LG V40 ThinQ
While Huawei and Samsung lead the hi-tech charge on Apple for handset domination, “minor” smartphone brands like Sony and LG keep surprising.
Especially in the camera department, both have been able to take advantage of massive research and development budgets that span, respectively, their electronics and appliances businesses.
Now, it’s LG’s turn, briefly to set the smartphone agenda. Ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month, where it is expected to launch the successor to its G7 ThinQ handset, it has sprung a timely surprise on South African users.
The V40 ThinQ is the successor to the V30, which didn’t quite match the magic of the earlier V20+, a delightful device that this column named smartphone of the year in 2017.
The V40 is the first device from a major manufacturer that offers five cameras, with three at the back and two in front. It optimises the photographic process with artificial intelligence (AI), helped along by Google Assistant.
We put the phone through its paces at the launch, but first asked LG SA manager for mobile Deon Prinsloo, what a phone could be doing with five lenses.
Prinsloo said: “We need to understand the configuration of the three lenses. One is a 16 megapixel (Mp), 170 degree super wide-angle lens without any blurring on the edges, so that it can do landscapes a lot clearer, instead of being limited by width.
“The second lens is a standard lens, but with an aperture of F1.5 for very clear, bright pictures. The third is a telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom. It has the ability to capture pictures far out and the images remain perfectly clear.”
One of the coolest functions of the three-lens array is Triple View, which kicks in when the user activates the camera. Focusing on the same object, it applies all three lenses, and shows what it looks like via telephoto, standard and wide angle.
“If you move to the front of the device, you have a standard 8Mp lens and a wide-angle 5Mp,” says Prinsloo. “Now, it’s not only about the selfie, but also the groupfie. The rear cameras have the same bokeh function, with a slider to increase or decrease the blur.
“The display is QHD+ [quad high definition-plus], with the most pixels of any QHD+ phone currently on the market, 40% more than on the V30+, yet not at a premium price. Through a partnership with Vodacom, we are able to bring it to market at a price-point much lower than the V30+.”
The pricing will come as a shock to those who feel compelled to stick to the more dominant brands. It is likely to retail at about R12 500, half the price of the top-of-the-range iPhones that have substantially less advanced functionality.
The V30+ retailed at about R14 500. The new phone is expected to cost about R599 on contract, compared to R679 for the V30+. Vodacom will be bundling it with a second handset, the LG K9, valued at R2 700, on its Flexi 60 package. In short, it’s a ridiculously good phone for its price.
In this sense, it is reminiscent of the Huawei Ascend P6, the 2013 handset that broke Huawei into the high-end market with a device that cost half that of equivalent flagships from big brands.
The big question is how this phone differs from the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and P20 Pro, both of which introduced triple rear cameras at competitive price points last year.
The fundamental difference, it turns out, is not in the hardware, but in the software that manages the lenses.
Rear camera:
Front camera:
Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram on @art2gee
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