LG V20: Unboxing & First Impressions

This is my unboxing and first impressions of the new LG V20. So let's get into it.

Wasting little time and jumping right into the unboxing, you will see that LG went with a minimal and neat unboxing experience. Now LG was kind enough to send this device out for review and so I am not 100% sure if this is the experience that you will get at retail. They also included these headphones from B&O but it came in it's own box. Again, not sure if this is something that will be available at retail separately or somehow included in the box.

Aside from the phone, you get your usual essentials like your USB C charging cable and wall adapter and in this case, since the LG V20 has a removable battery, the battery will also be detached and included in the box.

After removing all the plastic wrap from the device, you will notice that the button on the bottom right is how you take the metal back cover to insert your SD Card, SIM Card, and battery.

The LG V20 feels a lot like it's predecessor, the V10, in terms of size and comfortability in hand. The V10 was a big phone and the V20 is no different. Compared to some of it's flagship comeptitors like the Note 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus, the V20 is almost always taller and just a bit wider than both phones.

Also, the metal body feels better than the G5’s metal body but given that it’s technically not all one unibody piece, it lacks some of the premium feeling in the hands.

The specs of the V20 are of course top notch and really should be no surprise to anyone. The LG V20 has a:

• 5.7 inch 2560 x 1440 display IPS display
• Snapdragon 820 with a quad-core CPU and Adreno 530 gpu
• 32 or 64GB of storage (with micro sd expandability up to 256gb)
• 4GB of RAM
• 5MP f1.9 front facing camera
• Dual cameras on the back with a 16MP f1.8 lense & an 8MP f2.4 wide angle lens

The V20 also has a removable 3200mah that also has quick charge 3.0.

This was supposed to be the first phone that has Android 7.0 out of the box but since the announcement of the Pixel phone, it seems as if the two phones will officially hit retail stores at the same time.

Taking a quick look around the device, the bottom has your 3.5mm headphone jack, which is crucial to this phone given the Hi Fidelity DAC that this phone has. You'll also find your USB C charging port and speaker. The right side has the back plate eject button, and on the left is where you'll find your volume up and down buttons. The back, aside from the dual cameras, is where the fingerprint sensor/power button combo lives.

And finally, on the front, right above the regular display, is the famous secondary display that made the LG V10 so unique.

Now I have only had this phone for around 48 hours and my first impressions of this phone is pretty much the same as any other LG phone. I liked the V10 A LOT more than the G5, and have no issues with the V20 so far.

Now I am not a fan at all of the launcher that LG includes and so I immediately had to switch over to Action Launcher 3. After doing that, this phone worked flawlessly and I really love some of the integrated features from Android 7.0, like the more in-depth notification cards.

Passing through the Settings menu for the first time, it seems as though the secondary screen hasn't really changed. There is not much customization to it but you can add your quick settings or actions as well as the apps you use most.

There is also a theme store, in which I took advantage of in order to get this darker system settings color.

I will also pay more attention to the camera in my full review but right now, it seems as if the dual camera does a great job in both your standard and wide angle lens settings. LG has always had a great camera software experience to go along with the hardware but now that other companies like Apple are jumping into the dual camera market, it will be interesting to compare them to each other.