LG’s Nougat-sporting new V20 smartphone is a safe bet

After the unpredicted failure of G5, LG seems to be making safe choices with its latest flagship, LG V20. The South Korean Company revealed the V20 in a press conference yesterday, and the new handset completely shuns the G5’s modularity, instead fully committing to its role as the successor to last year’s well-received V10.

And, obviously you cannot overlook the timing of its release - Samsung Note 7 global recall and a subdued fervor around iPhone 7.

However, the V20's foundation is very much similar to G5. There's Snapdragon 820 and 4GB of RAM, the same two-camera setup that pairs an 8-megapixel wide-angle sensor and a 16-megapixel standard sensor around back. LG also decided to release the V20 with a 5.7-inch with 2560 x 1440 resolution, which works out to 513ppi and 64GB of storage (up from the G5's 32GB). And as expected, the 3200mAh battery is removable, which means the battery is swappable.

Lending a premium look, LG V20’s body is built from aluminum and the aluminum alloy AL6013, a material that is good enough to protect the rear of your handset. There’s also Silicone Polycarbonate on the top and bottom to give durability to the product.

LG has come up with some new features as well, like the ability to display longer signatures. The second smaller display screen itself is also brighter than the V10's, and you can enlarge notifications that roll in. On the software side, the V20 is the first Nougat phone with the ability to search deep in apps you've installed instead of just pre-loaded Google apps.

Audio recording has been improved all around, as well, with the phone now grabbing HD Audio through a trio of mics. LG updated its Steady Record feature to make on-the-go footage come out much crisper, courtesy goes to Qualcomm's gyro-based electronic stabilization. The phone's dual camera array is also helped by three forms of autofocus -- laser, phase detection, and contrast - to identify targets even faster in both photos and video.

Clearly, V20 is trying to be a real production powerhouse.