Gadgetory

what's up guys long hair from Android authority and LG's new V Series is LG's attempt to set foot into a new premium smartphone market but is a unique form factor new multimedia capabilities and enhanced durability enough to make this your next smartphone let's find out what the LG v10 LG has never really been known to make the most premium of smartphones but at least they were always functional with the v10 you're getting the best of both worlds the sides are made of 316l stainless steel and the rest of the body is wrapped in a dura skin that feels very soft to the touch and gives the phone a lot of grip these new material choices gives the v10 a very solid and sturdy feel in the hand but it also makes it extremely durable against drops the v10 is an indestructible or shatterproof but it is military 810g certified against drops which means that go and stand the average drop a lot better than your normal everyday smartphone and if you want to see exactly how durable the v10 is make sure to check out our durability test after the reviews done even with these new material choices the v10 is still very much an LG device through and through the sharp corners and slightly rounded top and bottom is very reminiscent of the g4s design with the only exception being the v10 is a completely flat phone and doesn't have that signature curve to the body that LG put on pretty much every smartphone they've released this year in typical LG fashion the back is removable giving you access to the battery and a micro SD card slot and the power and volume buttons are still on the back which helps keep the sides of the phone completely clean along the top is a microphone and an IR blaster for controlling your peripherals and on the bottom is a standard 3.5 millimeter headphone jack micro USB port speaker and a second microphone the v10 is a large phone there's definitely no getting around that and even though the Duras skin material keeps the phone from falling out of my hands it's still not the easiest phone to use in one hand the main reason for that has to do with the display where I guess displays would be more technically correct because the v10 actually has two screens the main display is a 5.7 inch IPS LCD with 2560 by 1440 resolution and there's really nothing bad you can say about it it's bright beautiful sharp ez2c outdoors and the large size makes it a lot of fun for videos and games overall it's nothing short of what you would expect from LG the real kicker here is the secondary screen at the top and if you add this in this actually makes the screen close to six inches in size these secondary screen works as a hub for notifications app shortcuts recently opened applications media controls quick contacts upcoming events in your calendar and will show you basic information like time and date when the main display is turned off in a lot of ways it's quite similar to what Samsung has done with their edge display all of these various components can be adjusted and modified in the settings and for some personalization you can have your name or a short message to be displayed when the main display is on or off to be honest I was a little bit skeptical of this secondary display and after using it for a while I'm still not entirely sold on it but there are a couple of things I do like about it I like that I can see what notifications I have like missed phone calls or text messages without having to wake up the entire display and I like that the banner notifications pop up in the secondary display which keeps the main display uninterrupted from notifications the biggest problem with this secondary screen is the location being at the top makes it very hard to reach at least with one hand and if you're trying to use it as a multitasker of sorts to quickly jump between apps it just doesn't feel as quick as doing it the traditional way because the screen is so in conveniently placed the execution isn't perfect and I like it a lot more than I thought I would but if you don't like it at all it can be turned off in the settings just like the g4 the v10 is running on the Snapdragon 808 where you're getting four gigs of RAM instead of three performance is about what you'd expect from a high-end smartphone and the v10 definitely lives up to its name it's fast smooth and responsive in day-to-day use with very smooth scrolling and animations it does everything from as simple as opening up applications and web browsing to more intense tasks like gaming without much of a hiccup and with four gigs of RAM the v10 has no problems jumping back and forth between multiple applications even with LG's heavy skin the processor and RAM keeps the phone trekking along just fine and never in any instance did I ever feel like the phone had to catch up to me the v10 is available in only one storage configuration at 64 gigabytes so no more and no less but 64 gigs should be more than ample space for most people but if it is not you do have the option to expand upon that with the built-in microSD card slot for up to two terabytes the most notable piece of hardware however is the addition of a fingerprint scanner and with so many manufacturers adding fingerprint scanners to their flagship smartphones it was only a matter of time before LG did to the fingerprint scanner is embedded in the power button on the back and not counting the Nexus 5x it's a solid first attempt by LG it unlocks very quickly and it's pretty reliable but it's not the most accurate fingerprint scanner that I've ever used I would say that 8 out of 10 times and the locks on the first try and the other two times it's usually telling me to try again that's obviously not the biggest failure rate but it is something you'll notice the more you use it the external speaker isn't in the most optimal position being mounted on the bottom and can be pretty easily muffled with your hand in landscape but for what it is it sounds fine the real audio experience on the v10 comes internally there's a 32-bit high 5 digital to analog converter built in and this is a huge deal for anyone who use their smartphone as their primary music player it's not a gimmick at all and is 100 cent the real deal it works with mp3 audio files and streaming audio so you're not going to be left out if you're using apps like Spotify or Google Play Music and as long as you have