LG V30 (Coming Oct 5th, $800)

You interested in the V30?

  • Hell yes!

    Votes: 5 62.5%
  • DERRRRRR.....BOOTLOOP LUL

    Votes: 3 37.5%

  • Total voters
    8
  • Poll closed .
I've owned literally hundreds of devices over the years, including the Moto X which was the first device to have an "ambient display" where it showed information/time/notifications on the display (AMOLED) at various times without the need to actually pick up the device or push any of the buttons on it (IR sensors in the front could detect a hand wave in close proximity if you wanted to trigger active display manually) - of course a lot of devices do that nowadays but the Moto X originated the concept and did it pretty damned well. And with my choice of using LG devices more than any other brand even without "active display" I know a quick double-tap on the display wakes it to show me info and then another double-tap (not really necessary since it'll go back to sleep after 10 seconds anyway) reverts it.

But I don't consider that to be actively using the device as in carried or held in the hand staring at and using an app or watching a video or whatever where I would expect the user to be facing it in that perpendicular manner. I've got a Stylo 2 Plus presently, even still got my BlackBerry Z10 (wakes with a swipe and that's nearly 6 years old nowadays) and I can see both of their displays just fine at an angle in that respect - waking them long enough to see notifications/etc - so I really just have to wonder why the fuss over such issues. Guess it's just me, there's only so nitpicky I consider myself I suppose.

And yes I did own a V10 and a V20 in the recent past with their secondary displays but I disabled those secondary displays for a variety of reasons: not large enough to matter, a double-tap wakes the device and provides more info, waste of battery power basically, and so on. I know the V30 did away with the secondary display and because of the OLED panel in it now they probably have LG's take on "active display" but I haven't cared all that much since I won't be getting a V30. I might go in search of a used V20 again, however, the removable battery aspect still is a highly valuable thing for me and pretty much a requirement (along with the microSD slot which LG has never really not included, thankfully).
 
I just picked up a V30+ yesterday from Sprint. Boy oh boy is this thing snappy.

Yet again, I'm extremely weary about having no removable battery. I know, I know, get over it.

Truth be told though, as soon as Zero Lemon creates an extended battery case, I'll be damn sure to buy one.

Going to use this as a second line for now, I have 29 days to cancel this. Haven't used this too much, but for the most part, it's one hell of an upgrade over my still active G4.
 
I'm still wondering why DxOMark hasn't tested the V30's camera sensor assembly, it's somewhat bewildering and almost like they're delaying it on purpose I'd say. I mean if they had iPhone X and Galaxy Note8 results up so fucking fast upon the release of the devices, what the hell is taking so long with the V30? Are they discriminating in some way against LG nowadays? Did LG do something to piss 'em off, I wonder? o_O
 
I'm still wondering why DxOMark hasn't tested the V30's camera sensor assembly, it's somewhat bewildering and almost like they're delaying it on purpose I'd say. I mean if they had iPhone X and Galaxy Note8 results up so fucking fast upon the release of the devices, what the hell is taking so long with the V30? Are they discriminating in some way against LG nowadays? Did LG do something to piss 'em off, I wonder? o_O

Not sure if this can help, but would you like me to take some camera shots so you can see how good or bad it is?


By the way, does not have an IR blaster. Good bye universal tv remote app. :(
Effing bs.
How inconvenient is it to add this when manufacturing the phone? I'm asking because I just don't know.

It looks as if none of the top flagship phones this year have IR blasters.

What zee fook?
 
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So any of you with the V30 still loving it ? Great buy, or just average ?

Love it. Gorgeous screen. Fast as hell. The camera fucking rocks and already got an update for it. :p

Action Launcher Pro. Pixel 2 style, Pixel Icon Pack, and "At a Glance" widget from Action Launcher Pro. Google Now integration is enabled as well.

Screenshot_2017-11-10-08-14-42.png
 
Love it. Gorgeous screen. Fast as hell. The camera fucking rocks and already got an update for it. :p

Action Launcher Pro. Pixel 2 style, Pixel Icon Pack, and "At a Glance" widget from Action Launcher Pro. Google Now integration is enabled as well.

View attachment 42654

Sounds great, how's the battery life ? And what was you're previous phone to this ?
 
Sounds great, how's the battery life ? And what was you're previous phone to this ?

