[LG V30 Questions & Answers] APhoneUser:
Mostly V30>G7 for me...but depends on useage

I just made this very difficult decision! (I'm upgrading from an older phone, ended up picking between these the G7 and the V30).

The only thing G7 offers over the V30 of significance imo is good FFC and pleasing speaker.

In balance, I found V30's unique features vs G7 more important.

Pushing me over the edge - V30's POLED display. So much better than the G7 for watching videos, etc. It's like the images are real or 3-D. A touch of hyperreality, sure but I love it.

The V7 is LED, so...more like normal. Nothing pumped up. Nothing immersive like the V30. So, yawn. Blacks are dark, but not ABSOLUTE BLACK like the V30, which makes things come alive. Same with the colors- normal, not slightly pumped up / amazing like on the V30. (I just got back from the TMobile store...a fresh experience for me).

My pro/con list consisted of:

Pros - Awesome:

V30:

- Screen - Live, amazing screen/colors etc for looking at video and photos. Love the oled. Slight hyper-reality & totally immersive! Whereas G7 =normal, not immersive, fine, but nothing special like the V30 is imo.

- Record audio from any concert - Can record 132 db concerts without distortion, even in the bass. (while recording video, or just the audio, of course. It uses the speaker as a mic.) Whereas G7 - may or may not have this. hard to tell. it has 'concert mode', but not clear if same as V30. Note: V20 had this feature, but IT DID NOT WORK, or at least not consistently. G7 implementation = unknown !

- Display size !!! - So much better, imo. The shape is .NORMAL and pleasing. whereas, the V7 has this elongated, thin-ish aspect. It actually hurts my neck to try to take in the full thing in landscape mode. Why neck, not eyes? Dunno. it's just a weird, harder to take in experience. No like. But the V30 is great. Plus, imo, Youtube videos get the edge in the V30's aspect ratio. (somemaydisagree...)

BUT:

G7 has:

- Better speaker It's actually pleasing, imo. You even hear a bit of the bass. It's nice. Supposedly you can put it on a box and it will amplify even more (some special V7 technology, fwiw). Also, V7 is louder, period, than the V30. Whereas the V30 - tinnier speaker. A bit harsh when maxing out the volume. However on 2nd listen it was ok. But nothing great. (in the store..). but: get an external speaker is one solution for the V30. Or headphones. Or, it's ok as is. But G7 is better.

- Great selfie-cam. 8 megapixel. Shots I saw online looked great. Whereas, V30 looked lower grade, imo, and not particularly pleasing. Maybe that can be cleaned up in post, or with better lighting? V30=5 megapixels.

Nice to haves:

V30:

- Zoom while shooting videos. -- Can tap on a portion of the screen, and the camera will smoothly zoom in to that portion of the screen. Awesome if you do your editing on the fly, instead of back at the computer. I.e., start wide, then zoom on your friend, or the guitarist on stage, etc. Very cool, imo. G7=doesn't have this. Seemingly, won't.

- Seamless full Zoom -- V30 can seamlessly zoom between the regular lense and the wide-angle one. From zoomed all the way in to the full wide (i.e. switches between the two lenses but you can't tell it's doing that). Handy, imo. Whereas: G7 can't. Pick a lense, zoom in and out within the confines of the lense you've chosen. On the smaller lense and want to go wider? stop shooting and switch lenses. So it goes. IMO, a nice touch if you want superior videography. So...nice to have,imo.

- Better video editing software. V30 has filters and whatnot for making videos look like various movie styles or something? Maybe more editing features than the G7, too? Am not totally sure. Probably a nice to have.

- That portrait mode on the V7 does look awfully nice... !:)

Maybes (items that may be true (unknown), and some that are true (which may matter a bit)):

V30:

- Screen burn in. In-store demo V30's have it. NOT noticeable on videos, etc. Just, like on the home screen, subtly and only once pointed out, from what I saw. But then yeah..it's definitely there. Not serious (for me..). Supposedly for consumers (that aren't running demos all day like in a store) , only after a year, and maybe only if you don't take protective measures (there are tutorials online on this). BUT...don't run Waze for hours and burn that logo in lol... IMO, since you have the V30...if it's getting burned in, obviously upgrade before it's too late and phone loses value. If it's fine...just look a tutorial and only trade in or up later...

- Screen brightness on videos. - V30's OLED made videos on youtube pop more, they seemed brighter as well. G7 was fine, V30 is better.

- V30 whiter whites. They looked whiter to me. Than the G7 (slightly gray). (whereas...V30's blacker blacks definitely mattered!).

- Make better videos (?) - Supposed to have better video recording than the V7. ? Better sensor? Cannot fully confirm.

- Better mics in general? - may be a rumor.

Doesn't Matter (imo, of course):

V30:

- Scenes - V30 has more, but most probably won't be used, imo.

- Battery life. G7's battery is smaller, but supposedly has a slightly more efficient OS or Skin or something. Supposedly comes out even.

G7:

- Oreo. G7 has it, V30 just got it, after a hiccup early in the month when the rollout was paused.

- Low light binning (combining pixels to take in more light when it's dark in the room). V30 now has that with the Oreo update. V7 always did.

- Screen brightness outside. 1000 nits on the G7. But the reviewer I saw on Youtube (in fact, the only reviewer who addressed this issue, IIRC), showed V30 is fine outside and G7 is brighter but it didn't matter to him.

- V7 has 16 megapixel wide angle lense vs: V30 wide lense: 13 megapixels.. Most people don't use this lense much for photography so....no biggie, imo.

- OS updates. PROBABLY doesn't matter, but who knows. G7 is the latest...perhaps it'll be supported sooner to OS P. and longer to further updates. LG has a bad track record with updates...but claim to be getting better at that. And V30 did just go Oreo.

- Hand feel. On first visit, without cases (in store), G7 was much more comfortable in hand. (it's thinner). I was really worried the V30 felt just too wide to be comfortable. really seemed the deal breaker. So, will you love the hand feel of the G7? Probably not, go. Because: I just tried an Otterbox Defender case on a friend's even larger phone. It rounded the edged of the bhack and....suddenly felt fine. The right case seems to fix this issue.

This was longer than I expected...hope it helps

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