lg v60 lcd screen replacement free sample

When your LG V60 THINQ 5G gets broken, a casual wizard won’t draw a fresh new device from his magic hat. You have to choose: you can either buy a new LG V60 THINQ 5G, or you can hand your limping device to professionals in high-quality repair services.

Using our LG V60 THINQ 5G repair service, you’ll save time and even money, as our professionals won’t accidentally damage your treasured gadget. What’s better, our technicians will always indicate other probable issues with your LG V60 THINQ 5G that you may not have noticed yet.

So what should you do if the screen on your LG is broken? You may even think you don’t want your phone anymore, but trust us, that is not what experts recommend, when replacement parts like this one, are at your reach.

Our team recommends that you try the LG Screen Replacement and not jump into wasting money by buying a new phone. Specially when it"s an issue that can be fixed very easy.

LG Dual Screen™ for LG V60 ThinQ™ gives multitaskers everything they need to see more – and do more – at once. Designed to work perfectly with your existing display, just pop your V60 ThinQ™ into the LG Dual Screen™ case and you"ll get second 6.8" edge-to-edge OLED FHD display that makes multitasking a snap.

Now, with the dual screen in place, you can respond to email on one screen while watching a movie on another, text your friends while also surfing the web, or just get a larger view of your favorite games or see more of your spreadsheet. And you can even use the detachable screen as one part screen, one part LG Smart keyboard.

Along with giving you more space to see everything you"re working on, because the LG V60 ThinQ™ case comes with a free-stop hinge that you can lock in place at any angle, you can easily use it as a stand, tent or in full 360° flip mode to meet all your multitasking needs. And you can close your dual display entirely and still get at-a-glance notifications.

The LG Dual Screen™ gives you everything you need to multitask like a pro, but if you want even more from your device, check out our V60 accessories, including our newest LG TONE Bluetooth earphones/headsets, LG wireless speakers, and more.

The LG V60 ThinQ 5G is packed with power and features. Built around Qualcomm’s top-end chipset Snapdragon 865, it comes with 8GB of RAM, a 6.8-inch FHD+ P-OLED display, and an overall feature set that pitches it firmly against flagship devices from the competition. It’s also compatible with LG’s Dual Screen accessory that turns the phone into a mini-tablet and allows for easier multi-tasking.

In video mode, the V60 ThinQ 5G is capable of recording 8K footage at 30 frames per second, but its 4K mode offers the best compromise in terms of image quality.

Achieving an overall DXOMARK Camera score of 100, the LG V60 ThinQ 5G doesn’t quite compete with the current flagships from brands like Huawei, Samsung, and Apple, but instead performs on a level similar to slightly older models like the Samsung Galaxy S9+, or mid-rangers like the new version of the iPhone SE or the Google Pixel 3a.

The LG’s texture/noise trade-off is below the level of some other flagship devices, and the lack of a dedicated tele-lens means the LG is at a disadvantage when zooming. On the upside, images show good dynamic range, which makes the V60 ThinQ 5G suitable for shooting in high-contrast conditions, and the ultra-wide camera offers a wider field of view than many rivals.

The LG’s auto exposure system generally does a good job. Target exposure, including on faces, tends to be good, and in challenging high-contrast scenes, the camera is capable of maintaining detail in both highlight and shadow areas of the frame. This is true for shooting in bright outdoor light and indoor lighting alike. A lack of contrast can sometimes be visible in darker portions of the image, though.

The V60 ThinQ produces colors that are nice to look at most of the time. Color rendering is pleasant and the auto white balance system works accurately. Our testers observed some slight white balance instabilities and casts only under indoor lighting. Color is well tuned overall on the LG camera.

As you can see in the graph below, the LG V60 ThinQ camera is capable of capturing good detail and fine textures across all light conditions. It’s not quite among the very best but compares well against the iPhone 11, the OnePlus 8 Pro, and the Asus ZenFone 6 that we picked as references for this review.

The measurements coincide with the real-life samples below. The LG does a good job at resolving fine detail in the distant brickwork and foliage, but there’s also a little bit of oversharpening. The differences among the reference devices are small, but the Apple looks slightly softer while the OnePlus detail rendering is very similar to the LG’s.

Things start to look more negative when looking at noise, however. Luminance noise is visible on V60 images in all light conditions, including in bright light, where fine noise is visible in high-contrast scenes and often in the sky portion of the frame. In the comparison graph below you can see that the LG’s measured noise levels are higher than the competition’s at pretty much all light levels.