I'm averaging 4.5 hours SOT which is more than enough on a single charge especially when I don't care. I have chargers everywhere. Jumped from G6 to V30.
 
https://android.gadgethacks.com/how-to/turn-your-lg-v30-into-google-pixel-2-0180558/

Read this article, sounds very interesting. Making a lot of the Google apps default, like installing the Pixel 2 Launcher, Google Phone, Google Messages, Google Calendar, etc...

Does this really work as smooth and good as intended ?

It'll be close to the user experience of a Pixel 2, but in the end it is still running LG's version of Android Nougat. So it won't be as fast and snappy, but I've heard good things overall in regards to the V30's overall performance.
 
My wife currently has the LG G6, and I have Nova Prime on there with Pixel icon pack, a Pixel theme, and a lot of Google apps set as default, And it's a very underrated phone, "it just works" :) No really, it's just a quiet performer, nothing to complain about it, no issues, gets good battery life, feels pretty smooth performance, speakers are louder than expected, like super loud, LG's UI isn't that bad, and with most Google apps installed I barely even notice it. Yeah it's not eye catching super cool or anything. But I am surprised 5 months with it for my wife, it's still chugging away nicely.

So...I would imagine the V30 would be even better then ?
 
Protip: even stock Android on most devices - even the Nexus/Pixel devices - isn't truly stock Android, they're modified versions. Pure stock Android is AOSP and that means no Google apps, none of them whatsoever and no Google services of any kind. That stuff gets added on top of Android by every manufacturer so, technically speaking, there's never ever been a truly stock Android smartphone experience sold in a box. :D

As for LG, I've never had any issues with their UI/UX myself, I kinda favor it because it's always been pretty damned fast and snappy in my experience of using it across multiple devices. I didn't like the change to UX 5.0 which got rid of the app drawer however and I prefer UX 4.0 which kept the app drawer. Never really cared much for serious customization of any UI at all to be honest, the basic look of Android itself has been enough for me given it gets changed to various degrees as new versions are created and released. Never got into using custom launchers, custom icons, themes, etc, guess I'm just too damned vanilla. :)
 
I still love mine for sure.. and my girlfriend is itching to get one also...

I carry it and a iPhone 7 every day (jumped my iPhone 8 64 down to this iPhone 7 256 since it was cheaper and I wasn't impressed with the 8).

Side by side the v30 fantastic. And the battery life is way better.. no seriously it's better then the iPhone (both phones were new on the same day).

I left work early from work last week and had both phones at 100% charge. Loaded pokemon go on both and did about 5 raids before I made it home.. has 48% on the iPhone and 72% on the v30 when I made it home. Some of that is probably due to iOS 11.0.x shit battery life, but still impressive on the v30 way.
 
I have had the Nexus 6P for a LONG time ( GREAT phone ), and it's dying on me, and being on T-Mobile and their JoD program, I can get the V30 with $0 money down, and keep my monthly payment the same. I just ordered it today, coming this week. I need a new phone bad, as my 6P is flaking, random restarting and poor battery life last couple of months. The 6P has been amazing great up until the past several months, but then started getting old fast and unstable. And yes I have tried several different ROM's and my 6P is done.

I was ( God forbid ) thinking of getting the Silver iPhone 8 Plus for a second too, same $0 down deal, but a stock iOS device would be brutal, if there was a stable jailbreak out for iOS11.1 I'd get the 8 Plus, but with no JB, no way
 
Bleh, I'll take the 6P off your hands whenever you feel like dropping it in a box and shipping it my way, I'm always on the lookout for devices that people toss aside as they move on to newer ones. :D

The V30 will probably be awesome for you considering all the parts involved, I'm still irked that LG changed even the V series devices by dumping the removable battery, I was hoping they'd keep the V models as something that stands apart from just being yet another smartphone like all the rest but I guess there goes that idea.
 
My 6P is on it's last leg. Random reboots daily now, even when I wipe the system do full factory reset and install a fresh new ROM. And the battery life has really gone down hill, I used to get 5.5h Screen On time always, but last few months it's dropped to 3.5h to 4h Screen On time, no matter which ROM and settings I do with same usage.

So my 6P will be my fun at home WiFi phone only now.
 
So any of you with the V30 still loving it ? Great buy, or just average ?
I'm in absolute love with this phone. It's my first non-Nexus phone and it's just as fast. LG's software actually adds some useful features without adding even a hint of lag.

