LG Velvet with DualScreen review

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Introduction

So we've got three Galaxy S20s with rumors of Lite spin-offs on the way, three iPhone 11s and mumblings of an even larger Apple family this year, a sizeable bunch of Mi (Note) 10s, and several Find X2s. Pros and Lites, and Pluses, and Maxes, and Notes and whatnot.

LG? Well, LG has the Velvet now.

To be fair, LG's upper echelon hasn't been a masterclass in clarity itself. G8, G8x, G8s? Which market gets what, is it a midranger, is it a flagship, how many cameras does it even have - the G8 situation was the worst with some markets getting three, others two, on a handset with the same commercial name. And that ThinQ at the end was always more of a nuisance than a true brand identity. The V lineup has been somewhat more straightforward, though the V50S was but a 5G version of the G8X for South Korea.

There'll be none of that anymore. LG's giving up on the alphanumeric gibberish, and will be making phones that have expressive names, character and individuality, and the Velvet comes first.

It's a premium offering - the Velvet has a glass-aluminum build with IP68-qualifying sealing, properly stunning paintjobs, curved and extra tall OLED display, 5G capability. It has some mid-tier DNA too - that 5G-capable chipset comes from Qualcomm's 700 series, the camera system uses a middle-of-the-road 48MP main unit and is missing a telephoto, the 6.8-inch OLED maxes out at 60Hz. LG's goal for 'differentiated products with a clear character' shines though, even in the dryness of specsheet below.

LG Velvet specs

• Body: 167.2x74.1x7.9mm; 180g; MIL-STD-810G compliant; IP68 water and dust resistant; Aurora White, Aurora Green, Aurora Gray, Illusion Sunset, Red, Pink color schemes.
• Screen: 6.8" FHD+ (2460x1080px) OLED Cinematic FullVision Display; 20.5:9 aspect ratio, 395ppi; 60Hz refresh rate.
• Chipset: Snapdragon 765G (7nm+): Octa-core (1x2.4 GHz Kryo 475 Prime & 1x2.2 GHz Kryo 475 Gold & 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 475 Silver).
• Memory: 6/8GB RAM, 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage, microSD slot.
• OS/Software: Android 10, LG UX 9.0.
• Rear cameras: Main: 48MP, 1/2.0" sensor, 0.8µm pixels, 26mm equiv. focal length lens, f/1.8 aperture, PDAF. Ultra wide angle: 8MP, 1/4.0", 1.12µm, 15mm f/2.2fixed focus. Depth sensor: 5MP, f/2.4.
• Front camera: 16MP, 1/3.1", 1.0µm, 29mm, f/1.9 aperture, fixed focus.
• Battery: 4,300 mAh battery, Quick Charge 4.0+, USB PowerDelivery support up to 25W, fast wireless charging support up to 9W.
• Misc: Dedicated Google Assistant key; FM Radio (South Korea only), 3.5mm headphone jack, stereo speakers; optical under-display fingerprint sensor.
• Dual Screen: Optional snap-in secondary display; 6.8-inch FHD+ OLED (same as main one); additional 2.1-inch monochrome display on the front. 174.4x84.6x14.4mm; 129g, (309g combined); magnetic USB-C passthrough; no battery.

LG Velvet unboxing

The Velvet arrives in a relatively plain white cardboard box with its name stamped in a sleek typeface. LG's logo is relegated to one of the short sides of the box.

Inside the package, you'll find an adapter, rated at 9V/1.8A - so just 16.2 watts, and far from the promised 25W PowerDelivery support. It's also on the QuickCharge branch of the QC/PD compatibility as it has a USB-A port. A USB-A-to-C cable is included, naturally.

Also included is a set of in-ear headphones with nice attention to detail like braided cables and a reinforced L-shaped plug. LG may not be advertising QuadDACs this time around, but its focus on audio apparently remains.

Pre-orders of the LG Velvet in some markets will be getting a whole bunch of extras. Starting with the least important, those include a silicone case, but also a pair of truly wireless earphones, and finally and most importantly, the Dual Screen accessory. We got that last bit as part of the reviewers' package and we'll go over its functionality in due time. It has its own box, inside it - the snap-on screen and its magnetic port coupler.

