Review of the LG V30 – Not Quite Perfection

Physically, the phone measures 5.97 x 2.97 x .29″ or 151.7 x 75.4 x 7.4 mm in new money.  It weighs in at a feather-light 5.57 ounces (158 grams).  It is IP68 water and dust resistant rated, meaning it can survive up to 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes.

From a connectivity perspective, the LG V30 sports a wide range of LTE bands.  I should note that the phone that we were sent is locked to AT&T but below I have listed all of the frequencies for the unlocked variant.

  • GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
  • HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100
  • LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 12(700), 13(700), 17(700), 20(800), 28(700), 38(2600)

WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac is supported with a dual-band configuration and Bluetooth 5.0 is built-in to the V30 too.

The main camera of the LG V30 is a dual camera configuration.  The first camera is a 16MP f/1.6 shooter with OIS and laser plus phase detection autofocus.  The second camera is a 13MP f/1.9 configuration.  This camera is a 120° wide-angle shooter with no autofocus.  The combination of the two cameras provides some excellent photo quality which I will cover later on in this review.  As for the front-facing selfie camera, it is a 5MP f/2.2 shooter that is also wide-angle.  It has a 90° angle of view.

The battery is a 3300mAh lithium-polymer unit with the phone supporting Quick Charge 3.0 technology as well as wireless charging.  The battery can be charged to 50% capacity in 36 minutes according to LG.

Port-wise, the LG V30 has a 3.5mm headphone jack, a dying element on phones in 2017.  That port is B&O certified with excellent audio quality.  The phone is charged via the single USB-C port.  The phone has a fingerprint scanner that is rear mounted and has NFC capability for Android Pay support.

Finally, the LG V30 runs on Android Nougat 7.1.2 which is a bit of a disappointment.  While LG has already committed to having an Oreo update out for the phone, it is a shame that it doesn’t come with it out of the box.  Hopefully, this update will not be too far down the road.

On paper, the specs of this phone are rock solid.  You aren’t going to find much to complain about frankly outside of the fact that the phone ships with Nougat and not Oreo.  In the grand scheme of things, that’s small potatoes but it is still there.  It means that the V30 will likely never see Android Q which will put it behind the new Pixel 2 lineup.

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About the Author

Clinton Fitch
Clinton is the owner of ClintonFitch.com and has been writing about mobile tech since 1998. You can follow Clinton on Twitter @clintonfitch. When not writing about tech, Clinton is an avid baseball and F1 fan and is a ski bum in the winter.

3 Comments on "Review of the LG V30 – Not Quite Perfection"

  1. Michael Carr | October 30, 2017 at 7:02 pm |

    I love this phone. To me it feels great, looks great, sounds great. Connectivity is fast as advertised. In the end it seems many end users are very happy with the V30 and for us that’s all that matters.

  2. Michael Carr | October 30, 2017 at 7:03 pm |

    I’m with you.

  3. You’re absolutely right. And the beauty of it is that there are so many great phones for us to choose from right now. We (the consumers) win! =)

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