[LG V20 Questions & Answers] roosta:
Hey guys,

Forewarned. This is a review/rant/suggestion to lookelsewhere. Read on if you dare.

After using this phone for a week I must say, I'm pretty disappointed. While I'm happy with the specs (for the most part) there are more and more problems I have each day which makes me want to change phones.

2nd screen & Main screen resolution:

The addition of a 2nd screen seemed like a pretty awesome addition, but I believe it's a bit overkill without being able to setup customisation of notifications.

Edit 1/12: Have removed some details of second screen in info.

The options for applications or customisation on that screen is SO severely limited, they might as well offer no customisation from the apps other than the 4 you see. The 2nd screen can remain off (while main display is on), or turn on when you lock the main display, OR be on all the time. It's another avenue of losing valuable battery life at the expense of a note so necessary second screen. I imagine this is also quite tricky for devs (or will be) when trying to customise. Also, what happened to the LED light? LG must believe the second screen is better instead, yet they offer way way off setting up specific app notification or the use of colours? It would be better to get something more than a tiny white (and dimmed) icon when the phone is locked? Yes, there's an audible tone, but the LED light allowed me to previously look at my LG G4 from a distance as it cycle-flashed throgh colours letting me know which one (or series) of event notifications I had missed...

QHD display looks awesome on this phone, colours are brilliant. One of the better phones to otherwise look at. I'm glad the battery is 3200mah, because it needs it. I can't really blame the battery capacity as iot's more than most flagships; I blame what wastes the battery more - either a BUG that needs to be addressed in the Android OS itself, orthe fact the QHD is overkill. On that note, why not go amoled instead of IPS? Every 1-1.5 yars when I change phones, my battery size keeps increasing, my usage stays around the same rate, but my bsttery life doesn't seem as great. Generation after generation...why is that? I believe its related to the overkill size of the screen (since flagships keep getting bigger) and the huge QHD boost in resolution.

ORIGINAL POST: This phone, seems to lack ADAPTIVE BRIGHTNESS. Why, oh heavenly lord of all that is SANE, would a company REMOVE this feature? Can't answer for the G5, but it was on the G4 and now it's gone. In strong daylight, I'm blind at using my phone unless I accurately unlock and then adjust the brightness manually myself. This lack of a feature makes it unusable in MANY situations. I could be wrong, but I hope a software update could fix or implement this adaptivity.

EDIT - Update 30/11: I've pushed an OTA update and found this problem to have been addressed, it now appears more responsive and incremental as described below. It had me worried for a minute!!

LG as a company:

Their customer service by phone and chat is quite possibly the worst I've experienced. They know nothing. When they have to escalate a case, they never get back to you unless you pester. yes, many companies could fall into the same category here, but LG 'segregate' every one of their offices for each country. Pick up a LG v20 H990DS in Australia (IDENTICALLY sold in 3+ other countries) and LG Support in Australia have no idea about that. They also ahve no clue about any phones of theirs NOT release din the country you are speaking with. What's worse, is EVERY country has their calls re-routed or redirected to Manila, or some place....so you'd effectively be talking to the same person or team of people regardless if whether you called the AUS or USA support phone number. They are a complete joke.

LG Dev community

Bless your little hearts for the devs that own this phone or are working tirelessly developing for it. It's no secret with the dev community for LG is barely drawing a breathe - LG do nothing for customisation of their elecontrics or provide any interactiopn/support the developer community. Someone can try telling me how they just released a process for the SINGLE SIM USA 'open market variant' to UNLOCK the bootloader....Yeah, that's aweome...for a few dozen people in 1 region of the world. What about every other country or the more popyular dual SIM? Bah... I can't stress how important root has been for me over the years on a phone, an unlocked bootloaderi a bonus, but I don't see it coming any time soon. This is a big enough reason to drop the phone for another with similar specs that has root.

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There's plenty of options out there as we all know, but the clear stand-out for me is the ASUS Zenfone 3 Deluxe. You're probably thinking...why not stop b*tching about this phone and buy that? Well, the developer community for this brand is just as bad - almost non-existant, plus a viable root method (or boot unlock) doesn't exist for this phone yet, otherwise I'd already be on the bandwagon.

FLAGSHIP SIMILARITIES:

-Same CPU

-Same RAM (on 32GB ROM version of Zenfone 3)

-Same screen size

-Both support NFC, dual SIM

BIG DIFFERENCES:

- Zenfone 3 Deluxe *HAS* FHD 1080p resolution, not QHD (but is much better for battery)

- Zenfone 3 Deluxe *HAS* LED light (only 3 colours prior to root)

- Zenfone 3 Deluxe *HAS* adaptive brightness

- Zenfone 3 Deluxe -LACKS- Infrared (IR) which is a big loss

- Zenfone 3 Deluxe -LACKS- No FM radio (not such a big deal to me anymore)

- Zenfone 3 Deluxe runs Marshmalow 6.0, LG v20 runs Nougat 7.0

- LG v20 is more repairable; easy to disassemble and replace parts

- LG v20 allows for dedicated MicroSD slot for expandable memory

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=8238&idPhone2=8129

RoOSTA