LG Velvet 5G Review (2 Weeks Later) By Tomas Villegas

Lg continues to improve the technology in the creation of their devices, while lowering the prices to consumers like you and me, let's go ahead and get into this video by talking about one of the most important parts of any smartphone. In my opinion, the screen, the lg velvet, has a 6.8 inch OLED, full vision display which features a 2460 by 1080 resolution and has a 395 PPI, there's also an optional second identical screen of the same quality and caliber in the dual screen display case that is being sold separately in some instances and is being provided to you in the purchase of it. Depending on your carrier, it is a fantastic looking display that has an in-display fingerprint sensor as well, and I really like that. I don't really care for the second display case. However, it's a great option for those of you that need it, and by adding that second display case to it, the lg velvet becomes a pretty good productivity tool for those of you that are you, know, managing emails and doing things on the go. This thing is a good option, and it's available to you.

If you need it, and if you don't want it, you just don't use it, and that's always been my uh instance of going from the g8x to the lg v60. Those are big phones. I rather just enjoy that one screen, in my one hand, and just roll with it. The edges of the velvet are thin and there's almost a wrap around design on the screen that I quite enjoy, but I will say that is going to become problematic when it comes to installing your own screen protector, because you're going to have this weird cutout in the middle and that's going to be an issue, I can see that already becoming something you know, because I was thinking looking at this device. I was like how do I protect those edges of the wraparound design on the lg velvet? That's staying near impossible.

The surface area of the buttons on this device are really thin, and it took some time for me to get used to it. The volume rocker assistant button and the power sleep wake buttons are really skinny, and it's really weird to touch those. It's just something. I haven't really had a lot of experience with because the back of the lg velvet wraps around as well. It's a really uniform design, and I like it, it just takes some getting used to the velvet- has 128 gigabytes of internal storage out of the box and around 91 gigabytes of that is usable uh, and this is with the ATT variant.

There's a ton of bloatware and pre-installed that cuts heavily into the usable space. You can totally uninstall that stuff and reclaim about eight to ten more gigabytes. If you need it in addition to that, the device has a micro SD card slot that is compatible with micro, SD cards, uh up to two terabytes of storage at the core of the velvet you'll find a Qualcomm snapdragon 765 that provides 5g connectivity to the carriers that provide it. In my usage, I was only able to get ATT's infamous 5ge. Of course your mileage will vary considering who is your service provider and if they offer true 5g connectivity? I've just been unlucky in my use case because the 18t doesn't have like a true 5g radio in my area and in my review I wasn't able to test the actual 5g network.

So again, I wasn't able to see how 5g performs on the velvet- that's just something I just have to disclose to you. I will say, though, that it is nice that 5g is built into this device, as it is an element for future proofing. Your purchase and that's always an added benefit. Other means of connectivity. The velvet doesn't have Wi-Fi six, which is quite a bummer.

In my opinion, it does offer and have Bluetooth, 5.1, so you're going to be able to stay connected easily using your wireless Bluetooth stuff. As far as connecting physical things to the velvet, it gives users the quickly disappearing, 3.5 millimeter, headphone jack, and that's a really nice inclusion on this fairly affordable device. While we're on the topic of sound, that is, this device has a great set of stereo speakers that use lg's proprietary 3d sound engine. To get you some pretty good sounding speakers, if I do say so, myself lg also doesn't disappoint in the sound department because they continue to give users access to their EQ settings that make it possible to adjust sound as you need and want it, because sound is subjective. Moving on to power and keeping the charge on the velvet, the velvet has a single USB type-c port and wireless charging ability.

This device comes packed with Qualcomm's quick charge, 4 plus, which means you can recharge this device rather quickly. If you get the velvet with the dual screen case, you lose that access to the USB type-c port lg gives you a magnetic adapter. So you can keep it in the case and charge it. It's not a direct connection to the device and in my use of the dual screen case on previous lg phones, the charging time isn't affected, and that is true here as well, and if you have the case, you can wirelessly charge the device in it without any issue. While we're on the topic of the dual screen case, it is capable of flipping a full 360 degrees and has a notification display on the front.

Additionally, the dual screen case is the exact same screen, quality and resolution on the actual device itself. It still has a weird hinge from the v60 and the g8x. However, lg did ditch the super, reflective and fingerprint prone front, which is a much welcome change. I really like that, and now I'm not constantly cleaning fingerprints off of this case, I will say to those of you wondering the dual screen case doesn't drag on the battery as much as you would think, but it does have a small amount of impact on longevity and screen on time in my two weeks of use and if I had to guess the dual screen takes about an hour to an hour and a half of screen on time from you, if you were just to use the device alone. So that's something to consider.

I think the dual screen case is a great concept. I just don't like using it because of the device is so big, and it makes it so much bigger. It turns an already big device into a dedicated two-hand device, and I don't like that. I'd love to see a smaller device with this dual screen case, uh, something like the size of the iPhone 11 Pro or something like that. It would be a really nice and welcomed addition.