Design

The Velvet is a significant departure from the LG design language we're used to seeing in the premium segment. That's not to say it isn't the usual glass and aluminum slab, it's just a different one than previous V and G series efforts.

Let's start with the curved display. LG has so far been reluctant to take that route, instead opting for mostly flat panels on even its most expensive models, with Samsung, on the other hand, having no high-end handset with a flat screen.

It's a gentle curve on the Velvet, not a dramatic waterfall-style one, though if you're of the firm belief that curved screens are the worst, this LG won't be for you. Not that we had issues with the edges in terms of touch input.

The Velvet's screen has thin black bezels on the sides. The top and bottom ones are slightly thicker, but identically sized between the two making for a nicely symmetrical look.

That's if you don't count the selfie camera cutout, of course - a U-shaped notch that's one of few minor eyesores on the Velvet. The top bezel does house a few other bits, too. The earpiece, which also serves as a second speaker, gets a thin slit notched out of the front glass and to its right you'll be able to spot the tiny windows for the ambient light and proximity sensors.

The fingerprint sensor is below the display and it's the optical type. We were initially met with a very low success rate when trying to unlock with it, which isn't typical of optical fingerprint readers. As we spent a couple of days with the Velvet, however, that experience improved dramatically - whether it's down to us getting used to the slightly lower position of the sensor, or the phone building a larger and more detailed map of the fingers, we can't know. Point is, it works.

Flip the Velvet over and you'll be met with an explosion of hues. Our review unit is the Illusion Sunset colorway and we appreciate LG not trying to call it one single color. It's mostly pink, until you tilt it to reflect light directly at you when it becomes golden-yellow, but there's also a deep bluish-purple underneath waiting for the right angle to reveal itself. Perhaps that's the velvet right there.

All of that color overload comes on top of the fact that the back of the phone, at least on our review unit, is about as reflective as an actual mirror.

The other color options don't look quite as dazzling but then again neither does this one in the official pictures, so who knows - maybe one of the four Auroras is even more of a stunner.

Once the temporary blindness wears off, you'll see the camera array and that too is a new arrangement when it comes to modern-day LGs. They call it a 'Raindrop camera' and maybe, just maybe, now that we've told you that, you'll see it. Somehow we don't immediately recognize it as a raindrop.

Each of the three cameras sits on its own, the biggest one at the top also sticks out a bit. Two smaller ones follow below, flush with the glass, and then finally, the LED flash is given a cutout in the panel. Previously, high-end LGs had their cameras arranged horizontally, but not the Velvet.

'3D Arc design' is part of the design philosophy, and it manifests itself not only in the curved screen, but also the back. The rear panel is symmetrical to the front and the two pieces of (unspecified) glass meet in a thin aluminum frame. This does mean the Velvet requires some finger gymnastics to pick up from a table, but on the way from your pocket to your hand and then on, handling is a non-issue.

Which brings us to one peculiar realization we had when we first picked up the phone - the Velvet is tall. Not in a bad way, not problematically tall, just even taller than what we've been getting lately. We had to double check its screen aspect ratio and at 20.5:9 it is, indeed, a bit more elongated than an otherwise comparatively-sized Galaxy S20+.

The Velvet measures 167.2x74.1x7.9mm and that's a good 5.3mm more along the y-axis than the Galaxy, but just 0.4mm wider. The Velvet weighs 180g and that's actually modest for a phone with such a large display.

Comparing to both the Motorola Edge and the OnePlus 8, the Velvet is noticeably taller too - 5.6mm more than the Moto, 7mm more than the OP. The Edge is thicker at 9.3, while the OP with its 8mm waistline remains the most compact of these three.

The controls layout, for one, has been carried over from recent models. The power button is on the right, some two thirds up the height of the phone. Two discrete volume buttons sit directly opposite, on the left side, and a Google Assistant key is a centimeter below them. All of the buttons are generously sized, well positioned and click very positively.

