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LG announced the V40 ThinQ today at simultaneous events in New York City, and its home of Seoul, South Korea. It’s the latest smartphone to join its V-series of smartphones. It’s another device that LG is hoping will really turn off and turn around its mobile division. In the past few years, while it has gained market share in the mobile industry, it was still struggled to turn a profit. LG is hoping that the V40 ThinQ can change that. It does adopt some of the industry trends that we’ve seen in 2018, including adding an extra camera to both the front and back side of the V40 ThinQ, giving you a total of five cameras on this smartphone. The LG V40 ThinQ is a premium device, with a glass back and a metal frame, but LG is hoping to grab some customers away from Samsung, by selling the V40 ThinQ for slightly less than the Samsung Galaxy Note 9.
LG V40 ThinQ Specs
The LG V40 ThinQ sports a 6.4-inch, 19.5:9 aspect ratio display with 3120×1440 resolution. This display offers 536 pixels per inch, and is also HDR10 capable. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset, with the Adreno 630 GPU as well. There is 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage here. LG has also kept the micro SD card slot, so if you do need more storage, you do have the option of adding more. Inside the LG V40 ThinQ, there is a 3300mAh capacity battery, which is capable of Quick Charge 3.0, and Qi Wireless Charging. The LG V40 ThinQ does ship with Android 8.1 Oreo and the latest version of LG’s skin.
On the camera front, the backside of the LG V40 ThinQ sports three cameras. There is a wide-angle sensor that is 16-megapixels with a f/1.9 aperture and 107-degrees field-of-view. The main sensor is a 12-megapixel sensor with a f/1.5 aperture and 1.4um in size, while the third sensor is a telephoto sensor and is also 12-megapixels with a f/2.4 aperture. The front of the LG V40 ThinQ sports two cameras now, with a wide-angle 5-megapixel sensor that has a f/2.2 aperture and 90-degrees field-of-view. The main sensor on the front is a 8-megapixel sensor with a f/1.9 aperture and 80-degrees field-of-view. LG is still offering manual mode for video recording, and the V40 ThinQ is also able to shoot at 4K resolution and 60 frames-per-second. Other camera modes here include Triple Shot, AI Cam and Portrait Mode (on both the front and rear cameras). LG has also included Google Lens in its camera.
LG V40 ThinQ Hardware Design
Hardware design on the LG V40 ThinQ is pretty similar to the V30-series of smartphones. The only major differences in terms of hardware here is the third camera on the back, a few less speaker holes on the bottom and the notch on the front of the display. The triple camera setup on the back is horizontal, with the flash on the right side of the cameras. The fingerprint sensor is down below that. So as you can see, this is a pretty iterative update for the LG V40 ThinQ, when it comes to hardware. That is not necessarily a bad thing here, seeing as LG has a pretty good design on its V-series of smartphones right now.
The notch. It’s here on the V40 ThinQ. It was inevitable, seeing as every other smartphone maker is using a notch (except Samsung). LG said that it decided to go with a notch to give the user more screen real estate. Now many will say that the extra screen real estate is useless, but LG argues that you are able to push the notifications and status bar icons further up on the display, and you can get a true 18:9 display here for actual content.
LG has kept the usual features of its smartphones with the V40 ThinQ, when it comes to hardware. This includes it being IP68-rated for waterproofing and dust resistance. It is also capable of Qi Wireless Charging, so you can set your phone down at night, and allow it to charge overnight without having to fuss with any cables. There is also Quick Charge 3.0 support here, for those times when you do need to top up the battery pretty quickly, before you head out for the night.
LG V40 ThinQ Cameras
LG is using three cameras on the back, which include a 12-megapixel main sensor, a 12-megapixel telephoto sensor and then a 16-megapixel wide-angle sensor with 107-degree viewing angle. LG has also added dual phase detection autofocus on the rear cameras, for even faster auto focusing – LG claims that it can focus as quickly as 130 milliseconds between shots. Now the front has two cameras as well, with a 8-megapixel main sensor and then a 5-megapixel wide-angle sensor with a slightly less wide viewing angle of 97-degrees. This brings the total of cameras to five for the LG V40 ThinQ, and each of these cameras serve a different purpose.
With the three cameras on the back of the V40 ThinQ, LG has added a mode that is able to use all three cameras at once, which is Triple Shot. With Triple Shot, the LG V40 ThinQ is going to take a shot from the wide-angle sensor, then the regular sensor and then the telephoto sensor. This allows the user to see each shot and decide after the picture has been taken, which one they want to use. Triple Shot does also put these three photos into a short video, which basically looks like it is zooming in. LG has improved its AI Cam, though the manufacturer doesn’t like to say that it is a “feature” of its smartphone. But it can now recognize even more scenes and adjust the settings to get the best shot.
