With the release of the LG V40 ThinQ, the release of the LGV35 this past summer and the LGV30 smartphone earlier this year, there may be a little confusion of why LG has released different versions so quickly.
The goal for LG is to introduce models with minor improvements every couple of months, a strategy in which it hopes people will buy LG smartphones in the somewhat busy smartphone market.
With the biggest difference is the LG V40 ThinQ now .7 inches taller (75.8 x 158.7 x 7.7mm) while the LG V35 ThinQ (75.4 x 151.7 x 7.3mm) and LGV30 are a little smaller and both LG V40 and V35 ThinQ’s use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845, while the V30 uses the 835.
I received the LG V35 ThinQ not long after its release and one of the reasons why it took awhile is that I didn’t like it at first, but the more I used it, I started to appreciate it more.
But first, let’s get into a few things that stickout when looking at the LG V35 ThinQ smartphone:
- The rear features dual cameras on the top center and the fingerprint sensor is below the rear lenses. The sensor. is a button to also close the screen or power off/on the phone.
- The device retains its 3.5mm headphone jack on top.
- IP68 certified, so it can be underwater up 4.9 feet for 30 minutes.
- Has an OLED display of 6.0 inches (2:1 aspect ratio) and features 1440 x 2880 pixels.
- pixel density of 538 pixels-per-inch
- Supports HDR
- Has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for display protection
- Uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 SoC and has 6GB of Ram (both the LG
- Available in 64 or 128GB and expandable via MicroSD.
- Front Camera is 8MP, f1.9
- Rear Camera is 13 MP with OIS (f/1.6) +16 MP wide-angle (f/1.9)
- Uses Type-C USB
- Features a 3,300 mAh battery
- Uses Android Oreo 8.0
OK, now to get into what I liked and disliked about the phone.
I tested the phone at Surf Ranch Pro, as it would give me the opportunity to catch various shots, especially action via photo and video and in comparison, I also had a Sony Experia XZ2 Platinum.
For the most part, normal objects and portraits work well with the phone outdoors. Please note, no post-processing were done with these photos:
There were differences, with the Sony as expected, having better detail and colors. The colors popped out for the Sony but for the LG, it was OK.
As for zoom, well, it looked ugly. But so was the zoom for the Sony Xperia XZ2 Platinum. But that was expected… It kind of looks like an old Adobe Photoshop oil filter was added to the photo.
Camerawise, LG already improved upon the LG V35 ThinQ with the LG V40 by adding a third f/2.4 sensor (a 12 MP telephoto sensor). So, these crappy zoom shots, probably look much better with the V40. Also, the V40 adds a secondary wide-angle 5MP sensor to the front.
The settings are all there for one to click mode on the top and you get the following menu that allows you to choose from auto, manual photo or video, cine video, food, slo-mo, panorama and flash jump-cut (photos are taken every 3 seconds and saved as a .gif file).
At the bottom you can select QLens (QR Code reader), Portrait or AI Cam.
As for video, video is very good. In fact, the TikTok video I shot of myself was using the LG V35 ThinQ:
The phone also adds HDR recording, which is another plus!
The smartphone features a lot of Amazon pre-installed apps, from the Amazon Widget, Amazon Shopping and Amazon Alexa.
As for what I had problems with earlier on, when I was playing a game on the smartphone, sometimes it wouldn’t register my touches or slides. That became frustrating but fortunately it doesn’t happen all that often.
Also, it’s a very slippery smartphone and I do recommend adding a case for a better grip.
Speaking of graphics, the V35 ThinQ’s pOLED (plastic OLED) screen and is quite vibrant and colorful. Tested the games: “PubG’, “Asphalt 9”, “Overhit” and “Clash of Clans” and they all ran perfectly.
Battery power lasted a long time.
If there is anything that I find annoying about the multiple releases of LG ThinQ’s, I understand the price difference between the V30 and the V35, but only a $50 markup for V40 from V35. If that’s the case, might as well skip the V35 ThinQ all together and get the V40, which is more powerful and has better camera features. The only thing where I can see people wanting the V35 ThinQ is for the size and it being slightly smaller than the V40.
Audio was very good on this device. Paired with my bluetooth headphones and worked out and no problems. The quad digital-to-analog converter works made my music sound great!
The phone is also very light, just by picking it up and comparing to other smartphones, I was impressed.
Fortunately on Amazon, the phone is much cheaper but other stores offered it for $899 which is a bit too much for this phone.
But overall, the more I started to use this smartphone, the more I started to like the V35 ThinQ even more. But seeing how the V40 has improved the camera and a few other details, it’s hard to recommend the V35 ThinQ, when the V40 is closer in price to the V35 and offers a bit more.
But for those who prefer the smaller V35 to the much better V40 ThinQ, then the V35 ThinQ is worth checking out!