Power button on the right • Volume and Google Assistant buttons

Down on the bottom of the Velvet, you'll find the USB-C port and also a headphone jack. LG has been among the 3.5mm jack holdouts and continues to include it even on premium handsets. There's no mention of the famed Quad DAC in the Velvet literature, however. Speaking of audio, the main loudspeaker is also in these quarters as is the primary mic.

The SIM cards go in the tray that's accessed from the top plate. Our review unit takes a couple of nano SIMs or a nano SIM and a microSD card. There's a gasket lining the border where the tray meets the midframe, too.

Bottom layout • Hybrid second SIM slot

LG's made sure the Velvet gets compared to flagships when it comes to dust and water resistance and the phone carries an IP68 rating. The military standard MIL-STD-810G also gets thrown around in promo materials, as with previous LG handsets. The thing is, that's a widely encompassing standard containing numerous tests and while it does make it sound like the phone is more durable than others, we remain skeptical until we see more specific data.

Dual Screen hardware

LG's answer to foldables, the Dual Screen accessory is available for the Velvet as well, with pre-orders getting it free of charge in some markets. It has improved a lot in a couple of quick iterations since it first appeared on the V50 about a year and a half ago. It's meant to help with multitasking without the hassle of having to deal with fragile folding displays. And when you know you won't be needing it, you can leave it at home reducing bulk.

Bulky it still is, measuring 174.4x84.6x14.4mm and weighing 129g on its own. The accessory itself is now 5g lighter than the one for the V60, but the Velvet's a whopping 33g lighter than the V60 and the phone+DS combo here weighs in at a more reasonable 309g, as opposed to the V60+DS 347-gram heft (352g if you had the Verizon V60).

It's otherwise the same in principle - a battery-less flip cover case with an extra display, the exact same one that the phone itself has. The Velvet slides into the case, bottom first, and then snaps in at the top. Since it's connected via the USB-C port, the display pulls power directly from the phone. If you need to charge the whole contraption as is, you need to use the included magnetic charging tip. Conversely, you can also drop it on a wireless charger.

A few minor differences can be spotted when comparing to the V60's Dual Screen. The front has lost the glass panel and is now plain matte plastic - a move which is probably single-handedly responsible for the 5g weight savings. The back has sort of kept the striped texture, only now the ridges are spaced more closely.

The external monochrome screen, or Cover display, has what is probably a total of 40 pixels, but that's easily enough for basic time-telling and notification icons. It can now be set to always stay on, a new development compared to what we had on the V60. You can also schedule it to turn off during a specific time of the day, or you can cave it only activate when you pick up the phone.

LG's established approach to the primary screen on the Dual Screen has been kept here - the display is identical to the main one, notch and all. Though there's no camera on the second display, we understand why there needs to be a notch on the second screen - manufacturing standardization, and, less importantly, symmetry in use.

The second display flips all the way around thanks to what LG calls the '360 Freestop Hinge'. That way you can use the Velvet in solo-mode, and it's slightly less of a pain than the V60, but still far from ideal. The 360 bit also means that the cover can be left open at any angle, opening up use cases like video watching with the phone left on a table - we do have a reviewer that catches up on Netflix shows over lunch that way.

LG Dual Screen: software

The software functionality hasn't changed either. You can use apps side by side, you can open new browser tabs on the other screen, you can watch videos while you text, and you can use one of the displays as a full-screen game pad for supported games.

LG's Dual Screen is essentially an extension of the phone, and you can use any two apps side by side with the main display. Watch a YouTube video in full screen during a video call or pull up a Google Search to verify that one sketchy video your grandma shared on Facebook. Each display has its own home screen, so you can set up the second display (the left one) with its own app shortcuts, wallpaper, and widgets to your liking.

After you slide in the phone, you'll need to press the floating Dual Screen menu to power on the second display, otherwise, it will come on the next time you unfold the case. Now, you're free to multitask to your hearts content.

Once you have two apps open, you can tap on the floating DS menu and choose from the following options, provided that the content open contextually supports the command.