The measurements translate directly into real-life images. Fairly strong luminance noise is evident in the shot below, but thankfully chroma noise is well under control. Noise levels on the iPhone 11 are very similar for this scene, but the OnePlus is capable of producing a visibly cleaner image. Overall, the LG records acceptable levels of detail, but noise is noticeably higher than on most flagship rivals, which means that the V60 lags behind the best in class in terms of texture/noise trade-off.

The LG’s autofocus performance can be summed up as “accurate but slow.” In our lab tests, the AF consistently achieves high acutance values and therefore sharp images, but there is a noticeably delay of 200 to 300 milliseconds between trigger and capture, even in bright light. Most direct rivals are quicker, and thanks to buffering technology, some even record images pretty much instantly. This said, in absolute terms the delay on the V60 is still fairly minor and isn’t much of an issue in real-life use.

In terms of artifacts, the LG’s main problem is a loss of sharpness toward the corners of the frame. As you can see in the image and crop below, the effect is quite noticeable. This is not the only artifact our testers found, though. The V60 ThinQ 5G is also prone to ringing along high-contrast edges and to flare. Other artifacts include color fringing and distortion.

On paper, the LG V60 ThinQ comes with a 12mm ultra-wide camera. However, we measured a field of view equivalent to a 14.5mm lens on 35mm format. This discrepancy is not unusual, though, and is probably due to distortion correction. Still, the LG offers one of the wider fields of view in the business, making it a great tool for shooting in confined spaces or for creating that typical ultra-wide look. The Apple and OnePlus devices used for comparison offer similar wideness to the LG, but many rivals’ ultra-wides are more narrow at 16 or even 18mm 35mm-equivalent focal length.

The LG V60 ThinQ 5G doesn’t feature a dedicated tele-camera, so predictably the quality of zoom shots isn’t among the best we have seen. This said, for a camera that has to make do without a tele-module, the LG does remarkably well when zooming. Results at close range (2x magnification) are pretty much on the same level as devices featuring a 2x optical tele, and the difference becomes more noticeable only at longer zoom distances where LG’s software solution comes to its limits.

In the comparison below you can see that the V60 captures noticeably better detail at medium zoom range (4x) than the iPhone 11, but cannot keep up with the OnePlus 8 Pro and its 3x optical tele-camera.

In portrait mode the V60 is capable of recording bokeh simulation images with a realistic blur gradient, but there’s room for improvement. Dynamic range is limited, which can result in clipped areas in bright backgrounds, and subject isolation isn’t always reliable. In the sample below you can see that bokeh mode blurred part of the fence that is on the same plane as the subject and should therefore be rendered sharp.

For taking pictures at night or in very low light, the LG V60 shouldn’t necessarily be your first option. While in flash-on mode portrait shots show accurate white balance and good exposure, the level of captured detail is low and images are fairly noisy.

The comparison shots below were captured in flash-auto mode. As you can see, the LG camera overexposes the subject, which results in pretty strong highlight clipping on the face. At the same time, the background is severely underexposed, with almost no detail visible at all. Both the iPhone 11 and the Asus ZenFone 6 manage better-exposed subjects but still capture very dark backgrounds. The best devices in this category are capable of achieving good subject exposure and show a lot more detail in the background.

Achieving a Video of score of 93, overall video quality on the LG V60 ThinQ 5G is firmly middle of the pack. Tested at 4K/30fps settings, target exposure is mostly accurate in bright outdoor conditions and under typical indoor lighting, but drops off pretty quickly in low light, resulting in underexposed footage. Dynamic range is also limited, which means recording in high-contrast conditions is best avoided as it will almost certainly result in clipped highlights and/or shadows. Our testers also noticed fairly low contrast in some clips.

The LG’s video mode produces overall pretty pleasant colors with accurate white balance in bright light and under indoor illumination. The level of detail is generally low, though, and we also observed some local loss of texture in moving images. Noise is better controlled than for still images but is still sometimes visible in video.

In the lab measurements below you can see that the V60 ThinQ produces lower levels of detail than the OnePlus 8 Pro in almost all conditions, but beats the iPhone 11 from around 20 lux to 600 lux. In terms of noise, it measures higher than the reference devices from around 80 lux and lower.

