13MP sensor) sitting beside the flash — in typical LG style. The fingerprint scanner has been embedded into the power button that lies below the camera module.

The device features a camera with a standard and a wide-angle lens. This especially makes the camera useful for capturing landscape photos without having to step far back.

The rear camera is pretty competent and pictures came out with clean colours and enough detail.

The camera bump is not big enough to make the phone wobbly when placed on flat surfaces.

The device’s light form factor was pretty impressive for a flagship phone. An added advantage is IP68 certification for water and dust resistance.

The onboard storage is just enough for storing memories. The internal memory can be expanded up to 2TB using a MicroSD card but that will take up the space of a second SIM as the device has a hybrid dual-SIM design.

A 3,300mAh battery fuels the phone which is supported by wireless charging as well as QuickCharge 3.0 technology.

We found the battery back-up very impressive as it lasted more than a day on rigorous use.

The single bottom-firing speaker on the V30+ was loud enough to not let us miss calls.

The responsiveness and performance was good thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset.

The device also did not get heated up when used for multi-tasking or continuous usage.

What does not work?

The notorious blue tint associated with P-OLED screens, which we also wrote about while reviewing the Google Pixel 2 XL, was also visible here — which is annoying.

The camera app in V30+ comes loaded with modes such as “snap shot”, “match shot”, “guide shot”, “grid shot” among others which we thought were not of much practical use.

The picture quality is not at par with the ones shot on other flagship devices such as Samsung Galaxy Note 8 or the Pixel 2 XL. A shortcut bar in the camera app lets you add photos to social media posts directly which is also not of much use.

The 5MP wide-angle front shooter is a let-down, especially for selfie addicts.

Conclusion: It is good to see LG take a big leap when it comes to the design language and overall performance. The phone has a few caveats like the screen tint issue and a slightly underwhelming camera. But given the price point, the V30+ makes for a great overall package.

IANS