• Swap Screens: Switch two open apps between the two displays
• Show main on Dual Screen: Bring app from main screen to the Dual Screen
• Show Duals Screen on main: Same as above, but vice versa
• Put main screen to sleep: Useful when watching a video with the DS angled up on a table
• Wide View: Use a single app across both displays
• Turn off Dual Screen: Turns off the second screen, useful for propping the phone up in a "tent" mode

Dual Screen menu

LG has a custom web browser made specifically for its DS called "Whale for LG Dual Screen". This is one of the few apps that supports Wide Mode and a useful way to multitask. Perhaps its signature feature is that double-tapping a link quickly will open it on the other display. While you can have an instance of Chrome open on each screen, this handoff isn't possible with it.

Whale browser

Wide view is supported on Whale and most major apps in the Google suite - Chrome, Gmail, the Google app, Maps, Photos, YouTube and YouTube Music. Perhaps not all of these apps are ideal to use in Wide Mode, however: remember, there's a significant gap between the two displays that is very hard to ignore when you're trying to watch a YouTube video. Two apps side by side looks like the more sensible usage of the DS.

Still, if Wide mode works for you, it works for you. LG's tried to simplify interaction with the phone in this mode by splitting the keyboard onto both halves of the screen - or, rather, onto both screens. Just keep in mind this will only work with the LG Keyboard. You can still use something like GBoard, but it will not separate the two keyboard halves.

Chrome in Wide View • Whale in Wide View • Keyboard splits in two

If you use LG keyboard, a proprietary feature you might welcome is that it allows you to place the keyboard on one of the screens while having the text input field on the other - almost laptop-like.

Thanks to the second display, you can use the main one as a full gamepad. Or vice versa, though that would put the thin Dual Screen in your hands and the heavier phone above making for a top-heavy configuration, which is hardly ideal. For whatever reason, however, this second mode is precisely the state we were stuck in, with the option to swap screens being grayed out. We had to send the main screen to the DS, and then launch the gamepad, at which point it would end up on the main screen which the phone would then treat as the secondary display. We reckon it's a bug that will be fixed sooner than later.

LG's made it possible to fully customize a gamepad for any game, mapped to touch controls. If the game supports a Bluetooth controller, you can also use any of the included gamepad setups (console, raving, arcade, basic, custom) for supported games. It isn't as good as using a physical controller, but it does significantly improve the gaming experience.

The LG gamepad

The Dual Screen comes with predictable benefits and downsides and those haven't changed on the Velvet's implementation. The negatives include the bulkiness, increased battery consumption and potential hassle when having to charge the phone - do you take it out or do you remember to always bring the magnetic charging tip? The software could use a few tweaks too.

Having said that, being able to see two apps side by side or have a gaming controller sure do look like appealing reasons to use the Dual Screen. And if the bulk is an issue, just leave it at home that day. Of course, that's predicated on the assumption that you'd be getting the accessory bundled with the phone - we somehow cannot see ourselves getting it at an extra cost.

Single screen - good. Dual Screen - just as good

The Velvet is equipped with a 6.8-inch display of 1080x2460px resolution in a relatively unorthodox 20.5:9 aspect ratio. The pixel density works out to 395ppi. LG markets the panel as P-OLED, 'P' as in plastic, which is realistically all current phone OLEDs. Then again, all current phone OLEDs are active-matrix too, but only Samsung's are known as AMOLED. Anyway, LG also calls it Cinematic FullVision Display, which is an allusion to both its wide aspect and the minimal bezels, probably.

The Velvet's display is missing one key feature for a premium phone this year and that's a high refresh rate - it's a standard 60-hertz panel. The OnePlus 8 and the Motorola Edge can do 90Hz.

In our testing, the phone posted predictable numbers for brightness - around 400nits when adjusting the slider manually, a little over 600nits when the adaptive brightness takes over under direct light. The current flagships are capable of upwards of 800nits in auto mode, but the 400nits ballpark is common across all tiers of OLEDs. We got 2.4nits out of the Velvet with the slider all the way to the left - so it won't be a burden on your eyes in very dim surroundings.