Given the LG V60 ThinQ 5G’s flagship ambitions, our camera test results are slightly underwhelming. The LG is capable of recording pleasant images in most situations, but its zoom performance is held back by the lack of a dedicated tele-lens, and top-tier rivals offer a better-tuned texture/noise balance. The LG’s video performance is very similar to that for stills, in that it delivers very acceptable results without rivaling the best in class.

It’s fair to say that the V60 ThinQ does not display any major shortcomings but lags slightly behind other flagships overall. Anyone who is planning to use the LG V60 ThinQ 5G with its Dual Screen accessory will probably be happy to accept this. However, if camera performance and image and video quality are high up on your list of criteria, better options are available.

LG is planning a major refresh for its next mainstream smartphone, but before getting there, the company decided to release another entry in its spec-heavy V-series, the V60 ThinQ. With advanced manual camera controls, a hi-fi headphone jack, and top-end specs, these phones have always been geared toward tech enthusiasts.

This year, LG is undercutting Samsung’s Galaxy S20 — the Android standard-bearer for 2020 — in price, while still trying to cram a lot of upgrades into the V60. It’s got a Snapdragon 865 processor with 5G connectivity and is capable of shooting 8K video. You can outfit the V60 with a second display (with the optional Dual Screen case) for unrivaled multitasking. Microsoft’s Surface Duo is set to arrive later this year, and it will push the dual-display phone concept forward, but LG is already on its third try with the V60.

But the V60 lacks some of the features that are increasingly common on “flagship” Android devices in 2020. There’s no fluid 90Hz or 120Hz display; LG instead sticks with a traditional, no-frills 60Hz panel. Its bezels are plain to see and thicker than what you’d find on a Samsung or OnePlus. As other high-end devices move up to 12GB of RAM (and beyond), LG is being slightly conservative with 8GB of memory. And despite continued refinement, the Dual Screen accessory never really unlocks its full potential: the big selling point is still that basic, core ability to run different apps side by side at the same time. But LG’s hallmarks — a good camera, blissful headphone audio, and top-notch performance — are still represented in the V60. Pricing is a little scattered, with the phone itself costing $800 (T-Mobile) or around $900 with the Dual Screen on Verizon and AT&T. Either way, you come in under the S20’s $999 sticker price.

The V60 just does so much (doubly so if you get it with the Dual Screen) that, in a vacuum, it’s hard not to be impressed. The battery life is astounding, and it’s an excellent choice for the type of person who will use every trick this phone has in its arsenal. If that’s not you, there’s ample reason to look at Samsung or OnePlus instead.

Fair warning, though: even people familiar with LG’s past efforts will be taken aback by the V60’s size. This is a big, honking phone. At 6.67 inches tall and 3.06 inches wide, it’s somehow even larger than the Galaxy S20 Ultra and pays absolutely no mind to ergonomics. It’s possible to use the V60 with one hand, but doing so is an ill-advised exercise in finger gymnastics and grip adjustments. The chamfered aluminum rails offer a secure grasp on the phone, which has a flat 6.8-inch screen and sloped glass back. Volume toggles and a non-remappable Google Assistant shortcut button take up the left side, with the power button on the right. The V60 comes with 128GB of storage, but it supports microSD expansion.

At the bottom, you’ll find a speaker (which doubles up with the earpiece for stereo output), USB-C port, and a headphone jack, which still includes LG’s excellent 32-bit DAC for audiophile-grade music playback — if you’ve got the right headphones to get the most from it. LG gets my praise both for keeping the jack around and delivering a listening experience that can rival dedicated hi-fi audio players. Listening to hi-res tracks in Amazon Music HD with my Sennheiser headphones made me appreciate LG’s quest to preserve the headphone jack even when everyone else has moved on.

The V60 comes in either white (with silver edges) or navy blue, which has a gold frame. To me, there’s no debate to be had: the blue V60 is a stunner of a phone. The white one, meanwhile, is forgettable. LG uses an in-display optical fingerprint scanner on the V60, and my success rate was mixed, inconsistent, and worse than the readers I’ve used on Samsung and OnePlus phones. This is one of those cases where I miss the old, more reliable rear fingerprint sensors. (The V60 doesn’t have an equivalent to Face ID like the G8 ThinQ did.)

The V60’s display is a nice 2460 x 1080 OLED panel with a tiny teardrop notch that houses the front-facing camera. As I mentioned earlier, LG hasn’t managed to shave away bezels to the same extent as other companies. Some will find the black borders ugly; others will be thankful to avoid accidental presses — an occasional frustration that affects curved screens with barely there bezels. Brightness, color vibrancy, contrast, and viewing angles are all perfectly satisfactory, if a rung or two below Samsung’s best phone displays.

