LG V40 ThinQ review: A good-looking smartphone with excellent performance

Price: Rs 49,990

Specs: 6.4-in P-OLED, 3120 x 1440 pixels, octa-core Snapdragon 845, 6GB RAM, 128GB storage, Hybrid dual SIM slot, Triple rear camera – 12MP + 12MP telephoto + 16MP ultrawide, 8MP + 5MP dual front camera,4G, VoLTE, WiFi ac, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, 32-but HiFi Quad Dac, rear fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C, Android 8.1, 3,300mAh battery, 169 grams

Pros: Sleek and sturdy design, beautiful display, excellent performance, fantastic audio output, top notch rear camera, fast charging support, great software feature set


Cons: Battery life not up to the mark, runs older Android 8.1, face unlock is not the fastest, front camera has soft details, sheen finish makes the phone slippery

LG has been struggling with smartphones in India but they haven't given up yet. The latest from the brand is the V40 ThinQ, the successor to the V30+ that we loved for its performance and features even though it had a few issues. The V40 ThinQ aims to fix those issues and brings with it the necessary upgrades too.

Like the V30+, the V40 ThinQ impresses with its industrial design. You get a glass metal sandwich body with curved edges for premium style as well as ergonomic grip. The rear has a sheen finish which changes shades with the light and the best part is that it does not pick up scratches quickly. Trouble with the sheen finish is that the phone also tends to be slippery – it slipped right out of hands a few times during use.

And this is coming from someone who doesn't usually drop phones! The right side has the power button and SIM slot while the left side has the volume button and a dedicated Google Assistant button. On the rear, the triple camera module sits slightly raised from the body and we feel that this makes the camera glass prone to scratches in the long run. The phone has MIL-STD-810G compliance, so we don’t have to worry about damages from basic drops and bumps.

One of our complaints on the V30+ was with the display – we found that the P-OLED display just wasn't as good as the other flagships. On the V40 ThinQ, things have improved by a vast margin, making it as good as the current flagships barring the new Galaxy S10. The screen is gorgeous with fantastic brightness, rich colours and deep blacks. Plus, the bezels are remarkably thin and the notch can be hidden if required. Keep in mind that this is one of the cheapest smartphones with a 2k display today – a good thing is that you can choose to keep the screen at full HD resolution to conserve battery life.


What we loved the most on the LG V40 is the rear camera setup. You get a triple camera with one telephoto lens and one ultra-wide lens which opens up a host of shooting options. Plus there is 3-axis OIS, f1.5 aperture, dual pixel autofocus and 2x optical zoom. This feature set plus a plethora of shoot modes including an AI mode makes the smartphone more enticing for camera lovers. Image quality is fantastic as expected – photos have good amount of details even in low light. Video quality is best in the segment - you can record videos in HDR and the audio is recorded in stereo 24-bit/192khz. The portrait mode works great but doesn’t deliver edge-detection as expected of a flagship – portrait images from the iPhone XR and Samsung S10+ are better.

Low light is where the phone excels thanks to its f1.5 aperture: even though noise is visible in low light images, the photos are still good enough to view on the phone’s display or share on social media. One thing that we did not like was that the timer setting for the camera was hidden in the Settings menu and is not visible up-front. Also, you get three lenses to choose in the Auto shoot mode, but if you go to Pro mode, you can only shoot using the ultra-wide lens or the standard lens. Strangely, for video shooting, you don’t get access to ultra-wide lens.

Up front is a 8MP + 5MP ultra-wide dual camera setup which is good for taking selfies. We did notice that while daytime selfies are great, the images have soft details when viewed at full resolution. It’s not a deal-breaker but we expected better from a flagship device. The second lens is an ultra-wide lens which makes it easy to capture group selfies. Overall, we feel that at this price point, the LG V40 ThinQ is the best option for a smartphone if your main requirement is a great primary camera.

Performance from the smartphone is butter-smooth as expected thanks to the Snapdragon 845. We had no issues playing heavy games or viewing 4k videos. However, we did notice that the phone gets quite hot when we used it more than half hour for GPS navigation or after about 45 minutes of PUBG on high settings. Battery life is where things go down-hill.

One full charger struggled to last one full day and we were usually down to 10% battery by 6pm. Thankfully there is support for fast charging as well as wireless charging.
Software is one area where we were disappointed that it still runs Android 8.1 and not Android 9.0. Also, the face unlock is not as fast as what we have seen on the OnePlus 6T. Thankfully you get a capacitive rear fingerprint scanner which works seamlessly. As usual with the V series, we loved the audio output of the phone thanks to the build in quad DAC – it’s a world of difference when compared to any other phone.

The V series from LG has regularly been christened as the underdog of smartphones from the past year. The V40 ThinQ is another addition in the line-up which continues down the same path. Its got a great set of features, excellent performance and a fantastic rear camera at a great price. We're thinking, this is going to be yet another LG flagship that's not as popular as the competition. The LG V40 ThinQ is a fantastic smartphone, but if you want a more popular brand, you can get the OnePlus 6T with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage for Rs 45,999.