Display test	100% brightness
	Black,cd/m2	White,cd/m2	Contrast ratio
LG Velvet	0	405	∞
LG Velvet (Max Auto)	0	617	∞
Motorola Edge	0	416	∞
Motorola Edge (Max Auto)	0	595	∞
Samsung Galaxy A71	0	398	∞
Samsung Galaxy A71 (Max Auto)	0	515	∞
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite	0	400	∞
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite (Max Auto)	0	705	∞
Realme X50 Pro 5G	0	525	∞
Realme X50 Pro 5G (Max Auto)	0	635	∞
Samsung Galaxy S20	0	397	∞
Samsung Galaxy S20 (Max Auto)	0	814	∞
Huawei P40	0	440	∞
Huawei P40 (Max Auto)	0	589	∞
LG V60 ThinQ 5G	0	511	∞
LG V60 ThinQ 5G (Max Auto)	0	622	∞
OnePlus 8	0	496	∞
OnePlus 8 (Max Auto)	0	803	∞
Xiaomi Mi 10 5G	0	522	∞
Xiaomi Mi 10 5G (Max Auto)	0	854	∞

The Dual Screen accessory can be set to match the main display's brightness or you can have it locked at a certain percentage level, irrespective of what you have on the main one. With the DS attached, we got a maximum of around 500nits on both displays with the auto toggle engaged - so the Velvet won't be as bright when it has to power both screens, but it's still easily bright enough.

Color reproduction on the Velvet is handled by a four-position menu with a further options depending on which mode you have it set in. Let's get this out of the way from the get go - there's no pre-set that accurately reproduces the sRGB color space. While we can't say we'd ever miss it, if sRGB is your thing, the Velvet in its current state isn't.

The out-of-the-box Natural mode gave us an average deltaE of 4.0 for the set of DCI-P3 test swatches - not 'calibrated' per se, but not straight up bad either. It comes with a slight blue shift to the whites and grays, to the tune of deltaE of 6, but once again it's far from the worst offenders in this respect. This mode comes with a 5-position Cooler-to-Warmer color temperature slider but bumping that from the midpoint towards warm only made things worse with the bluish tint shifting to purplish and deltaE increasing both on the white point and overall. Default it is then.

Next up in the menu is Vivid and that brought no appreciable difference to accuracy, though white in particular got bluer. Cinema mode got the white within a deltaE 2 of perfection and the average went down to 3.3. No sliders for further tweaking in these two modes.

Then there's the Custom mode, which does have sliders aplenty. The Color temperature one makes a return, joined by RGB sliders and then three more - for Saturation, Hue and Sharpness. At this point we called it a day.

Display color settings

LG makes no claims for HDR support on the Velvet, which to us sounds like a licensing-based decision more than actual hardware capability. YouTube will serve HDR content to the Velvet, and you'll be able to spot the phone changing its brightness and color reproduction when you play an HDR clip. Amazon Prime, too, will stream in HDR to the Velvet. Netflix, on the other hand, won't play nicely. The L1 Widevine level is supported, so it's not a DRM issue. The Velvet isn't listed on Netflix's supported devices page, while a ton of other LGs are, so HDR support could be a matter of time.

LG Velvet battery life

There's a 4,300mAh battery inside the LG Velvet - that would have been a huge number a year or two ago, today it's just about right. The Motorola Edge and the Galaxy A71 5G each have a 4,500mAh power pack, the OnePlus 8 relies on a cell of the Velvet's 4,300mAh capacity.

We ran our usual battery tests on the LG Velvet and got respectable results. At close to 16 hours of looping videos offline and over 12 hours of Wi-Fi web browsing, the screen-on numbers are very good. Almost 25 hours of voice call endurance is also pretty decent. The standby performance wasn't as impressive, and that's what brought down the overall Endurance rating to 79 hours.

Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSer App. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the LG Velvet for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.

The Velvet comes with a 16.2W adapter bundled and advertised support for 25W charging. We clocked its charging time with the included brick and got 1:59h from zero to full with 33% in the status bar 30 minutes into the process. Both are unremarkable numbers and charging feels slow in 2020.

