Review of the LG V30 – Not Quite Perfection

Form Factor

Turning to the form factor of the V30, it is a well-designed phone.  The front of the phone is dominated by the 6″ display with the selfie camera positioned just above that display, to the right as you look at the phone.  The speaker for the phone is in the center above the display.  On the left edge is where you will find the volume rocker while on the right edge is where the SIM tray is located.  On the bottom edge, you will find the microphone hole, the USB-C port, and the speaker.

Turning the V30 over, the smooth aluminum back is nicely designed but does have a “hollow” sound to it when you tap on it.  It doesn’t feel or sound solid.  In the top center of the back is where you will find the dual main cameras of the device with the flash/autofocus array to the right of them.  Just below the cameras is the fingerprint scanner/power switch of the phone.  Pressing and holding this button powers on the phone and tapping it turns off it off.  Long pressing, while the phone is on, allows you to restart or power down the device.

While I understand LG’s desire to keep the design of the V30 clean, this combination scanner/power button feels very flimsy.  It feels like a thin membrane under your finger that personally, I don’t like.  I find the fixed fingerprint scanners of the Pixel lineup as well as the Huawei devices a more preferable solution.

From a fingerprint scanner perspective, it does perform flawlessly in my testing.

Despite the not-so-solid feeling (or sound) of the back, the V30 does feel good in your hand.  The 6″ screen doesn’t feel huge in your hand and it’s easy to hold it and thumb operate most of the screen with one hand.

General Performance

For raw day-to-day power usage, the LG V30 isn’t going to disappoint.  The Snapdragon 835 is a fantastic SoC that can easily get you through any demanding gaming task or the more likely email and web surfing throughout the day.  The phone scored 1915 points on the single core test using GeekBench 4.  On the multi-core test, the score was 6480.  This puts it on par with the Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy Note8.  Testing on Basemark OS II, the V30 scored 2698, which again puts it in the same area as the Samsung devices.

While benchmarking is good, the everyday use of the phone is what really matters to most readers.  The V30 is great for the normal stuff you do on your phone like email, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube or Netflix watching.  It can easily keep up with all of these activities without any feeling of lag or hesitation.