I think I'd much prefer that over the larger phones with the implementation of such a big case onto the battery there's a 4300 William hour battery that has no problem getting me through a day with about 10 to 20 percent left on a relatively heavy use. It does okay, but the velvet in no way comes close to that of the battery on the v60. If you want to kill the battery on the velvet, you most definitely can. Let's talk about the cameras on the lg velvet, there's a triple camera array on the rear of this device. There's a main 48, megapixel, f, 1.8, wide camera that has 79 degrees of viewable area. There's an 8 megapixel ultra-wide, f 2.2. That gives you 120 degrees of viewable area and finally, there's a 5, megapixel, f 2.4 depth sensor that provides roughly 81 degrees of viewable area. There's also one 16 f, 1.9 standard sensor is a front facing camera that gives you 73 degrees of viewable area. I wish the front facing camera was a bit wider because taking selfies with others can be, you know.

Sometimes it can be problematic if you don't have long arms. So with all that specifications being talked about, let's hop into some camera demos. This is a test of the front facing camera on the lg velvet uh. You can see that it is exposing my face correctly, but the dynamic range is just non-existent. All of this is blown out, there's also some traffic behind me and there's a purpose behind that I'll get to that.

In a moment this is 4k at 30 frames per second, so you can see the video quality there and if I move it, it keeps my face in focus, but all this data is lost. There's just no dynamic range with the front facing camera on this phone. There are three modes to record audio with the lg velvet, one being basic, which is just any phone. Does that there's an ASMR mode which is for focusing on subjects and things like that? Like dripping water or something like that, it's not meant for voices we're going to test that here in a minute and there's a both audio recording mode which actually amplifies the voice sound of a subject. We can hear the traffic behind me because there's a highway, so let's hop into the ASMR mode to test that it's not meant for voice over, but I want to see how the sound sounds and give you an example of that, and then we'll do the coca mode, and we'll summarize the front-facing camera.

Okay. So here is ASMR recording again not meant for voice recording, but I want to give it an opportunity to give you a sample of what this sounds like if you're using it to record. You know yourself or vlog or whatever you're doing with your lg velvet. You can see that the front-facing camera does a perfect job when it has a fairly nice roll-off with dynamic range. Uh, the data and everything's uh really well resolved in the background, and you can see details and stuff for the front-facing camera.

I think this is really, really nice, so this is the ASMR recording sample on the lg velvet, let's hop over to the both mode. Okay, so here is the voice both mode, it's a fascinating way of naming it because it does accentuate the voice-over of a person. So if I tap the front facing camera on myself on my face, it should focus in on my voice and kind of cancel out or do a nice job of like negating the traffic sound behind me again. This is just a test of this uh voice, recording mode on the lg velvet, utilizing the front-facing camera of the smartphone um. I think it sounds good in the basic mode, because I've shot a couple videos with this, and I think that is more than sufficient.

But if you wanted to, you know, do something more with it. You can go into these nice modes. That lg provides you here's a test of the rear-facing camera on the lg velvet. This is 30 frames a second, and this is on the main sensor. You cannot switch between the three sensors on in video mode quickly, and I don't really like that.

I hope lg pushes out an update that allows you to do that quickly with the tap as it is set. Now you have to click and drag, so you don't really know how far you're zooming in and if you zoom in the digital zoom like I'll show, you now are really, really bad, and it goes up to eight times in total, but you lose a lot of data because that digital zoom is kind of junky in my opinion, so I would just leave it as it's as it stands. It does a pretty good job at adjusting for dynamic range for the cost of this phone. I think it does a decent job at rendering a nice smooth transition between darker scenes and like lighter scenes, you see how it's exposing it correctly, and it's doing a smooth job at it. Most phones of this price in this price point don't do that great of a job.

So if I go down, let's go over here to a darker area, then we'll pop up really quick to a lighter area. It does a pretty good job of transitioning. At any rate, let me know what you think of this video samples that I provided you from the lg velvet. Is it something that you think is worth it? I think it does a good job for how much this phone costs. Another thing that to note is that you're going to want to know that you cannot change the frame rate in 4k mode on the lg velvet, so you're limited to 30 frames per second in 4k.

So if you want other frame rates, you're going to have to drop to 1080p. One thing I forgot to mention is that, if you're interested in taking a look at full resolution, pictures from all three of the sensors on this smartphone hit the link in the description, that'll direct you to my website, where I uploaded full resolution. Uh pictures from all of this. Oh man, it's hot out here, uh this is the front-facing camera using voice both. So here's another opportunity for you to hear how that sounds and how it performs so at 600 MSRP.

I think the lg velvet is definitely a viable option to those of you out there that don't want to spend too much money um if you're shopping for a mid-tier phone that offers flagship specs. The lg velvet is definitely a strong contender for your money. In my opinion, it's a big phone that has a lot to offer, and it's something you can, should consider if your price range is around there, and before I close, I must disclose lg sent me the velvet for testing and review. So without them. This would not have been possible if you're, interested in pricing and availability that'll be linked in the description, full disclosure with those as well.

Sometimes those are my affiliate links and I make a little of commission based off your purchases through those links without it costing you anything in addition to your purchase, it's just a way for you to support content creation here on this channel. Well, that about does it for me in this one uh. If you enjoyed this video, please feel free to give me a thumbs up. If you didn't, you know what to do. Thank you for taking the time to watch.

I am Tomas, and I will catch you in the next one. Music, licensing, reimagined.

Source : Tomas Villegas