[LG V40 Questions & Answers] onslaught86:
Happy to help. I work in the industry and am always interested in sharing what I can.

I have used many more phones than are listed in my signature, those are just the ones I have personally owned and used as daily drivers for long periods of time. It may not be up to date, I jumped from V30 to Mate 20 Pro and now to V40.

On iPhones: After Samsung's poor optimisation of software for the large screens of Galaxy Notes + apps of the time being poorly optimised for large screens as well, Apple finally made an iPhone that was large enough for my needs in the 6 Plus. I have owned 6 Plus, 6s Plus, 7 Plus, and 8 Plus, and I have spent enough time with the X/XS Max/XR to know they are not for me. The grass was not greener, just different.

iPhones and iOS are fine. They are functional and reliable, good at doing what things iOS is set up to do well. They are a good choice for people who do not want to spend too much time thinking about or researching their phones, which is fair. iOS is not set up to do many other things well, and both hardware and software iterate slowly. Web browsing is a great example. Apple's professors are exceptionally good and the browsing experience in Safari is very fast and enjoyable, however Safari itself has a dated UI/UX that lags far behind equivalents on Android like Samsung's internet browser. You can use other browsers on iOS, but they are crippled in comparison to Safari, and offer a poor experience - you still cannot set default apps either. Third party keyboards are a mess. Apple's cameras have been left far behind their competition. Their industrial design is dated and inelegant. There are benefits to being in Apple's ecosystem, but the drawbacks are too many, and most notably, the price of entry is far too high. It is not worth it for what you get, especially if you're outside the US and iMessage is meaningless + there are much higher prices and zero warranty/service differentiation.

Google updates core Android apps all the time. Apple updates core iOS apps very slowly. For all the press Apple get for iOS updates, they are slow to make meaningful changes. When there is a major bug, it is difficult or impossible to fix yourself or roll back, you must wait for Apple to patch in weeks or months or longer. iOS 11 was a disaster and ruined my 7 Plus.

I may return to iOS if it gets the massive overhaul it sorely needs, especially to the home screen/launcher experience, and finally gets haptic feedback in the keyboard (Gboard on iOS has just added haptics, although they are poor). I left because Apple has been left behind. It is a good platform, you just need to know what you're getting into.

Vanilla = plain, basic, default. The closest you can buy on a commercial device to AOSP. Now that Google has abstracted so much of Android into Google Services, the base version of Android matters less than ever before, and the vast majority of innovation has been in 'skins' for the last 2-3+ years.

I enjoy and recommend the Mate 20 Pro. It has excellent battery life, ridiculously fast 40W charging that can change how you use a phone (no need to charge overnight when it goes from 30% to 75% in under 15mins), and some very clever camera tricks. The automatic portrait mode is one of the best features, there is no need to manually select portrait mode as the camera will jump straight to portrait by itself when it detects a face. Speaking of faces, Mate 20 Pro has real 3D face unlock, very welcome as I cannot stand the slow and poor under-screen fingerprint sensors (including the Mate 20 Pro's). Kirin 980 is an excellent chipset too. The Mate 20 Pro was the only thing which made me shift from the V30, which remains my favourite phone I've ever used, finally displacing the HTC HD2.

The problems with the Mate 20 Pro for me lie firstly in software - EMUI 9 is not as good or polished as EMUI 5/8, with bugs and jank, and it has now been locked down considerably. First by the region of the unit you buy, and then further by the SIM card inserted. This will determine what software builds you receive and when. It can also break things if you travel and put a different SIM in and receive an update which clashes with the region software to break CTS/SafetyNet/Google Pay. EMUI 9.1 on the P30 series fixes many issues, although it is uncertain if or when this will come to the Mate 20 Pro. You cannot easily switch regions or rebrand either.

In hardware, the screen is not the best, and critically for my needs the haptic feedback is very poor. I spend a lot of time writing email and the like from my phone as it is a work tool as well, and having been spoiled by the advanced haptics in the V30 and several Meizu phones, anything else is bad in comparison. I don't like Samsung's haptics either, and Apple's aren't used in the keyboard. LG's haptics are incredible, and integrating them throughout the UI/UX makes their phones delightful to use.

I missed several other features of the V30, including the excellent Always On Display, the seven-icon dock, double tap to sleep/wake, the thin/light design, the Quad DAC, and the manual camera. The V40 is really only a minor improvement over the V30, with a better/taller screen, boombox speaker, better cameras with telephoto, additional front camera, and SD845. Battery life is thankfully still very good, the haptics are still brilliant. I feel the V30's ergonomics were better than the V40's. The V30 is amazing and should go down in history as one of the most underrated phones to date.

I have specifically chosen the V40 as it delivers several key features that the Mate 20 Pro did not.

As for what else you should test out, that depends what you've tried so far and what you're looking for. How long you will use and keep your phone, and what your budget is, and what is available for you to buy. The V30 is great. The V40 is the V30 with a few improvements. The V50 launches in Korea this month and I would sorely like to own one as it has 855, 4000mAh battery, and LG UX with Pie out of the box - although the larger battery will make it much heavier.

The LG G8s is coming, and I like it more than the smaller G8. OnePlus will have something new soon for sure. Huawei's P30 Pro is compelling, although I prefer Mate 20 Pro for 1440p and 3D face unlock. Xiaomi are good and cheap. Moto are doing interesting things this year. Maybe the Galaxy Note 10 will be good. Etc etc. There is always something new on the horizon.