Gadgetory

this video comes with a big fat disclaimer at the top that we are still using a pre-release sample of the V 20 which does not have finished hardware or software enough people have been asking about this phone though that we felt a little showdown was in order even if we can't discuss some of the more detailed charts and tests we usually show in a comparison like this for v10 owners we can at least try to answer whether the V 20 is enough of an improvement to warrant a one-year upgrade first for the spec junkies you can pause the video here to get a quick rundown on the differences and improvements moving from the v10 to the V 20 with that out of the way starting off with design the V 20 is a very different animal than the v10 it replaces gone are the stainless steel rails and the grippy back LG has moved to a true all-metal rear heading off any of the concerns we faced on the g5 thankfully even though this is metal we still haven't lost the ability to swap the battery speaking of the g5 there's a lot more of that phone here than the previous V the way the forehead and chin taper or moving the volume rocker to the side of the phone the v10 was the ultimate evolution of the g2 and flex designs the V 20 fixes what we didn't like about the g5 metal feels nice in the hand but these phones are all about getting work done and the v10 is simply easier to hold on to we don't doubt the durability of either phone though LG rates each is milspec 810g drop in shock resistant and both of these devices have taken some gnarly accidental drops on the concrete from about chest height the V 20s drop scraped a tiny edge near the front camera while the v10 silicone edges have aged rather poorly over the last year and the fun stuff remains - like the IR blaster to use this phone as a universal remote and the second ticker display for notifications and shortcuts one area where the V 20 walks away with a handy victory is performance LG did some amazing work pushing the Qualcomm 808 to its limits on the v10 but the V 20 uses an all-around more powerful and more efficient chipset even on what we would consider beta software the V 20 stutters far less frequently when driving the phone hard with multitasking situations besting even the curent powered hallways in on Disko mark we were initially a little dismayed by the gaming performance until we caught this little power saving feature which was activated out-of-the-box disabling at the v20 behaves about the same as most welcome 820 power devices this year but we're finding several of the games we test are poorly optimized for nougat we'll have to revisit this for the full review a couple quick changes to mention on camera performance most obvious the v20 packs dual sensors giving you a standard view and an ultra wide view LG has moved to a native 4 by 3 aspect ratio though which will frustrate some in our audience it's still a 16 megapixel sensor but the native image will be a bit more square there are some fantastic improvements to the camera app focus peaking is incredibly helpful in keeping your subject tack sharp and the improved audio controls are also welcomed providing you a low-cut to reduce Rumble and background noise in addition to a limiter to rein in louder noises from peaking and distorting a few changes have proven frustrating though LG's terrific simple mode is no longer docked in the ticker display arguably the people who would post benefit from this mode are the same people who won't want to have to dig for it in the settings also we miss having faster access to resolution and quality controls where the v10 kept these better and reach as for the quality of the output we're tabling that discussion until we have finished hardware and can produce a real camera review ditto the audio we're not in a position to share graphs but on the whole we can say if you liked the video like the v20 both of these phones pack some of the most sophisticated hardware we've seen for powering a headphone jack tailoring the output to the specific headphones you connect hook up some higher impedance cans and the amp onboard launches end up beast mode radically outpacing most competing high-end smartphones and the v20 speaker delivers louder and fuller output it won't compete for quality against front-facing stereo solutions but it is a solid improvement over the dull v10 speaker especially for alerts and speakerphone situations adding a section to this comparison LG has done a terrific job of improving the microphone quality on the V 20 not only do these mics handle louder sources before clipping LG has backed off a little on the extreme noise reduction processing which would degrade audio on the v10 most noticeable during video shoots the voiceover for this entire comparison was actually recorded using the on the v20 surprise moving to battery life again we have to reiterate that we're working with pre-release hardware and software but we do see improvements even if this phone isn't completely properly optimized for a consumer release running a media test streaming 30 minutes of HD video over Wi-Fi at 190 Lux the v10 drains 10% of its battery the V 20 whittled that back to seven still not a battery champ but this is a significant improvement recharge times are also a little better hitting the supplied charger for 30 minutes the v10 topped off 35 percent while the V 20 hit 40 but also stayed cooler to the touch a nice perk is you can recharge a little faster or just swap a battery when you need to so let's wrap this up where does that leave us between the LG v10 and the LG v 20 the one-year upgrade is always a tricky recommendation has enough really changed to consider parting with your hard-earned cash looking back at the most common criticisms of the v10 the underpowered processor in the poor battery life we're inclined to lean towards YES on this upgrade while obviously we're not talking about radical improvements many manufacturers were burned last year by poor performance on Qualcomm chipsets that alone helps this purchasing decision add in better microphones a second camera sensor and a better fingerprint sensor and you get a little more icing on this upgrade cupcake though we will miss the metal and silicone build of the v10 and how easy it was to hold on to as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for more comparisons like these be on the lookout for our future v20 coverage including real camera and real audio reviews and help us out as i'm carrying on your favorite social networks for pocket now i'm juan carlos bag now some gadget guy on twitter and instagram and i will catch you all on the next video especially for alerts and speakerphone situations adding a section to this comparison LG has done a terrific job of improving the microphone quality on the v20