Initial V30 review of a skeptical buyer & comparison to Galaxy S7 (flat)

[chriskwarren]

I was initially excited about this device after LG announced it as it had everything I wanted. I was a long-time Samsung user, but the edge screen and poor fingerprint scanner placement had me looking elsewhere.

My only reservation on the V30 really was the poor quality experience that I had with the LG G4 (had issues with three of them, many others I knew had issues too). Once reports of the poor display came to light on the V30, I was even more hesitant. After browsing three forums over the past few weeks (3 or 4 times a day checking here, reddit, and XDA) I decided that I could take the chance and grab the V30, despite my carrier's poor return policies.

The phone had a large update (approx 775mb) out of the box from my carrier, Bell Mobility. Oct. 1 is the security patch date. Phone is version 1, manuf in Oct.

Here are my initial impressions with the device after the first 24 hours, compared to my trusty old Galaxy S7 where applicable:

1. The glitches
- automatic brightness did not work out of the box. Noticed it after a carrier update. Clearing the cache and doing a factory reset (which I always do, especially after a major update) seemed to fix it. Works great now.

- there is a small horizontal band if I lower the brightness to 10% on a clear white background, and I stare really closely. See my next comment.

- the fingerprint scanner had an issue with the scar on my index finger. I have a scar from my childhood that makes the skin in one spot a bit flatter than the rest of my fingerprint. When setting up the fingerprint scanner initially, the V30 complained that I needed to clean the scanner. That said, once I set it up, I have not had issues unlocking my device with that finger. My multiple Samsung devices never had an issue with that same scarred finger.

- double knock to wake the phone works great, but not to put it to sleep using the Nova Prime launcher that I use. I had Nova Prime working properly on my old LG G4, but I can't seem to get it working properly on the V30. I did find other threads on here that deal with this, and I did not see anything that made the knock to sleep work in a way I liked.

2. The display
- the store where I bought my V30 had returns for poor display on their "first batch" but none since. The initial display complaints I believe are real and founded on the most part.

However, my display seems fine, and I consider myself picky. I have used it in low light and auto brightness put my phone at 15% when I was reading reddit and Twitter last night. I could not see a flaw at all. None. Colours were great, sharpness is great, scrolling is great. Everything is honestly great.

I took the V30 and compared it side by side to my Samsung S7 flat. I stared at the same apps and wallpaper of both phones side by side, and I'll say that my 1 year old S7 has a slightly better screen for whites. Also, there is a very slight blue tint when tilting at extreme angles on the V30 that is not present on the S7. I would never ever have noticed these things had I not read about them on forums multiple times first, and if I had not been staring at both screens at once for a period of time.

My verdict on the screen: I would never had noticed anything if I had not worked really hard to find issues, and I cannot notice anything during regular use, despite my trying. But I will say that my old Galaxy S7's display quality is s very slight step ahead of the V30.

Battery: just one day in, and I have not taken stats or screenshots. That said, after one full day (driving with Waze for about an hour, playing with the phone off and on all day, etc) I made it home after moderate to heavy use at 60%, where my Galaxy S7 would easily had been left at around 30% at similar or slightly less use. I can tell already that early reports of stellar battery life is true. I was always happy with my S7, but this phone did really well for day one with all my apps installed, and being abused by Waze.

I also use dark themes where possible. I'm using the high contrast theme that came with the V30, as it has the deep blacks that look good and work well with OLED's battery use. I use auto brightness and let the phone handle it.

Performance: I don't do anything crazy with the phone. No glitches and the performance is smooth. My Galaxy S7 worked great too. Using Nova Launcher on both. I don't game.

Camera: I'm a little disappointed with the camera. I will say that I can be happy with it, but I will say that in pure auto mode, the S7 does a slight bit better in low-light indoors. Outside is fine, and wide screen is great. I just used auto so far, no video, and only played around a bit.

Speakers: the speaker on the S7 was a bit louder than the V30. I don't use headphones or buds often, and in Canada, our device does not come with headphones (no 2 year warranty, fancy gift cards or VR headsets, etc.) Carriers here suck.