The camera is it's weak point. In ideal conditions it hangs with anything out there but struggles with low light shots. Simply put it's a few generations behind when conditions aren't ideal. The built in HDR is terrible but there's a port of Google's app that works better. The manual mode works well but you're still limited to a static aperture so it can't pull off miracles like a DSLR can. Outside of that the camera is fantastic. The audio recording is done in stereo so the videos sound great and there's a dedicated mic inside the 3.5 mm jack that's an actual mic that records loud audio in HD. I was at NASCAR last weekend and the sound wasn't clipped at all....that in and of itself blew my mind. I really like the videos I've recorded and the wide camera is absolutely to die for. I've used it WAY more than I thought I would. It makes not having that really bad portrait mode a non-issue.

The battery life is fantastic as well. I don't have SOT figures but judging by testers on reviews and forum accounts it's one of the best performers out there.

I haven't had any screen issues. It appears they fixed whatever issues they were having with the early builds. The screen is really good and I feel like people are nitpicking screens because it's the popular thing to do.

I have it loaded up with Google Now, the Pixel Launcher, and anything else I can to get it closer to what I'm used to with the Nexus line.

Some other things I like: They nailed the form factor, it's much more comfortable to hold than the Pixel or Note. They also nailed the hepatic feedback on this things....it's REALLY good. When using the manual camera dials it feels like you're clicking a real dial...it's that good. The phone speaker is fantastic too. It's easily the best I've heard on a phone to date. The DAC/Amp is impressive too. You won't notice it on low impedance headphones but plug in something over 50 ohms and it kicks on the amp and shines. The best part is that it's $200 cheaper and it comes with the new Daydream. I used that $200 savings to buy a 256 GB sd card and still have $60 left over.

This phone is damn good. I mean really good. I just wish it was on the Pixel's level for point and shoot. My list of things I like gets longer and longer the more I use the phone.
 
Are you the type who's into customizing your phone? I'm curious if you've looked into how easy it is to root and if there are any downsides. I don't care about custom ROMs but rooting is essential for backup and restore purposes (cmon Google stopped dawdling and give us something like the iOS full backups).
 
My V30 just arrived in the mail :)

First impressions taking it out of the box. HOLY COW :) Absolutely beautiful device, looks very high end, and has a nice feel in the hand, actually great in hand feel. The look and shape is very futuristic. Current phone is my trusty old Nexus 6P, which unfortunately has seen better days. The V30 has a 6" screen and the Nexus 6P a 5.7" screen, but the V30 is good amount smaller overall.

Will install the latest updates, and put the Pixel 2 Launcher on + all Google apps.

I have also heard in reviews, the haptic engine in the V30 is the first Android phone to finally be on par with Apple's great vibration motor in the iPhone's which are known to be great.
 
I've been looking into this phone as a replacement for my Moto X Pure. Hopefully it'll follow the pattern of recent LG flagships and drop in price rapidly. One thing I have noticed while shopping for a new phone this generation is the issues comparing screen sizes though, all these different aspect ratios mean you can't just go off the diagonal anymore. 5.7 on a 16:9 isn't the same as 5.7 on a 18:9 or whatever the new ones are.
 
My V30 just arrived in the mail :)

First impressions taking it out of the box. HOLY COW :) Absolutely beautiful device, looks very high end, and has a nice feel in the hand, actually great in hand feel. The look and shape is very futuristic. Current phone is my trusty old Nexus 6P, which unfortunately has seen better days. The V30 has a 6" screen and the Nexus 6P a 5.7" screen, but the V30 is good amount smaller overall.

Will install the latest updates, and put the Pixel 2 Launcher on + all Google apps.

I have also heard in reviews, the haptic engine in the V30 is the first Android phone to finally be on par with Apple's great vibration motor in the iPhone's which are known to be great.
Post up your impressions when you've put it through its paces.

And yes, the haptic feedback is fantastic
 
LOVING this phone so far :)

I followed this guide to a 't'
https://android.gadgethacks.com/how-to/turn-your-lg-v30-into-google-pixel-2-0180558/

And then this debloating guide;
https://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-v30/how-to/guide-make-v30-faster-smoother-t3693083

And this phone is like a custom Pixel 2 phone now.


