LG V60 ThinQ 5G Review

The LG V60 ThinQ 5G is a premium phone poised to compete against the Galaxy S20. The LG V60 ThinQ 5G is a solid all-around alternative to Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Plus and S20 Ultra, with better battery life. But the Dual Screen attachment, is wonky and the cameras disappoint.

Though it’s a lofty opponent to take on, the LG V60 has a couple of things that make it stand out. One is low tech (a headphone jack) and the other is more advanced: a special Dual Screen case that doubles the size of its display.

The extra screen lets you more easily multitask and move apps between panels. You can also use one of the displays as a dedicated keyboard or gamepad controller. There’s even a Wide View feature to extend a growing number of apps (including all of Google’s consumer apps) across both screens.

Armed with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865 chipset and 8GB of RAM, the V60 is on a par with Samsung’s latest flagships regarding performance.

The V60’s showing in Geekbench 5 — an overall system stress-test — was particularly encouraging, as the device turned out an average multicore score of 3,420 across three sessions. That not only beats out the S20 Plus, at 3,076 points, but comes within striking distance of the iPhone 11 Pro Max’s 3,517-point result.

LG’s mobile cameras have rarely been industry-leading, though they’re often better than they get credit for. The V60 packs three lenses on the back — a primary 64-MP wide-angle one, a 13-MP ultrawide and one of LG’s time-of-flight Z Cameras — along with a 10-MP front-facing shooter. The 64-MP main lens can even record 8K video.

Compared with flagships like the Google Pixel 4 XL and the Samsung Galaxy S20, the LG V60’s camera setup is pretty unimpressive. Both the primary and wide-angle lenses performed admirably in good light. The majority of our test shots were crisp, with excellent depth of field. We did notice some minor mushy details in a few shots, but they’re nearly impossible to spot without close examination—they look fine if you don’t pixel peep.

The LG V60 is a great phone. It takes vibrant photos, has a promising long battery life (though final results aren’t in yet and we’ll keep you updated) and a polished design.

But the phone doesn’t have some of the bells and whistles of the Galaxy S20 to keep it competitive and interesting. That includes a 120Hz display, reverse wireless charging and a telephoto camera. To me, that’s worth $50 extra (if you plan on buying the V60 with the Dual Screen case).

But if you want the V60 without the case, you’ll save $200 from what you would have spent on the Galaxy S20. For that price, the V60 is a great Android device.