But the lack of a buttery-smooth 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rate is noticeable and made all the more obvious when you switch between the V60 and something like the Galaxy S20 or Pixel 4 XL. Not everyone will care, and I think LG made this trade-off partially because driving two displays at 90Hz or 1440p would have posed a challenge. Still, I wish the option existed at least for the main phone. To me, this is the V60’s most glaring downside when compared against its 2020 competition. It offers a ton of power, but it feels held back — like it didn’t quite get the whole upgrade checklist — by the same-as-ever scrolling.

So the screen is a bit of a letdown, but there’s some good in all of this. Limiting the display to 60Hz and a modest resolution, combined with a massive 5,000mAh battery, helps the V60 achieve fantastic battery life. I’ve been able to keep the V60 running well into and through a second day of frequent use. This stamina only applies when using the phone by itself, however, since enabling the Dual Screen case will curtail battery longevity by 20 to 30 percent.

Throughout my review period, the Snapdragon 865 chipset has performed flawlessly, with the V60 chewing through any task I threw at it. Wi-Fi 6 is supported, and the V60 can pull down 5G data on T-Mobile and AT&T, though only Verizon is selling a version that works with ultra-fast (but very limited) millimeter-wave 5G.

Note that LG’s carrier partners — in this case Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile — have their own privacy policies and will sometimes request location access or permission to store data on your device for their various services

Like the G8x, the V60’s Dual Screen connects over USB-C. There’s a little magnetic adapter that attaches to the bottom of the case if you want to plug in for charging while it’s on, though fast wireless charging is the more convenient option in that scenario. The secondary screen is an exact match for the primary display, with the same resolution and even the notch cutout. (It’s literally the same panel part, which LG says helps cut costs and preserve color uniformity.)

The most common use case for the Dual Screen is the simplest: two apps at once. This thing is the ultimate Zoom phone, let me tell you. You can chat with your colleagues over Zoom on one screen and look at cute pets on Instagram with the other. Want to browse Twitter while watching Netflix, YouTube, or Prime Video? Have at it. Once we’re all allowed outside again, I know the V60 will make it easy to keep an eye on my Uber or Lyft while writing an email at the same time. And this makes for an easy way of listening to music on YouTube while doing something else on the primary display. It’s all admittedly superfluous, but I still found myself really liking the flexibility at times.

LG optimizes some of its own apps for Dual Screen. When you take a shot with the camera and tap to see the photo, it pops up on the secondary display, so the camera app stays open and ready for more snaps. You can use the V60 like a mini laptop or portable game console with the entire bottom display serving as a keyboard or gamepad. You can also stretch a small number of apps (including some from Google like Maps, Gmail, and Chrome) across both screens at once, but I never found this very useful. The gap in the middle is too hard to ignore. LG, now on its third Dual Screen release, hasn’t made much progress and is leaving Microsoft a big opening to come in and show everyone what an Android device with two displays can really be. But remember that you can always just detach the chunky, heavy Dual Screen case when you don’t need those multitasking powers. Points for versatility, I suppose.

The rear dual-camera system delivers good results, with the main 64MP sensor (pixel binned down to 16MP) is able to capture a lot of dynamic range and detail. LG kicked off the ultra-wide trend, so that’s what the second 13MP camera is for. As is the norm, it’s a bit softer than the primary one. The third “lens” is just a time-of-flight sensor for depth data, so the V60 doesn’t have any kind of portrait or optical zoom lens in its repertoire. But I was very pleased with the color processing, pleasant depth-of-field, and overall output from LG’s camera. The company is using a larger sensor this year, which explains some of those improvements. If the V60 has one weakness, it’s night mode, which doesn’t meet the bar that Apple, Google, and Huawei have set. Video recording is also solid — LG gives you more manual control over settings and bit rate than most Android phones — though 8K is just silly overkill at the moment. You can’t even edit 8K footage on-device, so what does that tell you? Stick with 4K or 1080p and the V60 still excels, second only to Apple in video quality.

