The LG V60 and VELVET Review: A Classic & A Design Restart
by Andrei Frumusanu on July 15, 2020 9:00 AM ESTSystem Performance
System performance of the two LG devices are interesting as they’re one of the first times we’re able to contrast Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765 versus the Snapdragon 865 from the same vendor, using the same software optimisations and design. We’re expecting the S765 to naturally fare worse, but the question is, how much worse is it?
Starting off with the web browsing test in PCMark which is very sensible to performance responsiveness of the DVFS system, we see that the V60 and Velvet both fare quite averagely. The V60 is in line with the OnePlus 8 devices at 60Hz in this test which is pretty much what we’d expect, but that also means it’s also slower than last year’s G8, which seemingly didn’t have an as quite conservative software configuration.
The Velvet isn’t doing well at all and besides of the weirdly behaving S20 Ultra with the Exynos 990 at 60Hz, is the worst performing devices here.
The writing sub-test which is generally more indicative of every-day performance of a device is again also quite contrasting between the two phones. The V60 fares well as is amongst the better performing Snapdragon 865 devices. The Velvet, which certainly not a slouch, compares more alike a 2018 flagship device in the scores.
In the Photo Editing test which makes use of the GPU power, there’s a huge difference in performance between the two phones. Again the V60 is in line with other S865 devices, whilst the Velvet tends to really lag behind the pack with its weaker GPU.
Overall, in PCMark, we see the V60 ending up on par with other 2020 flagship devices, although not quite able to best Samsung’s software optimisations. The Velvet is as expected a lower performing device, but it’s still quite a notable difference in the scores.
In the web-browsing and Javascipt browser tests, things are largely bottlenecked by the single-threaded performance of the CPUs of the SoC. With the Snapdragon 765 using a Cortex-A76 at 2.3GHz peak, the end performance is naturally quite a bit less than the more expensive flagship silicon. Generally, it seems the SoC falls in somewhere between a Snapdragon 845 and 855 in terms of performance, which is right where you’d expect it to be.
Overall Performance
Overall, the LG V60 was a very good performer and offers amongst the best experiences in 2020 – although LG’s lack of a higher refresh rate screen does mean it doesn’t quite give the smoothness that other devices are able to provide – although that’s just a compromise between performance and battery life.
The LG Velvet was actually a bit disappointing for me, and it really reminded me that the processing power of today’s SoCs are actually being fully utilised for daily usage of the phones. It’s not that the Velvet was unusable or a slouch, but I immediately noticed that it wasn’t quite as well of a performer compared to say the V60. In general terms, I would say the phone feels more like a 2018 flagship device in terms of responsiveness.
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TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
How is it qualcomm's fault? Samsung, motorla, HTC, google, asus, none of these brands have the bootloop issues LG had.Quantumz0d - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
Bootlooping shit is dead long time back, V20 and up no issues of that, I have a V30 thankfully it has the Bootloader community unlock as LG didn't because of their higher up mobile chair changes always and mostly due to the US Carrier stranglehold, Samsung NA market phones also no BL unlock at all.And man my V30 is still running like a champ maybe a little battery deterioration but the Audio performance is almost identical to my desktop DAC+AMP setup (Modi + Alex Cavalli), and the Camera UI is perfect, the phone doesn't have any bullshit notch or deadpixel hole or shit. It just works like how it did out of the box, Oreo is the OS, I have it rooted and removed all bloat like social media bs and installed USB Audio Pro for the bitperfect playback without Android's bullshit 48KHz upsampling trash.
OS updates do not matter to me, when Android 9 ruined the multitasking by copying iPhone (Google is to blame due to their obsession with Apple) and they ruined the DSD playback on 10 and 11, 11 brings that notorious dogshit Scoped Storage which no one mentions because they all are fine with the sandboxed zero user ownership of their own fucking files on their own phone just like an iPhone.
TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
Being limited to carriers with no unlocked version is a huge drag on the V60. I applaud LG for building a simple devvice without silly resolutions and curved screens, instead opting for decent bezels to protect the fragile screen and a big battery for long runtimes, but I'm never buying a carrier locked phone again.The other elephant in the room is the price. $900 is a lot of money. That's almost 2 mortgage payments. Phones like the moto G power have a worse camera, but the same size battery and even longer runtimes, for $250. Sure its only got a SD665, but its more then enough for 99% of use cases and costs a quarter of the V60.