What do you guys do for no ads ? There's no root for this phone, so no AdAway. I tried Blockada and DNS666 neither of those would activate or work, so I downloaded the latest .apk Samsung Internet Browser and installed AdGuard, and that seems to be doing the trick, all my fva websites ZERO ads. And off topic but holy cow the Samsung Browser is freaking great. I LOL'd at people saying it's the best Android browser of 2017, thinking no way from Scamsuck, I didn't thing the Lagwiz guys could make a good browser, but man, it's the BEST
 
Samsung Browser is legit. I don't know how they managed to make such a great piece of software considering how much shit the rest of Samsung's offerings are.
 
Anything special needed to get it to work ? I installed it, and then refreshed the source files, and pressed start. Right after pressing start it force close

Nope. Mine just fires right up. Latest version of 0.5.7?
 
By the way, does not have an IR blaster. Good bye universal tv remote app. :(
Effing bs.
How inconvenient is it to add this when manufacturing the phone? I'm asking because I just don't know.

It looks as if none of the top flagship phones this year have IR blasters.

What zee fook?
I'm wondering the same thing. Samsung actually dropped it as early as the Note 5, which just added to the pain when the S6 kept it (albeit infamously losing both removable battery and microSD in the process, alongside MHL on microUSB).

Meanwhile, LG kept both IR blasters and removable batteries going into the V20. They seriously had me tempted just for that alone, but alas, the V30 dropped all that and only left the DAC/amp as the main selling point, in much the same way as the Notes kept their Wacom pen as the one distinguishing feature nobody else has, while otherwise just being the same old large slab of metal and glass that everyone else is making.

You can imagine how frustrating this is for me when I like having all those niche features in one slick bit of hardware, and would gladly throw in a sliding physical keyboard that doesn't compromise screen space to the list if it was available on something other than the BlackBerry Priv for a change. (Well, okay, there's a new keyboard Moto Mod, but that's landscape orientation.) Would be nice if I could just make my own enthusiast-oriented smartphone and do away with the compromises altogether...

Oh, and if anyone wants to know why I would want an IR blaster in the first place? AnyMote is flexible enough to let me use profiles with raw hex codes, and that's handy for things like certain '80s not-Marantz receivers that use different IR codes than the later stuff. I have too many things with IR remote receivers and no matching remotes.

At least the V30 seems to be pretty solid. No bootloader unlock is a bummer, but hey, the V20's US variants didn't originally have one either until later. (Might just be the US996 unlocked model and not any carrier-specific versions, hard to say.)
 
Battery life on my V30 so far.

I did not put my SIM card in it, so in Airplane mode this week. I'm waiting for case and screen protector to arrive before I make it my full time phone.

Unplugged off the charger for 54h 9min so far, with 8h 5m Screen time, and battery life is at 33% left. But this is completely on WiFi. I've been using the phone last few days watching YouTube vid,s and tons of web surfing.
 
If anything, I'd actually like to see more impressions on use of smartphones without an active line of phone service, like the PDAs of last decade. Gives me a good idea of what to expect when daily driver duty gets handed off to the next smartphone in line and the old one's kept around as a backup or a super-PDA of sorts.

This goes double for V-series phones since the DAC/amp, media player options and microSD card slot make them a compelling alternative to dedicated portable media players. I'd consider picking up a V20 just for that if it was cheap enough.
 
I use the stock text app Google Messages. When the phone is sitting next to me, and I get a new text, all I get is the sound of the text beeping, but the screen doesn't wake up. The screen should wake up when that text comes in. What Setting do I need to change to make the screen wake ?
 
I use the stock text app Google Messages. When the phone is sitting next to me, and I get a new text, all I get is the sound of the text beeping, but the screen doesn't wake up. The screen should wake up when that text comes in. What Setting do I need to change to make the screen wake ?

I don't know. I use Signal as my SMS app and I use the Always On Display. So it isn't supposed to activate the screen. It just adds the little icon to the screen. It does this to conserve battery life.
 
I use the stock text app Google Messages. When the phone is sitting next to me, and I get a new text, all I get is the sound of the text beeping, but the screen doesn't wake up. The screen should wake up when that text comes in. What Setting do I need to change to make the screen wake ?

I use Textra & there is a specific setting to wake up screen. I also have the always on display turned off & the screen wake up still works.

I have used android messages & while its extremely reliable the MMS quality sucks. It seemed like it was capping everything at about .5mb where I get much better images sent when I use textra with the 2mb setting.
 