You can always count on LG to toss in one very strange camera feature, and this time, it’s 3D photos. If you’ve ever seen one of these on Facebook, you know what to expect. You snap a shot, and the V60 uses depth information to create the illusion that the focused-on object is shifting around as you move your phone. I took like two of these and then ignored 3D photos altogether. A nicer, more important touch about the camera is that, in most lighting conditions, the viewfinder is displayed at 60fps. It doesn’t really add any benefit, but now that I’ve had a taste, I want that smoothness from the camera on every other phone.

LG’s software remains a messy mixed bag. Some of it is good, like the excellent camera app, which has all of the manual controls you could want and helpful tools like focus peaking. The audio recorder app is also best in class. I even had a good experience with LG Pay (I just happened to have one of the few cards that’s currently supported), which can trick payment terminals into thinking you swiped a real credit card with a magnetic stripe — just like Samsung Pay.

Other corners of the software experience feel like they’ve been abandoned. The icons and general appearance feel dated (even after a recent refresh). And somehow, still, in the year 2020, LG’s app launcher cannot keep apps organized alphabetically. Every time you install a new app or game, you’ve got to sort the list again. Come on. Switching to a third-party launcher means losing out on Android 10’s gesture navigation, and none of them are optimized for the secondary display. The awkward software decisions extend to the Dual Screen, which is treated like its own home screen, which makes total sense, but it also gets its own app drawer instead of just mirroring the main phone’s, which makes no sense at all.

And then there’s the bloatware. LG is not selling an unlocked version of the V60 in the US, so you’re at the mercy of Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile — and it’s not pretty. After setting up the phone, you’ll find at least five or six games you don’t want and a handful of carrier apps that you can’t fully uninstall. The Verizon V60 constantly presented me with a “helpful” device health notification that encouraged me to restart the phone and clear its memory cache. These are unnecessary, annoying distractions that people really don’t need to worry about.

One of the most under-the-radar perks of the V60 is proper stylus support. If you buy a Wacom pen, you’ll get Galaxy Note-like pressure sensitivity for drawing. There’s an optional slide-in shortcuts bar where you can quickly start writing a new memo, annotate whatever’s on your screen, and access other tricks. LG doesn’t have its own stylus like Samsung’s S-Pen or a slot to carry one in, but what’s here is pretty useful and, again, speaks to the V60’s versatility.

It should say everything about the V60 being a jack-of-all-trades that I’m ending on stylus support. This phone gives you a ton for $800 — even if you go without the Dual Screen. It’s a blazing performer, battery life might be the best for any phone in 2020 so far, and it’s got terrific headphone audio. But I really wish LG had done more with the giant display. I can put up with the bezels just fine, but high-refresh screens are already becoming table stakes at this price in the Android world. If I’m sacrificing comfort and ergonomics, the display had better be incredible. And I’m willing to pay a couple extra hundred bucks for it.

The LG V60 is the best V series phone to reach the market in years. This too-huge phone has unbeatable battery life, a refreshed design, a flexible camera arrangement, and a headphone jack. Despite these strengths, competing phones best it in camera quality, display quality, and software experience. The V60"s ace up the sleeve is its price, which is hundreds less than the competition.

This device is no longer widely available. The LG V60 ThinQ is now unavailable to buy from most retailers. If you are looking for an alternative device, check out our list of the best Android phones you can buy and the best camera phones.

LG seemed to embrace the mantra “go big or go home.” The LG V60 ThinQ 5G is not only physically enormous, but it also represented a big gamble for LG in the face of stiff competition from Samsung and others. The V60 also marked the third phone from LG to feature an optional second display that transforms the phone into something akin to a foldable. Further, LG sought to make a stand on pricing by undercutting other flagships by hundreds of dollars. The result? A new phone that clung to old ideas while still moving the bar — even if just a little.

Why else was it a “go big or go home phone?” Well, LG actually went home after its release. The LG V60 is the last phone in LG’s flagship series, as the company has decided to pull the plug on its loss-making smartphone division. Did it go out with a bang, and is it still worth buying? Find out in the Android Authority LG V60 review.

About thisreview: I used the V60 over a period of seven days. The phone was running Android 10 with LG"s user interface and the February 2020 security patch. The phone did not receive any updates during the review period. LG provided the LG V60 unit for this review.

LG recycled its conservative designs for several years. The G7 and G8, and the V40 and V50, for example, were nearly identical devices year over year. Thankfully, LG made some welcome updates to its design language for its 2020 flagship. While the V60 does carry over many basic hardware elements from its predecessors, it is at the very least wearing some new clothes.

