LG VELVET:If only looks would kill

To be very honest LG has lost its way in the smartphone market.They launch new phones but those don’t drive people crazy.It is not that the phones are not of good quality but everytime there is something missing.

Now they have announced the LG Velvet in South Korea on the 7th of May and is expected to be on sale from the 15th.No global release date has yet been announced but is expected to come to India by August,2020.

The first word, on seeing the phone in the company’s teaser and in other videos, that come to your mind will be beautiful but only looks don’t actually kill.Anyways the good point is that LG has finally changed their design.Well the LG V60 was different but not as much as LG Velvet.Let’s hope this phone brings back LG’s long lost glory.

Let’s have a look into the specs.

BODY AND DESIGN

Design wise there seems no flaw except for the water drop notch front camera which could have been a punch hole one. It sports glass front and back with a soft metal frame.The thickness is 7.9mm which means the phone is very slim and weighs 180g.It is IP68 rated water and dust resistant.

DISPLAY

LG Velvet comes with a big 6.8″ display with P-oLED capacitive touchscreen with 16M colours.The resolution is 1080x2460p and screen to body of 88.6%.Aspect ratio is 20.5:9 and ppi density is ~395.

There is no HDR10+ meaning you are not getting true and dense colours always.I do not find any excuse for not having it.Also the ppi of ~395 is not quite upto the mark for such a big display and when compared to other related smartphones.

OS AND PROCESSOR

LG Velvet uses the LG UX skin(user interface) based on Android 10.

Under the hood is an octa core processor(one 2.4GHz,one 2.2GHz and remaining six 1.8GHz) with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G chipset with an integrated 5G modem and is powered by Adreno 620(GPU).

Here again lies the difference with other flagships most of which run the Snapdragon 865.No doubt Snapdragon 765G is quite capable but off course it will not match the speed of 865.There is an advantage though and that will be the cost since Snapdragon 765 is much lower in price.

RAM AND STORAGE

The device has 8GB RAM and 128GB on board storage powered by UFS 2.1.

Besides the dual nano SIM slot there is also slot for external Micro SDXC card which supports upto 1TB storage.

CAMERA

The camera module is a feature I love about the LG Velvet.It is a triple camera setup and a LED flash.They look like raindrops decreasing in size as you go down.

The primary camera is a 48MP sensor with f/1.8 featuring optical image stabilisation(OIS).Then comes the 8MP ultra wide sensor of f/2.2 and at last the 5MP macro sensor of f/2.4.

4K(2160p) and full HD videos can be shot.

Detailed list of features is not yet yet known but the absence of a depth sensor is quite noticeable.

FRONT/SELFIE CAMERA

The front camera is like a water drop notch featuring a 16MP lens with f/2.0.It supports HD(1080p) videos at 30fps.

OTHER FEATURES

The LG Velvet sports an under display optical fingerprint sensor.

There is a 3.5mm jack for wired headphones.

It supports USB 2.0 Type C.

BATTERY AND COLOURS

The phone runs on a 4300mAH battery which supports 30W fast charging and 10W wireless fast charging.

In terms of battery there should be no complaints.

LG Velvet comes in 4 colour variants:-the Aurora White,Aurora Green,Aurora Grey and Illusion Sunset.

CONCLUSION

As you can see that lots of high end specs are missing the most noticeable ones being the chipset being Snapdragon 765G and not the Snapdragon 865 and no HDR10+.Also there is no DAC(digital to analog converter) for better sound quality of speakers which LG phones always had.Again a fact I cannot explain why.

By no means can LG Velvet be compared with other flagships.It is a high mid range smartphone but its pricing in South Korea is ~Rs.56,000 in Indian currency that is almost similar to OnePlus 8 Pro. which boasts of far better specs.Though the global pricing has not yet been announced but if it is not reduced I personally feel LG will again be doing a big mistake.

If the price is lowered globally then LG Velvet with its light weight,slim look,the IP68 rating and decent cameras would make a good midrange smartphone.What do you think?Don’t forget to comment and let me know.