We tried a couple of other adapters we had lying around - Samsung's 25W unit with PowerDelivery and PPS and a high-quality after-market brick capable of 65 watts. The differences we measured were in the single digits, both in percentage points at the 30-minute mark and in minutes to full charge. We gather that LG just chose a conservative power management curve for the Velvet. On the one hand that means it's no big deal that the bundled adapter is only capable of 16W output, on the other - what's with the advertised 25 watts?

The Velvet is also capable of wireless charging and is certified for the Extended Power Profile as the Qi standard goes. It doesn't go all the up to the standard's 15W spec, instead it maxes out at 9W according to the LG papers and 10W according to the Wireless Power Consortium's database listing. Wireless charging on the Velvet also works with the Dual Screen accessory mounted.

As for charging the phone over a cable with the DS on, we measured no appreciable difference introduced by the magnetic adaptor.

Speaker test

The Velvet has a stereo speaker setup of the most common type - there's a 'primary' speaker on the bottom, firing downwards, and the front-facing earpiece acts as the other channel. The speakers will respect the phone's position when held in landscape and will direct the correct channel to the correct speaker.

The Velvet fared very well in terms of loudness in our test, earning a 'Very Good' score. That's way ahead of the Motorola Edge's 'Below average', but not quite as loud as the OnePlus 8. The Velvet's output has lively vocals and well defined high notes, but little in the way bass thump.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.

Audio output quality

We've recently discontinued our audio output quality test.

The reason for that is that most phones that arrived for testing were already excellent in this regard and whatever difference there was, it was marginal and probably indistinguishable to anything but our lab equipment.

Software

The Velvet runs on Android 10 with the company's custom LG UX on top, that one in version 9. It's for all intents and purposes identical to what we had on the V60, save for the green accent color of the quick toggles, which is part of the default theme and can be changed anyway.

The lock screen shows missed notifications, and the dialer and camera apps can be quickly accessed by left or right. Double-tapping on notifications will prompt for your password or fingerprint and you can't even dismiss a notification without unlocking first. Fingerprint authentication is the only available biometrics secirity option, by the way, there's no face unlock.

Setting up a fingerprint

The AOD (always-on display) is highly customizable with lots of different clock styles to choose from, as well as the accent color. It can be set to come on for 10 seconds when you tap the display, or you can keep it always-on.

AOD settings

The interface is clean and simple with no complicated menus or endless list of settings. Built into Android 10 is the universal dark mode, which LG calls Night theme. It blacks out the interface, menus, and core LG apps like the dialer, messages, contacts, etc. Supported third-party apps will also switch to their respective dark modes. As on most other phones, you can schedule night mode to only kick in for a specific time interval, but here you can also schedule it based on the sunrise and sunset times. LG still offers you the option to "hide" the notch, too.

Settings menu • Hiding the notch • Night mode

During the initial setup, you're given the choice of whether you want an app drawer or not. The LG app drawer puts apps in the order they were installed, but its easy to switch to alphabetical. Swiping to the far left will get you to your Google Feed.

Lockscreen • Home screen • Folder view • App drawer • Drawer sorting • Google Feed

The notification shade is opaque with those default green accents we mentioned. Swiping down twice opens up the full list of toggles and brings them all the way down to the bottom half of the screen for easy reach - kind of like OneUI, but LG UX.

Notification shade • Quick settings • Edit quick settings

Users have a choice between the navigation bar and Android's gesture bar. As before on LG devices, if you opt for the button based approach, you can customize the navigation bar with up to five buttons including a screenshot button and a button to pull the navigation bar down.

Navigation options

LG has its own gallery app with cloud support for Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and Box. A basic FM radio app is available with no RDS or recording capability. Going by the official specsheets, that would be a South Korea-only feature, mind you. The HD Audio Recorder, on the other hand, is fully featured and offers an ASMR mode and fully customizable audio (gain + low cut filter + limiter) and recording at up to 24 bit / 192 kHz. It even has a "Studio mode" that lets you record voice over a track you might have on your phone.