Today is my first workday with my V30. At work my phone can get a ton use, with Phone calls, texts, e-mails, some web surfing, and maybe GPS Nav use. All of it on the network, no WiFi.

Well I can say, so far the battery life just destroys my old Nexus 6P, no competition. I unplugged my phone off the charger at 7:00am, it is now 11:45am, and I am at 90%. With my 6P at this time, I'd probably be at 65% or so.

Even this weekend, using my V30 mostly on WiFi, surfing the web and watching YouTube, I was getting off the charts amazing battery life. Sunday lasting all morning, till bedtime, with 22% left, and i was on the phone a crap ton most the time, tweaking it and getting it to where I like it, and also using it a lot. My Nexus 6P would have never lasted like that on a Sunday. On WiFi use I was clocking in close to 8h Screen On time.


Off topic, I installed Textra Pro, it does just work better. I love Google Messages, but something about it just doesn't seem to work as well as Textra. And I like the deep settings you get with Textra, and it also allows it to wake the screen when a new text comes in, and allows me to reply to that text notification from the lock screen ( which is hugely important to me, it's just faster and better to do it that way ) With Google Messages, you only hear a 'beep' for a text, but the screen stays off. So Textra is the main one for me. I wish Google would have the option for Android Messages to turn the screen on when a text comes through. It makes no sense why it doesn't do that ?
 
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Off topic, I installed Textra Pro, it does just work better. I love Google Messages, but something about it just doesn't seem to work as well as Textra. And I like the deep settings you get with Textra, and it also allows it to wake the screen when a new text comes in, and allows me to reply to that text notification from the lock screen ( which is hugely important to me, it's just faster and better to do it that way ) With Google Messages, you only hear a 'beep' for a text, but the screen stays off. So Textra is the main one for me. I wish Google would have the option for Android Messages to turn the screen on when a text comes through. It makes no sense why it doesn't do that ?
I love Textra Pro. it's fast, looks great, has lots of customization... just a great text app. And, I also like that it wakes the screen when texts are received.

On my OP5, there's an option under the Display menu called Ambient display. When toggled, it wakes the screen for ALL incoming notifications. Maybe look for something similar on your V30?
 
Ambient display is a stock Android setting. My Nexus 6P had it too. I don't think Samsung, LG, and HTC have that setting.
 
It can be enabled if you have root (I have the ability to use it on my HTC 10). It's really too bad only very specific V30 models are bootloader unlocked (and thus rootable).

If only HTC would make full-featured "compact" phone like the Sony Xperia's. I'd totally spring for a 5" 1080p 18:9 version of the U11+.
 
It can be enabled if you have root (I have the ability to use it on my HTC 10). It's really too bad only very specific V30 models are bootloader unlocked (and thus rootable).

If only HTC would make full-featured "compact" phone like the Sony Xperia's. I'd totally spring for a 5" 1080p 18:9 version of the U11+.

The US998 unlocked version comes out next month. That's the one that can be rooted and ROM'd. No carrier V30's can be unlocked. It's sold only full price for $800. Depending on how much I like the V30, I may give this one to my wife, and order the unlocked V30, but after a price break. LG always drops the prices on their unlocked phones, by a huge amount a few months after release. The LG G6 unlocked version went down to like $449 at one point in the Summer, like four months after release, so come March / April the unlocked V30 may be $500, it should for sure be less than $600 next Spring. I would guess around the launch of the G7, the V30 will price drop significantly.

I would take an unlocked V30 next Spring 2018 at a bargain price, over a new Galaxy S9 or LG G7. The unlocked V30 can then be rooted and run Lineage ROM or a stock LG ROM with all the rooted goodness. I am not interested in the SD845 over the SD835, the next big jump is the SD855, that's the major upgrade. The SD845 is mainly just a faster processor than the SD835, but not much more efficient. Whereas the SD855 is a giant upgrade, built on the 7nm process, being much more efficient and way more battery friendly, while also being super fast too. So going from a SD835 phone to a SD845 phone, won't be night and day different, yes the SD845 is better, but going from SD835 to SD855 will be HUGE.
 
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Wow, I'd be all in for an unlocked V30 under $600!! I almost bought a T-Mo V30 for $625 on Swappa, yesterday. Glad I resisted temptation. ;)
 
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