LG has also added CineShot to the V40 ThinQ, and it does work on all three cameras. It allows you to turn part of the shot into a video. For example, you could have the left side of the shot as a still image, while the right side could be a video. A good example of this would be of a waterfall, where you could have the waterfall flowing while the rest of the shot is a still image. These can be used as regular videos or as a GIF. AI Cam has also been updated for the V40 ThinQ. It can still recognize a ton of different scenes and like many other smartphones with AI in its camera, it will adjust the colors to get the best shot. But with the V40 ThinQ, it will now adjust the shutter speed as well. So if you are capturing pictures of something that is fast-moving – maybe a kid or a game – the V40 ThinQ can adjust the shutter speed to make it faster and get a non-blurry shot.
The front-facing camera does support Portrait mode, and unlike most other smartphones on the market, it relies more on the depth data coming from the second sensor (whichever one isn’t being used at the time: i.e. if you are taking a wide-angle selfie, then the regular camera gathers depth data, and vice versa). This allows for more accurate Portrait Mode shots, instead of allowing software to do everything here, and possibly missing the edge of the subject in the shot. As mentioned, the front-facing camera does have a wide-angle sensor in addition to the regular sensor, so you can easily take a group selfie with multiple people in the shot.
LG V40 ThinQ Battery
With the V40 ThinQ, there is what some might call, a pretty small capacity battery inside. It is rated at 3300mAh, which is about 30-percent smaller than what Samsung has in the Galaxy Note 9, in a device of a similar size (and it also has the S Pen that takes up a ton of space). But LG has said that the battery life on the V40 ThinQ will last about as long as the Galaxy Note 9, and that is according to its internal testing. Of course, real world experience may differ a bit. This battery capacity is the same as the LG V30 from last year, so you should expect pretty similar battery life, if not a bit better since it does have a slightly newer chipset in the Snapdragon 845 inside. In our review of the LG V30 last year, we wrote that we would normally end the day with around 30-percent battery left. So battery life shouldn’t be an issue this year with the LG V40 ThinQ, while a larger capacity battery would be nice, software and hardware optimization also work to make this battery capacity last a bit longer.
When it comes to charging the LG V40 ThinQ, LG offers a few different ways to charge the device. There’s wireless charging, but unfortunately, LG is still not supporting fast wireless charging like Samsung and Apple do. But if you need fast charging, Quick Charge 3.0 is included here, and the included wall charger is also a “fast charge” capable wall charger. So you can quickly top off the LG V40 ThinQ, in case that 3300mAh capacity battery just simply cannot get you through the entire day.
LG V40 ThinQ Software & Security
Android 8.1 is running out of the box here on the V40 ThinQ. That is not the latest and greatest version of Android, but LG has said that it is going to be updating the LG V40 ThinQ to Android 9 Pie very soon. Of course, as is usually the case, LG has not given a specific timeline for when the Android 9 Pie will be rolling out. It is also running the latest version of LG’s user experience on top. There’s not a lot of changes in the software, the majority of the changes are in the camera software, as explained in the camera section.
When it comes to Security, both fingerprints and facial recognition is here. Allowing you to opt to use the fingerprint sensor on the back to secure your smartphone, or use your face to secure it. LG is not using infrared to read your face, like the iPhone and Xiaomi’s Poco F1 do, instead it is simply using the front-facing camera. So it’s not that secure and you should definitely still keep a fingerprint enabled on the phone. Of course, the V40 ThinQ also has Knock-Code, this allows you to tap a pattern on the display (even with the display off) to unlock the device. This is more secure than a regular pattern, as you aren’t swiping your fingerprints across the screen (making it easier for others to see your pattern). This isn’t new, but it is yet another way that you can secure your smartphone.
LG V40 ThinQ Variants
In the past, LG has gone with a regular LG V-series smartphone and then also released one with more storage (and sometimes more RAM) as a Plus variant, so there was the LG V30 Plus last year, that came with 128GB of storage instead of the typical 64GB of storage internally. But LG has said that is not happening this year, instead it is sticking with just one version of the LG V40 ThinQ, and there is also only one RAM/Storage variant. But there will be four different colors this time around. There’s a Black, Blue, Red and Gray colors. In the US, only black and blue colors will be available while other markets will get all four – the specific markets have not been mentioned, but South Korea is getting all four.
LG V40 ThinQ Availability
The LG V40 ThinQ will be available beginning for pre-order beginning October 12, and general availability will begin on October 19. The price does vary by carrier a bit, but in general it will range between $900 and $1,000 full retail price. US Cellular’s retail price is $900, T-Mobile is $920, AT&T is $950, Sprint is $960 and Verizon is $980. There is no information on the unlocked model just yet, but it should be priced around the same as these carrier prices. The carriers will offer their own offers for the LG V40 ThinQ, but LG is also offering some great freebies for those that pre-order a LG V40 ThinQ. You can get the DJI Osmo Mobile 2 gimbal, as well as a SanDisk 256GB Micro SD Card with Adapter – this is a $258 value. Those that order the LG V40 ThinQ after general availability can still get the free SanDisk 256GB Micro SD Card with Adapter, however.
LG V40 ThinQ Gallery