I hope LG has great success with the V60 and it leads them to make more of these simple designs, but I feel it's kneecapped before it even starts the race.
Quantumz0d - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
I agree, and man no Bootloader unlock on US SKUs either, it's the same old shitshow that US Carriers are having on the NA market, a big middlefinger to the consumer. A shame to be honest, LG hardware is #1 but their BL unlock situation is worse. OS updates is a hot topic many want them for some reason but in reality Android is moving away from it's openness on the OS principles one of it is APK bundling which is mandated by Google to make devs certify their own apps by Google isntead of them, keys to the castle for the apps. Then they have this scoped bullshit storage which ruins the whole Android FS and makes hard for developers to use Java and other POSIX based I/O libs to that performance hog and limited SAF, it destroys Android on a whole another level read on it, It's just Apple type grip. Security updates should at-least have been made mandatory by Google at CTS level for 3-5 years that would be a MUCH simple task than to support mega OS downgrades. It's a sham, they all want money if the phone doesn't stop why will anyone buy a new phone ?WPX00 - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
I think LG is among the best at camera performance even with the not very ambitious hardware. For years, from the G2 through the V30, the camera barely changed.G2/G3 - 13MP 1.12um OIS
G4/V10/G5/V20 - 16MP 1.12um OIS
G6 - 13MP 1.12um OIS
V30 - 16MP 1.0um OIS
They squeezed a LOT of life out of those tiny camera sensors, so it's no surprise to me they did well with the much better GM2/IMX686 sensors, even though they should theoretically pale compared to the ultra ambitious HM1 sensor in the S20U, or the IMX689 on the OnePlus.
customdtg - Saturday, July 18, 2020 - link
Presentation/View Layer. This layer comprises UI components and UI process components. ...Navigation Layer. ...
Services Layer. ...
Real-Time Updates vs Notifications. ...
Navigation Options. ...
Define User Interface.
thankyou
https://www.customdtgprinting.com/create/T-shirts?...
Revv233 - Saturday, July 18, 2020 - link
Bummer it's such a monster. Headphone jack and great battery life.I wish they would go thicker smaller rather than flatter wider and taller.
My s9+ is already at the limit of my hands & pockets.
Maybe Sony's new phone will work but also 170mm tall.
Anand12 - Saturday, July 18, 2020 - link
I don't thin the LG Velvet has OIS in their cameras. I think the reviewer has made an error. This will be reflected in Andrei's performance review and year end bonus.Kind Regards,
Anand
George Allan - Monday, July 20, 2020 - link
It is a great review https://www.anandtech.com/show/15905/the-lg-v60-an...BAllen2782 - Tuesday, July 28, 2020 - link
All i see is a bunch of cry babies in the comment section. Still yappin about the G4 bootloop issue. But, they never say anything about LG's customer service and free 2 year promise with the 1 year warranty already with the phone. Also, you can call LG and send in your G4 and theylle replace the logic board for free. I just got my fixed for free last year. As long as the phones screen isn't cracked and the phone is in good condition, LG will fix it for free. But, poeple have to let the bootloop thing go. It's been 5 years. Get over it. So, anyway i walked into a T-Mobile store to buy a new sim card for my fixed LG G4 and seen the V20 for $900. This was in Jan. 2017. I really liked the look and the only flagship SD820 phone out there with a removable battery was a perfect fit for me. Doing a lot of video content and such. But, i wasn't going to pay $900. So i held on to my G4, and a year later, there was the LG V20 brand new for $200 on ebay (from a reputable seller). I don't mind waiting a year or getting last years flagship phone for almost a quarter of the price. So, i bought the V20 with 2 extra batteries, a true OEM screen replacement for accidents, cause they do happen and a tripod. Also knowing that you do not remove the protective sticker off of the camera lens because it will crack. But, another great thing about the V20 was the phones repairability. With 1 micro screwdriver, the phone can be completely disassembled for repair. Thanks to Jerry Rig Everything for the teardown vids. He also gage the V20 an award for the easiest repairability. Also, the V20 is surprisingly durable. LG is the mainstream smartphone manufacturer that gives it flagship phones a MLT-810G transit drop rating. That let you know you can do more with the phone, like climb Mt Everest and when you get to the top and oull out your phone, it wil still work. They