The LG V60 and VELVET Review: A Classic & A Design Restart
by Andrei Frumusanu on July 15, 2020 9:00 AM ESTBattery Life - Outstanding
Battery life has been an aspect where LG has had tons of issue in past generation devices. The root cause here was the company’s usage of LG Display manufactured displays, which all shared the same common issue of having extraordinarily bad base power consumption. This had always handicapped phones from achieving better results, more accurately tracking the SoC’s efficiency and the battery capacity.
The V60’s downgrade from 1440p to 1080p screen might help in that regard, and the manufacturer also opted to include a large 5000mAh battery. The Velvet’s 4300mAh battery should also fare adequately – here’s more of a question on whether the Snapdragon 765 is as efficient as its bigger brother.
In our web-browsing test, we see the LG V60 do outstandingly good, coming in at 14.75H runtime. This vastly exceeds the results of any LG phone we’ve come to test in the past, and competes amongst the longest lasting devices in the market right now. LG still seems to have not quite as an efficient display panel as Samsung, as the S20 Ultra’s 1440p unit is only margins behind the V60, but the gap has considerably narrowed.
The LG Velvet surprised us with equally impressive results. At 12.73 hours runtime, it’s also a great result given the phone’s battery capacity, and nearly scales in line with the 700mAh difference to the V60. This bodes well for the Snapdragon 765 overall, although we’ve seen that the CPU cores themselves aren’t as efficient as on the Snapdragon 865.
In PCMark, the V60 even manages to get the top spot in our charts by a few minutes against the 6000mAh ROG Phone II, and the Velvet also fares extremely well against the competition.
Overall, battery life of both the V60 and Velvet is outstandingly good. In a year where most other competitors have opted for higher refresh-rate displays, LG’s decision to keep things simple is rewarded by being able to take advantage of the new silicon’s power efficiency in order to notably increase battery life.
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s.yu - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
It's supposed to work, out of the box. Are standard so low these days that people expect phones to automatically break once their software is no longer supported? I just pray that updates don't break my phone.Also flagships should generally be expected to be supported for longer, my backup S6E still got a security update this year(not that I asked for it, but as updates go it kept nagging me to accept), and that was a 2015 device.
TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
My moto z play hasnt recieved any updates in 2 years, still works perfectly. Hell my note 4 still technically works (without carrier support) and that thing is ancient.eastcoast_pete - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
I am probably not representative of many here, but I find the "non-contemporary" design of the V60 a big plus. Just having a 3.5 mm connector has become rare amongst the so-called flagship phones. The main issue that make me hesitate to buy another LG is the lack of commitment by the company to keep the OS up-to-date until at least 2023. I've been burned by LG before on that. So, LG, put that commitment in writing, and we might have a deal.TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
Android phones dont just stop working when OS updates stop, and even Google wouldnt supply updates that long.My note 4 still loads any modern android app, and its running android 5.0. The apps are still updated and get security updates, the underlying framework doesnt relly matter anymore, anything that does has been tied into the play store by now.
Quantumz0d - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
Exactly. The OS app support compat is light years ahead of iOS instead of bending over for the new OS update you can control the phone. And the OS itself is downgrading, people should read on Scoped Storage - It removes your access to your own files, apps need to hit share to make it visible to other apps just like iOS, and folders access doesn't exist, File Management is also hit with this, Developers are hit with this by making POSIX I/O libs optimized for generations are thrown out of window for that SAF abomination with performance hit and a total shitshow on copying Apple. The sad part is no Security updates, that could have been done at CTS level or even Playstore modules but no one cares about that which is what many people would be happier to see.The HW is excellent man for this device but no battery replacement unfortunately, Note 4 is the last of that tech, Uv sensor, removable battery, solid performance, it's a great device. I still have my SGS with aftermarket battery for it's DAC chip of Wolfson Audio.
As for the OP's design I agree about how the V60 maintains the old fantastic unique look than the iPhone / Chinese bump riddled ugly tile.
bhupatib - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
1. ToF camera is not 14um it's 1.42. It's not USB 2.0 but USB 3.1 since they are both capable of Desktop Mode which requires 3.1 with displayport spec.
lmcd - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
It's 100% possible to max out at USB 2.0 bandwidth, support PD, and support DisplayPort Alt Mode.mrvco - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
My LG V40 is still going strong and it has grown on me quite a bit since I got it shortly after launch at the end of 2018. I received the update to Android 10 and one security update since. I still use it as my day-to-day phone instead of an XS Max. The good news with LG phones is that as long as you are even a little bit patient there is no need to pay list price. I paid $550 for a NIB V40 a month after launch and full price at T-Mobile for the V60 (single screen) is $699.99 now. Without seeing or holding one, at 599€ (and whatever that ends up being in the US), the Velvet is a tough sell though.s.yu - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
>The good news with LG phones is that as long as you are even a little bit patient there is no need to pay list price.Also true for Samsung phones. More people need to see that :)
Actually the only exceptions may be Apple and the Chinese phones, everybody else you can expect discounts through certain channels shortly after shipping.
patel21 - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
Andrei, please post a similar review for A71 if possible.