Accessories:
Screen protector - finding screen protectors that I will like is going to be a challenge. I tried the Moko glass protector I got on Amazon and it was horrible. I have never ever found a glass protector for the curved glass screens found on the S7 and V30 that I liked. I hate the halo effect, and I hate the dot matrix on many. My preference is to use PET hard plastic protectors for these phones with curved glass edges, and I'm having a hard time finding one. Spigen makes an incredible one for the S7, they are not making it for the V30. I have some coming off of eBay. I'll follow up in an appropriate screen protector thread, but be warned about screen protection.

Case - using the Spigen Neo Hybrid gunmetal on my grey V30. Looks great, feels great. Recommended highly.

Cables - I have a bunch of new USB 3.0 to USB c cables (with the resistor) from Anker and Aukey. This is my first phone with a power connector that is reversible which I love. I'll have to be careful that my wife does not try to use the wrong cables in the wrong port.

This is it. Loving having a large screen again. I would probably have bought a S8+ flat if it were available, but I'm having no regrets after 24 hours on the V30.

 

[wk123]

I was initially excited about this device after LG announced it as it had everything I wanted. I was a long-time Samsung user, but the edge screen and poor fingerprint scanner placement had me looking elsewhere.

My only reservation on the V30 really was the poor quality experience that I had with the LG G4 (had issues with three of them, many others I knew had issues too). Once reports of the poor display came to light on the V30, I was even more hesitant. After browsing three forums over the past few weeks (3 or 4 times a day checking here, reddit, and XDA) I decided that I could take the chance and grab the V30, despite my carrier's poor return policies.

The phone had a large update (approx 775mb) out of the box from my carrier, Bell Mobility. Oct. 1 is the security patch date. Phone is version 1, manuf in Oct.

Here are my initial impressions with the device after the first 24 hours, compared to my trusty old Galaxy S7 where applicable:

1. The glitches
- automatic brightness did not work out of the box. Noticed it after a carrier update. Clearing the cache and doing a factory reset (which I always do, especially after a major update) seemed to fix it. Works great now.

- there is a small horizontal band if I lower the brightness to 10% on a clear white background, and I stare really closely. See my next comment.

- the fingerprint scanner had an issue with the scar on my index finger. I have a scar from my childhood that makes the skin in one spot a bit flatter than the rest of my fingerprint. When setting up the fingerprint scanner initially, the V30 complained that I needed to clean the scanner. That said, once I set it up, I have not had issues unlocking my device with that finger. My multiple Samsung devices never had an issue with that same scarred finger.

- double knock to wake the phone works great, but not to put it to sleep using the Nova Prime launcher that I use. I had Nova Prime working properly on my old LG G4, but I can't seem to get it working properly on the V30. I did find other threads on here that deal with this, and I did not see anything that made the knock to sleep work in a way I liked.

2. The display
- the store where I bought my V30 had returns for poor display on their "first batch" but none since. The initial display complaints I believe are real and founded on the most part.

However, my display seems fine, and I consider myself picky. I have used it in low light and auto brightness put my phone at 15% when I was reading reddit and Twitter last night. I could not see a flaw at all. None. Colours were great, sharpness is great, scrolling is great. Everything is honestly great.

I took the V30 and compared it side by side to my Samsung S7 flat. I stared at the same apps and wallpaper of both phones side by side, and I'll say that my 1 year old S7 has a slightly better screen for whites. Also, there is a very slight blue tint when tilting at extreme angles on the V30 that is not present on the S7. I would never ever have noticed these things had I not read about them on forums multiple times first, and if I had not been staring at both screens at once for a period of time.

My verdict on the screen: I would never had noticed anything if I had not worked really hard to find issues, and I cannot notice anything during regular use, despite my trying. But I will say that my old Galaxy S7's display quality is s very slight step ahead of the V30.

Battery: just one day in, and I have not taken stats or screenshots. That said, after one full day (driving with Waze for about an hour, playing with the phone off and on all day, etc) I made it home after moderate to heavy use at 60%, where my Galaxy S7 would easily had been left at around 30% at similar or slightly less use. I can tell already that early reports of stellar battery life is true. I was always happy with my S7, but this phone did really well for day one with all my apps installed, and being abused by Waze.

