LG Announces The V10: Dual Front Camera, Dual Display

Ahead of its scheduled launch event in New York, LG has made the LG V10 official.

We've known for a while that LG was preparing a device with a secondary display. At first, a lot of us wrote it off as something close to a gimmick, which marketing would then play and hype up on a phone that may not have anything else going on for it. But with LG making the phone official, we couldn't have been more wrong on this regard.

The LG V10 is the first phone in the V series of smartphones, and as per LG's press release, was designed for creation and consumption of a rich multimedia experience. On the front of the device, you'll find a 5.7″ QHD (1440 x 2560) IPS LCD display, giving us a pixel density of 515 ppi. This display is flanked by a smaller secondary display on the top, measuring about 2.1″ diagonally with a resolution of 160 x 1040. This secondary display can be configured to be always-on and display information like weather, time and date as well as battery, even while the main display is off. LG says that this does not impact battery life but we remain skeptical on this. When the main display is on, the secondary display can be converted into a launcher for shortcuts, or be used as a notification ticker on full screen apps.

Design wise, the LG V10 is clearly marketed as a premium device, but is built strong enough to not fall under the fragile category. The phone uses stainless steel as its main construction material for the frame, with a soft touch silicon skin for the back panel. The V10 was tested and passed by an independent 3rd party for drop tests for shock, as LG claims. The back panel contains a grid pattern to offer increased grip ability. The phone will also come with Corning Gorilla Glass 4.

For the insides, the phone rocks the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chipset, just like the LG G4. The phone also has 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. The phone also has a micro-sd card slot for expansion up to 2TB of storage. Thankfully, the V10 also retains a removable battery with a capacity of 3000 mAh as well as support for Quick Charge 2.0. The phone runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out of the box, but we can expect Android 6.0 Marshmallow update in the future.

The LG G4 was ranked as DxOMarks 2nd best camera on a smartphone, even though it held the position for just a short while before being dethroned of the second position by the Nexus 6P. The V10 shares the same rear camera setup as the G4 (16 MP sensor with f1.8 aperture and OIS), with LG working on improving the software end of things, especially with 4k video recording. The V10 is the first consumer smartphone to offer manual mode for video recording, allowing manual adjustments for shutter speed, frame rate, ISO, white balance and focus. It also includes some more tricks up its sleeve, including audio monitoring for directional audio input as well as wind noise filter.

The front camera is also an interesting feature on this phone, as it blurs the line between functionality and gimmick. The V10 features two 5MP lenses, one for standard 80 degree selfies, and the other for wide angle 120 degree groupfies. There's also multi-view recording wherein users can utilize all three cameras simultaneously, for reasons best known to the user.

The final card up the V10's sleeve is the presence of a fingerprint sensor on the back of the device. We're assuming this sensor works as well as recent flagships, if not better. The sensor can unlock the smartphone as well as turn on the display simultaneously, much like how the new Nexus behave. Coupled with the presence of NFC, the LG V10 is ready for Android Pay in the United States.

The LG V10 will be available in Korea from this month, followed by markets such as the United States, China as well as "key countries" in Asia, Latin America and Middle East. Information regarding more markets and launch dates will be announced in the weeks to come.

As a personal opinion, the LG V10 is shaping up to be the closest that we could get to a "no-compromises" smartphone in 2015. Apart from opting for the affamed Snapdragon 810, the V10 ticks all the right boxes. Even though new LG devices have had very poor support from LG when it comes to community development, the LG V10 comes out as an overall spec beast. Pricing for the device is expected to be rather premium keeping in mind its target audience, and for that, the LG V10 seems to be packing the right punch. But will it be enough to knockout the other competitors from the market? Only time (and sales) will tell.

What do you think about the LG V10? Does the phone fall under the definition of your own, personal "best" flagship of 2015? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!

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