did it with the V30. But, enough about the V20. I wanted a newer phone and it Jan 2020. And i'm not paying $1,400 for a smartphone. That's ludicrous. Once again i jumped on ebay to my favorite vendor that's has truly Unlocked phones and not just a GSM unlocked sprint or At&t phone. I came across a brand new fully unlocked LG V40 (QA7) for $250. It was just $200 but, i missed the sale. He had one left and it came with a brand new (open box) $60 Otterbox Defender series (screenless edition) case and a pair of LG Tone Pro's worth $100. Even though, the Unlocked version comes with a pair of decent earbuds in the box. Those can be used for back up. I wanted the V50 but, everyone wanted $450 for'em at the time. They've dropped to $350 now, but, i'm only willing to pay about $300 max for a phone. Like i said, i'm a very patient person and don't mind running last years flagship or the year before that. As long as the phone is new and under $300. So, i'm a bargain shopper, kill me... The SD845 is plenty fast and the Adreno 630 (512ALU's) runs any AAA mobile game out there at 30 or 60 fps or whichever the game is set to run at. Also, another biggie was XDA has gained root on the V40 so, i was able to create a thermal.conf.file and change the thermal throttle temps so that famous LG micro stutter goes away. The V50 doesn't have this problem but, come to think of it, my V40 didn't ever get hot or thetmalw throttle itself. But, I'm a tinkerer and like to set my phone up my way. So i set the thermal throttle temps on the GPU and CPU. Time for modding the kernal or just making one. I got the ASUS ROG phone 1 clock mod and applied it to the my V40. Niw i have a SD845+. The Adreno 630 GPU is running at 725MHz and get about 900GFlops matching a stock Adreno 640 (768ALU's) clocked at 625MHz. The 4 HP A75/Kryo cores are running at 2.96GHz and have no issue doing so. What about the battety, well this specific LG V40 is a replacement phone for lost and stolen phones for LG's 2 year promise warranty. Can't have a extra 2 Year warranty without backup phones to give customers, right. So, when i went to check the iMEI the phone was manufactured on Dec.5th 2109 and shipped from LG's warehouse on the 10th. Making the specific V40 only 7months old. So, the battery is new. Using Acuutebattery after about a month of charge cycles says its health is at 125% and is comparable to a 4100mAh battery. And it's not lying. I get 9 to 10 hours on that little 3300mAh battery, with moderate to heavy use. Plus, i'm running a modified version of Stock Android 10 with some of LG's stick apps in there. That with the overclocks to the CPU and GPU bring this phone up to a SD855 level. Benchmarks aren't my thing but, i had to test it. It gets an easy 400,000 points. 170,000 for the GPU and 130,000 for the CPU. No other SD845 device comes close to that. My V40 was never slow or throttled. The newer silicon definitely didn't hurt matters. But, LG gets put in the shadow for no reason. They are great phones even out the box. I've been with LG and T-Mobile since the first quad core phone that came with the original Transformers movie. The Optimus G. Remember those. Was a great phone. I still have it and it does work.i actually wrote a longer version of this but, didn't want to bore the non-readers with a autophoneagraphy. But, from the manual 4K60 OIS/EIS video recording. Which with ROOT can lift the 6min limit and use both OIS and EIS while doing so. And everyone knows LG has the audio goods. From the ESS SABRE qDAC to the 2Vrms 3.5mm headphone jack that can easily push my 650Ω Senheiser 800HD's with volume to spare. From the V20 and G6 on up. There are great phones. Buying a phone that was released 2 years ago but, built just 7 months ago was a lucky thing for me but, still. A 1 or 2 year old flagship for a Quarter od the price is the way to go for me. Though, i'm might get the V50 or wait for the V70 because the V60 only has a 1080p display. Gotta have my 2K or 3K. The V50 is still $350 right now but, it'll drop. It has a 4000mAh battery and a Vapor chamber along with the SD855 and Adreno 640. Which i know i can turn into a SD855+ with the Adreno 640 pushing just over 1Teraflop of FP32 compute. I never thought i'd see 3GHz CPU's in SOC's that couod have sustainability and thermal issues. But, the SD865+ is here. Though, running a SD845/+ or SD855/+ at 2.96GHz is plenty enough for me. That with a 1 Teraflop GPU. Anyway, i herd there was going to be a LG Velvet with a SD845. That, i wlukd buy. Once it dropped in price. Well i'm tired and i gotta get back to this online money. This was a good but, somewhat a little off review. Anandtech isna great site and they do awesome work.PS. This was typed on a LG V40.