I also use dark themes where possible. I'm using the high contrast theme that came with the V30, as it has the deep blacks that look good and work well with OLED's battery use. I use auto brightness and let the phone handle it.

Performance: I don't do anything crazy with the phone. No glitches and the performance is smooth. My Galaxy S7 worked great too. Using Nova Launcher on both. I don't game.

Camera: I'm a little disappointed with the camera. I will say that I can be happy with it, but I will say that in pure auto mode, the S7 does a slight bit better in low-light indoors. Outside is fine, and wide screen is great. I just used auto so far, no video, and only played around a bit.

Speakers: the speaker on the S7 was a bit louder than the V30. I don't use headphones or buds often, and in Canada, our device does not come with headphones (no 2 year warranty, fancy gift cards or VR headsets, etc.) Carriers here suck.

Accessories:
Screen protector - finding screen protectors that I will like is going to be a challenge. I tried the Moko glass protector I got on Amazon and it was horrible. I have never ever found a glass protector for the curved glass screens found on the S7 and V30 that I liked. I hate the halo effect, and I hate the dot matrix on many. My preference is to use PET hard plastic protectors for these phones with curved glass edges, and I'm having a hard time finding one. Spigen makes an incredible one for the S7, they are not making it for the V30. I have some coming off of eBay. I'll follow up in an appropriate screen protector thread, but be warned about screen protection.

Case - using the Spigen Neo Hybrid gunmetal on my grey V30. Looks great, feels great. Recommended highly.

Cables - I have a bunch of new USB 3.0 to USB c cables (with the resistor) from Anker and Aukey. This is my first phone with a power connector that is reversible which I love. I'll have to be careful that my wife does not try to use the wrong cables in the wrong port.

This is it. Loving having a large screen again. I would probably have bought a S8+ flat if it were available, but I'm having no regrets after 24 hours on the V30.

I have an S7 and appreciate this direct comparison! Thanks again!

 

[lateck2]

Very glad you are happy with your V30.
I too have read a "lot" of issues with the 30 but I have never experienced a single problem on mine (Got mine on day 2).
Have fun and enjoy.

Lateck,

 

[chriskwarren]

I have an S7 and appreciate this direct comparison! Thanks again!

I figured that a lot of folks looking at the V30 might be coming off the S7 as its a few years old and its upgrade year for many.

Just realizing how much money I am spending on cables now, and how invested I was in the micro usb port. I have micro usb cables everywhere, and I refuse to use cheapo cables. I have bought 5 USB c cables already (mostly Anker, ranging from 3 feet to 10 feet), and I just ordered some micro to usb c adapters to keep near my wireless chargers (sometimes a wireless charger is not fast enough and you want to plug in for a min).

My wife hates it that she needs to keep an eye on the cables already. With the both of us using micro usb all these years, she is not used to keeping track of chargers and cables as I usually did all of that. I'm praying that she does not wreck ports trying to jam the wrong cable into her phone. Might have to colour-code this for her.

 

[muckrakerX]

Excellent review, very informative and helpful. It's great to see honest, well balanced reviews, written by real world users, as opposed to the ones that are basically just regurgitated click bait. Having said that, I probably won't be buying a V30, but I like to keep track of user experiences.

 

[experiment 626]

Another Thanks to the OP for taking the time to give a solid comparative review. Camera performance, especially in night/low-light situations is one of my priorities. Not sure if the V30 should be on my upgrade radar or not now.

 

[chriskwarren]

Another Thanks to the OP for taking the time to give a solid comparative review. Camera performance, especially in night/low-light situations is one of my priorities. Not sure if the V30 should be on my upgrade radar or not now.

I think that this camera would be better served by someone who likes to mess around with manual. I have not played with it much, and the camera is good, but this is the first time I upgraded and I didn't get wowed by the camera on the new phone.

The hardware is there, and folks are popping the Google camera on this phone and its doing wonders. I would not be surprised if LG is able to get more out of this camera on a future update, but for now, the camera is just 'fine'.

