LG V30+ Review – Best Phone for Audiophiles and Videographers

LG’s long-awaited flagships, the V30 and V30+, have been a bit exciting with their Cinelog capture format, Point Zoom, and the return of a Quad DAC Hi-Fi audio setup as seen in our G6 review here. It’s obviously not for photography for a plethora of reasons, but how good is the bigger brother?

Design

Even with just a few encounters with the iPhone X, the impression that the V30+ gives is the same. A chrome frame, a near-borderless 18:9 display, and glass backing. Continuing the V-series’s iconic design, the V30+ did well with the tactile home button & fingerprint scanner on the back. On the side, as I’ve mentioned earlier, it has a chrome finish that stands out more than it should. The buttons aren’t the best but they work for the most part. I only wish that LG had it textured for a more significant distinction from the rest of the frame. Since this is the V30+, we do get a hybrid dual-SIM tray for an expanded memory of up to 256GB.

Display

The 6-inch monstrosity may put off a lot of users with smaller hands. It being P-OLED allows the display to be less than half a millimeter thin, which is all not too far from what Samsung has been doing with their AMOLED tech. Colors are definitely vibrant and details are next to being “in-your-face” with a WQHD+ resolution. Even on the FHD+ and HD+ resolutions, the 6-inch display is still great to look at. Viewing angles too are excellent for ubiquitous multimedia sharing. Being HDR10 compliant, supported media applications will output at HDR10’s specs when enabled.

Being OLED, AOD is present and color profiles are available right off the bat.

User Experience

With LG UX 6.0+ still on Nougat, it is, by far, LG’s best attempt at having their uniquely-flavored experience. Incomplete as it is, it can be the best in some aspects but also with questionable design decisions. For instance, the annoying layout of the Settings could’ve been better with a more centralized design, needing less and less of the search function.

For the camera UI, it still is the same. A tap-to-switch option between the wide-angle and regular cameras with an intuitiveness that may vary depending on your preferences.

Cameras

As for the cameras, they aren’t that great in the first place for photography. Colors are a lackluster compared to the likes of the Mate 10 and Pixel 2. Details heavily rely upon some sharpening present after post-processing. Even in night shots, it’s not the best but does well enough to capture the scene.

With videos though, this is where the V30+ shines. In Cinelog format, the flattest details possible are achieved, allowing for an extensive post-processing. Also, it is only in this mode that Point Zoom is available. I wish that they increased the speed it takes to zoom in. Nonetheless, both are great features that LG has added to make up for possibly one of the best portable video recording devices.

Performance

Having flagship specs and all, its synthetic and real-world performance is not even questionable. The storage’s speeds are to be expected with a UFS 2.1 type. Even in games, performance is impeccable.

Battery

With the size that the V30+ comes in, it is somewhat mindless to have LG put in a 3300mAh battery. Not only do the other components drain it faster than other similarly-sized smartphones, it also charges at a slower rate.

Audio

Before we get to the best built-in DAC in the market, let’s check the bottom-mounted speaker first. It’s not the best at anything, but it’s more than enough for sharing a specific track that you found in Spotify.

Now, getting to the Quad DAC, it definitely is the best for audiophiles. Sure, it consumes much more power when left on, but the trade-off is actually worth it to the point that it reinforces LG’s stand on Hi-Fi audio processing.

Verdict

Featuring the best video recording and audio capabilities, the V30+ has its own place in the flagship market that many will find amusing for the most part.