The LG V20 is finally out, but it is not yet available for purchase from any of the recommended stores and carriers.
Unveiled at an event in San Francisco, the LG V20 comes in to succeed last year’s V10, which happened to be a huge success as compared to the LG G4. In what appears to be a surprise, the V20 is the first phone to ship with the new Android 7.0 Nougat, something that is out of the norm as far as other new Android operating systems are concerned. In the past, Google’s Nexus devices were the first to boast of a new OS, but this year’s versions, which are reportedly set to change their names to Pixel and Pixel XL, will trail the V20.
Similar to its predecessor, the new LG V20 comes in with support for dual-lens camera as well as a secondary display panel on top of the main screen. But as expected, the two have had their share of upgrades come their way. You will notice that the cameras are now much better than last year’s while the secondary screen is brighter and has a bigger font. The new phone also comes in with great audiophile-standard features that will bring out the best for music lovers who enjoy pricey headphones and lossless file formats. Unlike the unreleased iPhone 7, you will still get a 3.5mm headphone port on the V20.
LG packed the V20 with a 32-bit hi-fi quad DAC, which happens to be the first smartphone to come with such quality. What this means is that the LG V20 comes with 4 ESS digital-to-analog converters, something that audiophiles are itching to get their hands on. There is also support for lossless audio file formats such as AIFF, DSD, FLAC and ALAC.
Other than boasting the fact that it’s the first to run on Android 7.0 Nougat, the LG V20 also happens to lead the way as far as the new In Apps search is concerned. Announced just last week, this feature will let users of the V20 search for photos, contacts, as well as videos across all Google apps, including YouTube, as well as other third party apps. Even though the phone will ship with a shortcut to this feature on the home screen, the secondary screen will also have another shortcut.
Getting down to the specs, the LG V20 is a flagship that carries flagship hardware. You will come across a 5.7-inch display unit, a Snapdragon 820 SoC, a 4GB RAM and a huge 3200mAh battery. Unlike most flagships, LG has kept faith in the removable battery, something that should be a selling point for this handset.
Apparently, the LG V20 should start selling before the end of this quarter, with the likes of B&H, Best Buy, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile already on board to offer you the phone. As for the pricing, LG says that the major carriers will determine the fate, which means details should be available in the next few weeks.