 

[chriskwarren]

Still finding that the old S7 takes consistently better pictures in low-light. Outside, the two are about the same, with maybe the V30 a bit better on rare occasions. To be honest, I'm a little disappointed in the camera on the V30. Maybe this will improve with a software update as the hardware is there, but I don't like to count on updates for this stuff.

After about a week, I'll tell you that this battery is the best I have ever experienced on a phone. I got to bed at night with heavy use at or above 50% consistently. I get great reception everywhere I go, which helps but man, the battery is incredible.

Finding a screen protector for this thing has been awful. I have tried several, and the best I can find is an Omotion wet install TPU one on Amazon. If you like TPU protectors, it works well; adheres to the sides good and works with my Spigen Neo hybrid case. I will use this one until I can find tempered glass (doubtful) or a hard PET film.

My preference is tempered glass, followed by the hard plastic PET film. I never found a tempered glass one for my S7 (flat) that had a slight curved edge, but the Spigen Crystal HD worked well. Spigen not making it for the V30, and I can't for the life of me find a protector I'm really happy with.

 

[Rumblee1]

I was initially excited about this device after LG announced it as it had everything I wanted. I was a long-time Samsung user, but the edge screen and poor fingerprint scanner placement had me looking elsewhere.

My only reservation on the V30 really was the poor quality experience that I had with the LG G4 (had issues with three of them, many others I knew had issues too). Once reports of the poor display came to light on the V30, I was even more hesitant. After browsing three forums over the past few weeks (3 or 4 times a day checking here, reddit, and XDA) I decided that I could take the chance and grab the V30, despite my carrier's poor return policies.

The phone had a large update (approx 775mb) out of the box from my carrier, Bell Mobility. Oct. 1 is the security patch date. Phone is version 1, manuf in Oct.

Here are my initial impressions with the device after the first 24 hours, compared to my trusty old Galaxy S7 where applicable:

1. The glitches
- automatic brightness did not work out of the box. Noticed it after a carrier update. Clearing the cache and doing a factory reset (which I always do, especially after a major update) seemed to fix it. Works great now.

- there is a small horizontal band if I lower the brightness to 10% on a clear white background, and I stare really closely. See my next comment.

- the fingerprint scanner had an issue with the scar on my index finger. I have a scar from my childhood that makes the skin in one spot a bit flatter than the rest of my fingerprint. When setting up the fingerprint scanner initially, the V30 complained that I needed to clean the scanner. That said, once I set it up, I have not had issues unlocking my device with that finger. My multiple Samsung devices never had an issue with that same scarred finger.

- double knock to wake the phone works great, but not to put it to sleep using the Nova Prime launcher that I use. I had Nova Prime working properly on my old LG G4, but I can't seem to get it working properly on the V30. I did find other threads on here that deal with this, and I did not see anything that made the knock to sleep work in a way I liked.

2. The display
- the store where I bought my V30 had returns for poor display on their "first batch" but none since. The initial display complaints I believe are real and founded on the most part.

However, my display seems fine, and I consider myself picky. I have used it in low light and auto brightness put my phone at 15% when I was reading reddit and Twitter last night. I could not see a flaw at all. None. Colours were great, sharpness is great, scrolling is great. Everything is honestly great.

I took the V30 and compared it side by side to my Samsung S7 flat. I stared at the same apps and wallpaper of both phones side by side, and I'll say that my 1 year old S7 has a slightly better screen for whites. Also, there is a very slight blue tint when tilting at extreme angles on the V30 that is not present on the S7. I would never ever have noticed these things had I not read about them on forums multiple times first, and if I had not been staring at both screens at once for a period of time.

My verdict on the screen: I would never had noticed anything if I had not worked really hard to find issues, and I cannot notice anything during regular use, despite my trying. But I will say that my old Galaxy S7's display quality is s very slight step ahead of the V30.