a decent pair of headphones you'll definitely notice the difference the upsampling makes in terms of a crisper and clearer sound the 3000 milliamp hour battery inside is good enough for a full day with average use but it typically never lasted me much more than that and if I was using the camera heavily or playing a lot of games recharging the phone midway through the day was pretty much expected on the bright side it doesn't take very long to charge up or top off thanks to the fast LG is still one of the few major smartphone manufacturers left that offer a removable battery so you can easily swap it out for a fresh one if you want the cameras on the v10 is quite the interesting story and there's a lot going on here the main camera is a 16 megapixel F 1.8 aperture lens with optical image stabilization and if that sounds familiar it's because it's the same exact sensor from the g4 so it wasn't all that surprising to see excellent looking photos come out of the v10 the images are sharp and well detailed color reproduction and dynamic range is fantastic and it's just an overall very enjoyable camera too pictures with there's a hint of over sharpening in the images but it's nothing too drastic and I feel like in most situations that actually helps more than it hinders and low-light the camera does tend to overexpose especially in the highlights which are typically blown out and sometimes it doesn't get the white balance quite right but aside from that the images still retain a fair amount of detail and generally look pretty good on the front of the phone there are not one but two front facing five megapixel cameras we've seen dual camera setups before on other smartphones but this is the first time it's been done on the front instead of the rear unlike other smartphones that have used dual camera setup for depth information or 3d images the two five megapixel sensors on the v10 are just used as to individual front-facing shooters one is an 80-degree lens for a more standard field of view and the other is a hundred and twenty degree wide angle lens and you can toggle back and forth between the two within the software the quality of the front-facing cameras are actually quite good and the 120 degree wide angle lens is a lot of fun to use and really comes in handy when you're trying to take group shots when LG released the g4 earlier this year there was a lot of hype about the ability to shoot in raw and DSLR like manual controls for photos and those same controls are available on the v10 but with the v10 LG has brought those Mannie controls over to video which is a pretty big deal for a smartphone camera so now you can do many of the things that you would normally do any DSLR like adjust the white balance ISO shutter speed and manually control the focus videos can be recorded in 4k 1080p slow-motion and you can even record in a cinematic mode and bump the frame rate down to 24 frames for like truly cinematic look when recording videos having good audio to accompany is pretty important so the v10 allows you to easily monitor the audio in real time adjust the audio levels change the direction of the audio recording and even eliminate interference with the wind noise filter there's a new study mode built-in that's designed to remove motion blur even more so than what OS is capable of it only works when recording in 1080p or below but the footage is very smooth very stable and almost looks like something you would get out of using a gimbal or some sort of handheld rig all these manual controls are great and if you're seriously the smartphone videography you're gonna be able to get some really excellent looking footage with this camera but if you rather just have some fun with your camera there's a new feature called multi view recording that lets you use up to all three cameras at once to really offer some perspective and in the right scenarios it can be a lot of fun to use now the biggest problem with video is that they're not easily shareable to social media due to the large file sizes but LG's video editing software lets you quickly edit the video into a 15 second highlight reel at the touch of a button which makes it a lot easier to share and coincidentally is the same length as an Instagram video imagine that the software experience will be pretty familiar to anyone who's used an LG device within the last couple of years and with the exception of these software features for the secondary display it's the same experience that we saw on the g4 LG skins still isn't the most attractive thing in the world and the settings menu still feels just as cluttered and convoluted as before but it does bring a bevy of features that fans of LG may have become accustomed to over the years you can still double tap to wake or sleep the phone or set a pattern of taps or as LG calls them knocks for additional lockscreen security resize the keyboard for easier typing and multitask simultaneously between two apps with LG's dual window feature because the v10 is quite the stretch to use in one hand LG's added in a feature that lets you shrink the screen and resize it by swiping across the Android soft keys all of this is running on android 5.1.1 lollipop currently but LG has stated that an update to marshmallow will be coming either before the end of this year or early next year that's still a pretty big window of time but let's hope that it happens sooner than later the v10 is available now on Verizon t-mobile and and is reigning between 600 to 700 dollars off contract but you do have the option to finance the cost for each respective carrier in a nutshell the v10 can be looked at as a much more powerful version of the g4 but that was LG's intention it's got a larger screen a better building design a fingerprint scanner and a camera that is both excellent for photos and video if the g4 fell short of your expectations that you wanted more well more is what you're getting with the v10 as always thank you guys so much for watching this video if you did enjoy please give it a thumbs up down below we definitely appreciate it and also subscribe to the channel which is down below or up here and if you want to see more here from Android Authority make sure to check out the links on the side and also check the website as well for more in-depth coverage because we are your source for all things Android