The V60 comes in two colorways: white and blue. Where the white model has silver accents, the blue variant has copper accents. Both are improvements over the solid black/blue of the V40 and V50. The blue and copper model, in particular, has a handsome look to it that provides some personality. Sometimes a little personality goes a long way.

LG went with the glass sandwich approach. The front and rear panels are solid glass, and are separated by a metal frame. On our white review unit, the metal is bare and features a polished chamfer that catches the light. It’s a little Phone Design 2016, but I think it is elegant in its simplicity. The white glass is multi-hued and has a bluish, wintry cast to it. I have no reservations about the quality of the materials or the manner in which they are assembled. It’s a high-quality piece of hardware.

I hope you like big phones, because the LG V60 is absolutely gargantuan. It’s noticeably taller and wider than the already-too-large Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. There is a saving grace here: the V60 weighs 6g less than the weighty S20 Ultra, and this is obvious when you hold them side by side. It may not be much, but it’s something. Otherwise, the V60 is a handful. When inserted into the Dual Screen accessory, the V60 borders on mini laptop size. Unwieldy is a word I would use to describe it.

Taking a quick spin around the hardware, the V60 covers the basics and then some. The front glass is almost perfectly flat and features only the slightest curve where it tucks into the metal frame. The rear glass is much more rounded along the edges. You’ve got separate volume buttons on the left edge, as well as a dedicated Google Assistant button. The screen lock / power key is on the right edge. All four keys offer perfect travel and feedback. The combo SIM / microSD card tray is on top, and the USB-C port, 3.5mm headphone jack, and downward-firing speaker are all positioned on the bottom edge.

If there’s one final thing about the hardware that I appreciate, it is the camera module. Rather than paste a big ugly square onto the rear panel, LG kept its horizontal line of lenses running from side-to-side. Where the cameras were flush on the V40 and V50, the module is raised slightly on the V60. It comes across as far more tasteful and elegant than blemishes on the backs of many of its rivals.

Unlike its competitors, the V60’s display doesn’t adopt any fancy new technology. You won’t find a high refresh rate, nor even Quad HD resolution. Nay, the V60’s 6.8-inch pOLED carries forward Full HD+ resolution at 2,460 by 1,080 pixels for a 20.5:9 aspect ratio. Pixel density is just 395ppi, which is decidedly lower than the ~540ppi of the S20 series. The standard refresh rate surprises me more so than the resolution. With Google, OnePlus, Samsung, and other manufacturers adopting 90Hz and 120Hz panels, the V60’s 60Hz screen comes across as rather stiff. That said, it’s still a fine screen.

LG has always made good screens and I have no real complaints about the V60’s panel. (Okay, except for the bezels.) The pixels are large enough that individual pixels remain hidden even upon close inspection. Color accuracy looks goods, meaning whites look white and colors appear rich. There’s only the slightest blue shift when you tilt the phone at an angle.

LG claims that the screen pumps out 500nits when it comes to brightness. It is certainly bright enough to use outdoors under a sunny sky. The S20’s screen, however, looks more brilliant when the two are held next to one another.

Oddly, LG went with a teardrop notch to make room for the selfie camera. Notches have become an outdated design choice and I’d have much preferred to see a punch hole cutout for the camera. Moreover, LG’s New Second Screen software, which allows you to customize the background colors of the notification bar (and thus erase the notch) doesn’t work when the phone is set to Dark Mode. This befuddling choice means the notch is always visible in Dark Mode. C’mon LG.

The display panel of the Dual Screen is identical to the main screen. LG went with the same size, resolution, and aspect ratio to keep the experience consistent across the two. It even retains the notch, even though there’s no camera on the Dual Screen (what the what?). Importantly, the color balance is the same. It wasn’t on older versions of the Dual Screen, which means whites didn’t match. This time around, they do. That’s a good thing.

As is expected of a 2020 flagship, the LG V60 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor with 8GB of RAM. That’s less memory than the S20 Ultra, but on par with many other flagships in the space released at that time. As far as everyday use is concerned, the phone feels speedy and powerful. It blasts through tasks with ease and never felt bogged down or slow. As far as benchmarks go, I found the results to be a bit curious. For example, it handily bested the S20 Ultra in GeekBench, but fell behind on 3DMark. The V60 matched the S20’s GFXBench scores. Bottom line here is that I don’t think you’re going to run into any performance problems.