Battery: just one day in, and I have not taken stats or screenshots. That said, after one full day (driving with Waze for about an hour, playing with the phone off and on all day, etc) I made it home after moderate to heavy use at 60%, where my Galaxy S7 would easily had been left at around 30% at similar or slightly less use. I can tell already that early reports of stellar battery life is true. I was always happy with my S7, but this phone did really well for day one with all my apps installed, and being abused by Waze.

I also use dark themes where possible. I'm using the high contrast theme that came with the V30, as it has the deep blacks that look good and work well with OLED's battery use. I use auto brightness and let the phone handle it.

Performance: I don't do anything crazy with the phone. No glitches and the performance is smooth. My Galaxy S7 worked great too. Using Nova Launcher on both. I don't game.

Camera: I'm a little disappointed with the camera. I will say that I can be happy with it, but I will say that in pure auto mode, the S7 does a slight bit better in low-light indoors. Outside is fine, and wide screen is great. I just used auto so far, no video, and only played around a bit.

Speakers: the speaker on the S7 was a bit louder than the V30. I don't use headphones or buds often, and in Canada, our device does not come with headphones (no 2 year warranty, fancy gift cards or VR headsets, etc.) Carriers here suck.

Accessories:
Screen protector - finding screen protectors that I will like is going to be a challenge. I tried the Moko glass protector I got on Amazon and it was horrible. I have never ever found a glass protector for the curved glass screens found on the S7 and V30 that I liked. I hate the halo effect, and I hate the dot matrix on many. My preference is to use PET hard plastic protectors for these phones with curved glass edges, and I'm having a hard time finding one. Spigen makes an incredible one for the S7, they are not making it for the V30. I have some coming off of eBay. I'll follow up in an appropriate screen protector thread, but be warned about screen protection.

Case - using the Spigen Neo Hybrid gunmetal on my grey V30. Looks great, feels great. Recommended highly.

Cables - I have a bunch of new USB 3.0 to USB c cables (with the resistor) from Anker and Aukey. This is my first phone with a power connector that is reversible which I love. I'll have to be careful that my wife does not try to use the wrong cables in the wrong port.

This is it. Loving having a large screen again. I would probably have bought a S8+ flat if it were available, but I'm having no regrets after 24 hours on the V30.

I've got the s7 edge. Great phone. Fabulous display. But it didn't have 1 thing that had me always carry 2 devices with me. THE AWESOME QUAD DAC. As a music lover, and having both mp3, and flac files, I needed to carry both my S7 edge and either my ZTE axon7, or my onkyo Dap. With the v30, you're getting a much faster device, better camera, wide angle, better battery life, and the quad dac that blows even my onkyo dp x1 away. Plus, the v30 can take advantage of T-mobiles new digibit signal which it turned on in my area yesterday and the 600mhz spectrum that's coming very soon. Only thing the s7 edge has over the v30 is a slightly better screen. But unless you're doing a side by side comparison you won't notice.

 

[flyingkytez]

I was initially excited about this device after LG announced it as it had everything I wanted. I was a long-time Samsung user, but the edge screen and poor fingerprint scanner placement had me looking elsewhere.

My only reservation on the V30 really was the poor quality experience that I had with the LG G4 (had issues with three of them, many others I knew had issues too). Once reports of the poor display came to light on the V30, I was even more hesitant. After browsing three forums over the past few weeks (3 or 4 times a day checking here, reddit, and XDA) I decided that I could take the chance and grab the V30, despite my carrier's poor return policies.

The phone had a large update (approx 775mb) out of the box from my carrier, Bell Mobility. Oct. 1 is the security patch date. Phone is version 1, manuf in Oct.

Here are my initial impressions with the device after the first 24 hours, compared to my trusty old Galaxy S7 where applicable:

1. The glitches
- automatic brightness did not work out of the box. Noticed it after a carrier update. Clearing the cache and doing a factory reset (which I always do, especially after a major update) seemed to fix it. Works great now.

- there is a small horizontal band if I lower the brightness to 10% on a clear white background, and I stare really closely. See my next comment.

- the fingerprint scanner had an issue with the scar on my index finger. I have a scar from my childhood that makes the skin in one spot a bit flatter than the rest of my fingerprint. When setting up the fingerprint scanner initially, the V30 complained that I needed to clean the scanner. That said, once I set it up, I have not had issues unlocking my device with that finger. My multiple Samsung devices never had an issue with that same scarred finger.

