Friends+Design
- Looks dazzling with its shiny, reflective back - from the shape of the body to the camera array to the colours, the Velvet signals something new
- The front looks sharp and gorgeous, the glass curves at the sides, giving it some character - you can easily mistake it for a flagship
- The LG Velvet feels thin, light, and balanced - it is a treat to hold in the hand
- There’s also a dedicated Google Assistant button
- IP68 water and dust resistance, a rarity to find in this price range
- The highly glossy back is, of course, a fingerprint magnet
- There is also an optical fingerprint reader under the screen and it's a tad slower than other phones in this price
Display
- Large, vivid and bright 6.8-in P-OLED display - it’s immersive and a pleasure to behold, the colours are close to natural and it’s plenty sharp
- It supports HDR and Full HD Netflix at launch, watching content on the screen a great experience
- A high refresh rate is missing from the display and lacks the smooth scrolling appearance of a OnePlus 8 or 8T
Software
- LG hasn't made any major improvements in its software, the LG Velvet runs on the LG UX 10 based on Android 10 - LG’s interface is not the most visually coherent, a lack of visual consistency between parts like the settings menu and the feature toggles drop-down cheapens the overall experience
Performance
- Good performance from the Snapdragon 765G - day-to-day usage is decent, app loads are near-instant and heavy games like Call of Duty: Mobile run extremely well at ‘high’ graphics
- LG's software and hardware doesn't feel well optimised, in day-to-day use, there's some delay and stuttering when switching between apps, and opening menus is often delayed
Cameras
- Decent set of triple cameras at the back - a 48MP primary module, an 8MP ultra-wide, and a 5MP auxiliary cam for depth
- The Velvet takes overall pleasing photos with its main cam, colours are nice and punchy, the images have a distinctly contrasty look and phone resolves good detail
- Portrait mode on the Velvet works decently, it isn't the most accurate performer, but it gets the job done
- In low light the LG Velvet is a fair performer - there’s a dedicated Night View mode that takes slightly longer to capture an image, but improves colour fidelity (though, it isn't the best performer by any means)
- Selfies from the Velvet, are properly good - LG got the distance right and the images usually turn out excellently sharp in bright light - Portraits are very good as well, subject separation is about as good as one can reasonably expect from a single cam solution
- The ultra-wide camera is disappointing, as the low-resolution sensor leaves most fine textures and details missing, or over-smoothed
- Overall, the camera system on the LG Velvet gets the job done, but it’s far from one of the best systems you’ll find in this price - if you want a top-class camera on your smartphone, you’ll have to look elsewhere
Audio
- The phone also has solid stereo speakers
- Rocks the good ol' 3.5mm headphone jack
Accessories
- LG Dual Screen Case adds an extra display to the Velvet, identical to the main display - the case is like giving your laptop an extra screen, it helps you with multi-tasking, you can simultaneously open 2 apps on each screen or have a different part of an app open on both screen - it also comes handy in gaming, where you can have your controls on one screen and the actual game on the different screen (though, not all apps support it)
- The LG Velvet also supports a stylus (sold separately), which adds additional functionality, just like the Samsung Note series
Battery
- Good battery life from the 4300 mAh battery - it tends to last a full day of moderate use, with little left in the tank by the end
- Supports up to 9W fast wireless charging
- The phone supports up to 25W Fast charging but only comes with a 15W charger in the box, which isn't very fast - it takes the bundled charger more than 2 hours to fully charge the phone
Verdict
- The LG Velvet doesn't offer any fancy bells and whistles such as a high refresh rate display, super-fast charging, or periscope cameras, that doesn’t mean it’s bad - it just leaves a lot to be desired in a world where competition is sky high
- There are better options available that offer much more at this price, like the OnePlus 8