LG prioritized battery life, and it shows. The 5,000mAh power cell inside delivers outstanding battery life. Daily screen-on time easily surpassed five hours across a week, and even reached eight hours over two full days. Our Speed Test G battery torture test, which simulates how the phone handles maximum processor output with the screen set to 200nits, also showed five hours of battery life. That bests the S20 Ultra by about 10 minutes. In my time with the phone, I never ran into battery life issues. In fact, the battery may be the V60’s best feature.

By itself, the Dual Screen almost looks like a phone. Black glass covers the front, though the glass is not an actual display. A narrow monochrome window near the top shows the time, weather, and notifications. The glass is encased in a soft-touch plastic frame. You need to slot the phone into the case vertically to mate with the USB-C connector inside the case, then press the phone in firmly. A slim cutout on the rear allows the camera array to peek through. The actual second display is found inside.

The hinge moves a fluid 360-degrees, allowing the Dual Screen to wrap all the way around. The Dual Screen has no problem supporting itself, allowing the V60 to sit like a laptop or stand like a tent. You’ll find plastic nubs on the left side that let you activate the volume and Assistant controls, while large cutouts along the bottom allow you to connect headphones and to hear the speaker. The right side of the phone is exposed.

The phone’s USB-C port is inaccessible when in the Dual Screen. Instead, LG installed a MagSafe-like magnetic connector to the outside of the case. An adapter included with the Dual Screen goes on the end of the USB-C charging cable and attaches to the bottom of the case magnetically for charging. This is a terrible solution. Surely many will lose the adapter. USB-C pass-through makes more sense to us. Thank goodness the phone can charge wirelessly when wearing the Dual Screen.

Together, the V60 and Dual Screen weigh an incredible 351g — more than three-quarters of a pound. The combined package is significantly bulkier and heavier than just about any phone I’ve ever used. It’s truly annoying to carry around in your pocket. This is not for your tight jeans. In fact, it’s so cumbersome that I worry many people will forego the Dual Screen for the sake of usability.

The Dual Screen is controlled by a floating widget on the home screen. Tap it to access the various Dual Screen functions. You can also turn the second screen on via Quick Settings.

By default, the Dual Screen acts as a separate home screen with its own app dock at the bottom. You can open any app on the second screen no matter what you’re doing with the main screen. You can also: choose a default app to launch whenever the Dual Screen is toggled on; push the home screen over to the Dual Screen; put the main screen to sleep; or swap screens.

A few more options become available inside applications. For example, you can open the wide view, which stretches an app across both screens. Keep in mind, the hinge separates the screens by half an inch and it’s rather ugly running down the middle of your app. Moreover, not all apps support this view. Thankfully LG has improved the list over time and basic Google apps (Chrome, Gmail, Maps, Photos, YouTube) are supported. Most other apps don’t support wide view, which is a major bummer.

Here’s the worst part. Only one app runs at a time on the Dual Screen. And you cannot drag-and-drop an app (or content from an app) on one screen to an app the other. This pales in comparison to true foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold series which can run up to three apps at a time, and allows you to move content back and forth.

LG installed a Game Launcher app that serves as a home for your games. Here, you can use the LG Game Pad when playing supported games. The main screen turns into a controller to manage the action on the second screen. What’s more, you can fully customize the game pad and even create your own.

In my time testing the phone, I found the biggest benefit of the Dual Screen was to simply have two full-screen apps side-by-side. I could run Slack on one and browse the web in the other.

Bottom line, the V60 doesn’t quite do what I wanted or hoped it would, which is to open up and give me a larger, single space on which to play and create. Instead, it provides two separate spaces that won’t interact with one another.

If there’s one feature flagship phones need to excel at, it’s the camera. Competition between Apple, Google, Huawei, LG, and Samsung is fierce when it comes to imaging. “Just okay” isn’t good enough for flagship buyers. The V60 doesn’t quite match its competitors, but it comes closer than ever.

LG made an interesting change this year. The V series has traditionally supported the ultra-wide, regular, and telephoto configuration. The V60, however, drops the optical telephoto lens and instead relies on digital zooming in the main sensor.

The V60’s main sensor captures 64MP images at f/1.8. The pixel size is 0.8 microns, and the camera offers a 78-degree field of view. This sensor bins down to 16MP. LG says it supports zoom from 2x to 10x. The ultra-wide camera has a 13MP sensor at f/1.9 with 1-micron pixels and a 117-degree FoV. The delta between the main sensor and ultra-wide is enormous, as you’ll notice when you zoom in and out while using the camera. These are both assisted by a time-of-flight sensor, which generates depth information.