- double knock to wake the phone works great, but not to put it to sleep using the Nova Prime launcher that I use. I had Nova Prime working properly on my old LG G4, but I can't seem to get it working properly on the V30. I did find other threads on here that deal with this, and I did not see anything that made the knock to sleep work in a way I liked.

2. The display
- the store where I bought my V30 had returns for poor display on their "first batch" but none since. The initial display complaints I believe are real and founded on the most part.

However, my display seems fine, and I consider myself picky. I have used it in low light and auto brightness put my phone at 15% when I was reading reddit and Twitter last night. I could not see a flaw at all. None. Colours were great, sharpness is great, scrolling is great. Everything is honestly great.

I took the V30 and compared it side by side to my Samsung S7 flat. I stared at the same apps and wallpaper of both phones side by side, and I'll say that my 1 year old S7 has a slightly better screen for whites. Also, there is a very slight blue tint when tilting at extreme angles on the V30 that is not present on the S7. I would never ever have noticed these things had I not read about them on forums multiple times first, and if I had not been staring at both screens at once for a period of time.

My verdict on the screen: I would never had noticed anything if I had not worked really hard to find issues, and I cannot notice anything during regular use, despite my trying. But I will say that my old Galaxy S7's display quality is s very slight step ahead of the V30.

Battery: just one day in, and I have not taken stats or screenshots. That said, after one full day (driving with Waze for about an hour, playing with the phone off and on all day, etc) I made it home after moderate to heavy use at 60%, where my Galaxy S7 would easily had been left at around 30% at similar or slightly less use. I can tell already that early reports of stellar battery life is true. I was always happy with my S7, but this phone did really well for day one with all my apps installed, and being abused by Waze.

I also use dark themes where possible. I'm using the high contrast theme that came with the V30, as it has the deep blacks that look good and work well with OLED's battery use. I use auto brightness and let the phone handle it.

Performance: I don't do anything crazy with the phone. No glitches and the performance is smooth. My Galaxy S7 worked great too. Using Nova Launcher on both. I don't game.

Camera: I'm a little disappointed with the camera. I will say that I can be happy with it, but I will say that in pure auto mode, the S7 does a slight bit better in low-light indoors. Outside is fine, and wide screen is great. I just used auto so far, no video, and only played around a bit.

Speakers: the speaker on the S7 was a bit louder than the V30. I don't use headphones or buds often, and in Canada, our device does not come with headphones (no 2 year warranty, fancy gift cards or VR headsets, etc.) Carriers here suck.

Accessories:
Screen protector - finding screen protectors that I will like is going to be a challenge. I tried the Moko glass protector I got on Amazon and it was horrible. I have never ever found a glass protector for the curved glass screens found on the S7 and V30 that I liked. I hate the halo effect, and I hate the dot matrix on many. My preference is to use PET hard plastic protectors for these phones with curved glass edges, and I'm having a hard time finding one. Spigen makes an incredible one for the S7, they are not making it for the V30. I have some coming off of eBay. I'll follow up in an appropriate screen protector thread, but be warned about screen protection.

Case - using the Spigen Neo Hybrid gunmetal on my grey V30. Looks great, feels great. Recommended highly.

Cables - I have a bunch of new USB 3.0 to USB c cables (with the resistor) from Anker and Aukey. This is my first phone with a power connector that is reversible which I love. I'll have to be careful that my wife does not try to use the wrong cables in the wrong port.

This is it. Loving having a large screen again. I would probably have bought a S8+ flat if it were available, but I'm having no regrets after 24 hours on the V30.

The camera on the S7 has an advantage because of the dual pixel technology, it can focus much faster and can handle low light much better. But the V30 has a full 16MP compared to the 12MP on the S7, real world cases it doesn't matter but if you zoom in or view it on a very large display then you can see the difference due to resolution size.

Finding a glass screen protector that will work good is impossible, curved screens are too difficult to install glass protectors on.

About the knock to wake feature, you can just double tap the notification bar on any screen and it would work.

 

[PlaysWithCars]

Another S7 convert here! I needed/wanted a new device for a few reasons:

1. Battery life was horrid on the S7 even after resetting it
2. I wanted a slightly bigger screen
3. Android Auto was lagging badly / overall sluggish performance

However, the S8 was out of the question. I'm a little OCD, and putting the fingerprint reader right next to the camera lens makes me twitch just THINKING about it. I also hate the curved screen.

My wants/needs for its replacement:

1. Wireless charging was a must for me - it's just too convenient to plop it in the cradle at night (and the time varies, so scheduling doesn't work for me), and let Trigger engage DND mode, kill the AOD, and shut off bluetooth.
2. I didn't want a device quite this large overall, but I drew a line in the sand of 6" x 3".
3. IP67/68 was also a requirement.
4. screen size of 5.3-5.8" would be ideal.

The decision boiled down to basically 2 devices - The V30 and the iphoneX, oddly enough. But I use the hell out of Waze and couldn't get past the CarPlay restrictions..

All in all - I'm really, really happy. I let Google install all of the same apps as before, kept the same wallpaper, everything, and this sucker flies. With mixed use, I'm at 26 freaking hours and 3.5 hours of SOT, and still at 28%. I would have been overjoyed to make it 17 hours without having to recharge.. I just hope it stays nearly this good.. Hell, even 60-70% of this battery life and I'll be a very happy camper. I don't care what "phone idle" is reporting at, as long as the overall life stays good!

I find the V30's speaker to be slightly louder than the S7, though it's a 'tinnier' sound. Also pretty happy with the camera, though I'd pay an extra $100 to trade that wide-angle camera for a telephoto one. I was hoping for a little better long-range performance like the X and N8 have, as zooming is often what I do with the camera, but still pleased.

The fingerprint reader is "holy crap" fast, and even facial recognition works well as long as there's a fair amount of light around.

Android Auto flies with this thing (like it should), and I've had no issues in the limited use it's gotten so far with my Sony XAV-AX100 head unit.

It's funny - People all over the interwebs gush about this device or that device and then lament the absence of a headphone jack, the placement of the fingerprint reader, bezels, screen only being 1080p, no IP67/68, or the overall size, and never even think of this hidden gem.

It might be the honeymoon period (I got this thing 4 days ago), but I'm almost second-guessing my change to the next "every year" plan, because I can't imagine a 2018 device that will make me want to change away from the V30. I suppose 6-8GB RAM, a fingerprint reader under the glass, and better telephoto camera performance would sway me, but I'm damn happy for now!

 

[Eggmundo]

Another S7 convert here! I needed/wanted a new device for a few reasons:

1. Battery life was horrid on the S7 even after resetting it
2. I wanted a slightly bigger screen
3. Android Auto was lagging badly / overall sluggish performance

However, the S8 was out of the question. I'm a little OCD, and putting the fingerprint reader right next to the camera lens makes me twitch just THINKING about it. I also hate the curved screen.

My wants/needs for its replacement:

1. Wireless charging was a must for me - it's just too convenient to plop it in the cradle at night (and the time varies, so scheduling doesn't work for me), and let Trigger engage DND mode, kill the AOD, and shut off bluetooth.
2. I didn't want a device quite this large overall, but I drew a line in the sand of 6" x 3".
3. IP67/68 was also a requirement.
4. screen size of 5.3-5.8" would be ideal.

The decision boiled down to basically 2 devices - The V30 and the iphoneX, oddly enough. But I use the hell out of Waze and couldn't get past the CarPlay restrictions..

All in all - I'm really, really happy. I let Google install all of the same apps as before, kept the same wallpaper, everything, and this sucker flies. With mixed use, I'm at 26 freaking hours and 3.5 hours of SOT, and still at 28%. I would have been overjoyed to make it 17 hours without having to recharge.. I just hope it stays nearly this good.. Hell, even 60-70% of this battery life and I'll be a very happy camper. I don't care what "phone idle" is reporting at, as long as the overall life stays good!