Pictures I took with the LG V60 look fine, but not exceptional. White balance was almost always accurate, but exposure was inconsistent. The phone struggled when using HDR. In the monument shots you can see that the tree is overexposed while much of the detail in the cubby is lost to darkness. I was hoping for better. I also noticed a lot of sharpening applied to images, which leads to a slightly noisy appearance. Shots of people look solid, for the most part. Bokeh in portrait shots is decent, with sharp relief between the subject and background.

As much as I like ultra-wide cameras, I was a bit let down with the V60’s results. The 117-degree FoV leads to highly visible optical distortion. I expected to see some, but it’s a too strong an effect in some photos. Zoom works fairly well. Remember, there’s no optical zoom here; it’s all managed via software digital crop. The high-resolution sensor helps keep photos fairly detailed and sharp as you zoom in, but you can see some noise in the zoomed shots.

On the video front, the V60 is able to record 8K video at 24fps. LG says the frames per second may actually run 25 or 26, but this is to ensure that the average is 24. Without an 8K TV or monitor, we have no way to assess just how good the quality is. The 4K 60fps footage I shot, on the other hand, looks excellent.

Now hear this: LG continues to be one of the best phone makers when it comes to audio. We have to give LG some applause for keeping the 3.5mm headphone jack available on its phones. This alone may make LG worth considering. But LG takes it a step further. The V60 carries over the quad DAC we’ve come to love for processing audio and the result is superior sound when it comes to media playback. Then there’s audio capture. The V60 has four mics that manage to record crystal clear sound. One feature we really appreciate: The audio can effectively “zoom” along with the lens when you are shooting video, meaning the sound centers on your subject. The results are palpable. LG handily bests the competition as far as audio is concerned.

Stereo speakers are often hit or miss on flagships, but LG knocked them out of the park. Combining the output from the earpiece and bottom-firing speaker, the V60 delivers crisp, punchy sound that you can crank way up. It’s the best-sounding phone I’ve heard this year.

LG Pay: With an NFC radio no board, the LG V60 ships with LG Pay out of the box. This is LG’s mobile payment service, which competes with Android Pay and Samsung Pay. We’re calling it out because LG was much slower to roll it out than its competitors and it’s now here. You’ll have to create an LG account (if you don’t already have one) and of course add a debit or credit card. Once you do, you can take advantage of tap-to-pay mobile transactions. LG Pay also works on the web.

5G: LG lent us a T-Mobile variant of the V60 and it supports T-Mobile’s 5G network. We were able to take the phone out and test it on T-Mobile’s sub-6GHz 5G network and came away impressed. T-Mobile’s 5G footprint is pretty solid in the metro NYC area and delivered download speeds in excess of 150Mbps.

UX: LG has cleaned up its Android user interface, but it’s still not the best one out there. The newer fonts and graphical elements come across as outdated and inelegant. I wish the pre-loaded themes and wallpapers were better. It does offer plenty of room for customization. The V60 is running Android 10 and has the February security patch installed, but can be upgraded to Android 11 via an OTA update.

There were plenty of concerns about long-term support after LG announced it would be exiting the smartphone business, it later clarified that many of its premium devices will receive three years of updates. The V60 is included in that list, meaning it should be eligible for Android 13 as its final upgrade. That’s really great and will prolong the phone’s lifespan significantly.

If you’re looking for a bargain, the LG V60 is still a solid offering, even if the LG Velvet is a little more palatable thanks to its smaller size. Whatever you do, do not pay full price for the LG V60, as it is discounted from its original price point. Amazon is selling it unlocked for as little as $430.

If you value LG’s typical strengths, then the V60 might work for you. LG did a bang-up job with the hardware, audio, and battery life in particular. The V60 also has a beast of a battery. Moreover, the optional Dual Screen does add a measure of functionality, though perhaps not as much as true foldables.

For the not-too-picky buyer, the low price and stellar battery life may be reason enough to jump on the V60. For those seeking that little extra something, the LG V60 ThinQ might leave you wanting.

The LG V60 packs plenty of features you"ve come to expect from the brand, such as water resistance, wireless charging, and a 3.5mm port. But the core experience is good too thanks to a speedy chip, big battery, and good main camera. It does lack a few features you might find on other premium phones though.