I find the V30's speaker to be slightly louder than the S7, though it's a 'tinnier' sound. Also pretty happy with the camera, though I'd pay an extra $100 to trade that wide-angle camera for a telephoto one. I was hoping for a little better long-range performance like the X and N8 have, as zooming is often what I do with the camera, but still pleased.

The fingerprint reader is "holy crap" fast, and even facial recognition works well as long as there's a fair amount of light around.

Android Auto flies with this thing (like it should), and I've had no issues in the limited use it's gotten so far with my Sony XAV-AX100 head unit.

It's funny - People all over the interwebs gush about this device or that device and then lament the absence of a headphone jack, the placement of the fingerprint reader, bezels, screen only being 1080p, no IP67/68, or the overall size, and never even think of this hidden gem.

It might be the honeymoon period (I got this thing 4 days ago), but I'm almost second-guessing my change to the next "every year" plan, because I can't imagine a 2018 device that will make me want to change away from the V30. I suppose 6-8GB RAM, a fingerprint reader under the glass, and better telephoto camera performance would sway me, but I'm damn happy for now!

Thank you for your post, I found it most helpful.

I'm due to upgrade and the V30 is in my top two right now. How is the build quality? I've read a couple people saying the buttons and finger print scanner are a bit loose and wobbly, can you comment please?

Is an LG phone good and reliable in terms of software and security updates and overall performance over a two year contract?

 

[ffejjj]

Thank you for your post, I found it most helpful.

I'm due to upgrade and the V30 is in my top two right now. How is the build quality? I've read a couple people saying the buttons and finger print scanner are a bit loose and wobbly, can you comment please?

Is an LG phone good and reliable in terms of software and security updates and overall performance over a two year contract?

Build quality is excellent. I also bought a slim case, the Lumion Huey case and the volume buttons are very clicky. Very satisfying to press.

 

[DFranch]

Thank you for your post, I found it most helpful.

I'm due to upgrade and the V30 is in my top two right now. How is the build quality? I've read a couple people saying the buttons and finger print scanner are a bit loose and wobbly, can you comment please?

Is an LG phone good and reliable in terms of software and security updates and overall performance over a two year contract?

No issues with the buttons for me. The fingerprint scanner is actually the power button, so it is supposed to push in. Might seem weird if you are expecting it to be stationary.

 

[chriskwarren]

Buttons are fine. Build quality is good.

My S7 that I gave to my wife died last night. Thats two S7s that have died in about a month here. Three weeks warranty left on it thankfully.

I'm having an issue with LTE on the V30 now though. I'm still trying to make sure that I didn't do anything or my SIM card is bad, etc. but after talking to a Bell tech today on the phone it looks like they will be asking for me to exchange.

Basically my LTE reception drops out constantly...goes from 3-4 bars to 0-1 a lot, at home and at work (really bad at work). My home and work is over 30kms away, and I had great reception until about a week ago. Every LTE device I have had since the Note 2 has had great reception in the areas my V30 is struggling with now. Did a reset network settings and a full factory reset, had some helpful guys over on XDA who know what they are doing and know my carrier and coverage help me out, and not getting anywhere. Think its a bum radio.

 

[chriskwarren]

Tried a new SIM card and still getting horrible LTE reception (fluctuates between 1 and 4-5 bars in places that I have traditionally gotten 4-5 bars consistently for years).

My carrier gave me a bit of grief, but has decided to do an exchange and not a warranty thing, but I'll have to be without my phone for almost a month. Brutal. I have not had much luck with LG phones and being an early adopter (I had to exchange my G4 a few times due to screen defects).

 

[Thegreatone3]

I came from the S8. Some things I miss:
- Samsung's peerless display quality
- Edge panels
- Far more elaborate Theme store
- LED light for notifications
- Charging percentage indicator while charging (not just time remaining)
- Samsung Pay
- Power button placement (and press home to wake)

And some things I love about the V30:
- Quick Charge 3.0 and USB PD
- Wide angle camera
- Fingerprint sensor location
- Quad DAC audio quality
- Camera/video options

I'm enjoying the V30, but will probably return to Samsung for my next upgrade.