Gallery • FM radio • HD Audio recorder

Synthetic benchmarks

The Velvet is built on the Snapdragon 765G platform, one short of the highest numbered chipset Qualcomm has below the 800 series - the 768 is mostly an overclocked 765. The S765 is a capable chip manufactured on a 7nm process and it has a built-in modem (X52), unlike the 865 - with 5G and all that. LG's phone comes in two RAM tiers - with 6 or 8GB of RAM, and a single storage option - 128GB of UFS 2.1. Ours is the 8-gig version.

In CPU testing the two major midrange 5G platforms post mostly the same results under multi-core loads - that would be the Exynos 980 in the Galaxy A51 5G and the Snapdragon 765 that the Velvet and the Moto Edge rock. In single-core tests, however, the Galaxy has a notable advantage. Last year's flagships like LG's own G8X (S855) and the Galaxy S10+ (Exynos 9820) still offer a significant leap in performance when compared against the Velvet, and OnePlus 8 with the current-gen Snapdragon 865 shows the peak performance that can be had for about the Velvet's asking price. Snapdragon 730 midrangers, meanwhile, aren't that far behind the 765s.

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  3399
• LG G8X ThinQ
  2870
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  2190
• LG Velvet
  1905
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  1867
• Motorola Edge
  1862
• Realme X2
  1750
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  1733
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  1694

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  919
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  827
• LG G8X ThinQ
  746
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  677
• Motorola Edge
  586
• LG Velvet
  586
• Realme X2
  545
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  542
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  521

In Antutu, the Velvet puts out similar performance to the Moto Edge's, the Galaxy A51 5G ever so slightly ahead. The Snapdragon 730 devices can't quite keep up and, conversely, the true flagship silicon is out of reach for the Velvet, whether it's this year's OP8, or last year's G8X and S10+.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  564708
• LG G8X ThinQ
  411980
• Samsung Galaxy

S10+
399901

Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
316007

Motorola Edge
305989

LG Velvet
297372

Samsung Galaxy A71
263396

Realme X2
257443

Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
253271

Top-tier chipsets have much beefier GPUs and it shows in graphics benchmarks with last year's high-end devices outperforming the Velvet pretty much 2:1, not to mention this year's OP8.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  88
• LG G8X ThinQ
  70
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  69
• Motorola Edge
  34
• LG Velvet
  33
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  32
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  30
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  30
• Realme X2
  29

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G8X ThinQ
  58
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  37
• Motorola Edge
  32
• LG Velvet
  29
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  28
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  27
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  26
• Realme X2
  24

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  52
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  42
• LG G8X ThinQ
  42
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  20
• Motorola Edge
  19
• LG Velvet
  19
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  17
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  17
• Realme X2
  16

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  46
• LG G8X ThinQ
  38
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  23
• Motorola Edge
  18
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  17
• LG Velvet
  16
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  15
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  15
• Realme X2
  13

Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  30
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  13
• Motorola Edge
  12
• LG Velvet
  11
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  9.9
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  9.9
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  9.3
• Realme X2
  8.9

Aztek OpenGL ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  31
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  16
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  12
• Motorola Edge
  12
• LG Velvet
  11
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  10
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  10
• Realme X2
  9.2

3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  7290
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  4420
• Motorola Edge
  3004
• LG Velvet
  2987
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  2837
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  2467
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  2464
• Realme X2
  2402

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  6720
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  4295
• Motorola Edge
  2801
• Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
  2778
• LG Velvet
  2758
• Realme X2
  2263
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  2253
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  2248

The LG Velvet posted performance numbers predictable for its hardware. It delivers high numbers for a midrange offering, but can't really cross swords with the top-tier devices - for raw performance a flagship from 2019 will be a much better choice. However, to get 5G in 2020 on a non-flagship model, you need to sacrifice something after all. On a more positive note, the Velvet exhibited virtually no thermal throttling under continued load - hardly guaranteed with flagship SoCs.

Velvet covers the camera basics only

The LG Velvet has a decent if entirely unremarkable camera setup. It consists of three units, two of them capable of taking pictures - a 48MP primary module, an 8MP ultra wide, and a 5MP auxiliary cam for depth estimation.

The main cam uses a Samsung 48MP TetraCell imager, or Quad Bayer in Sony lingo, which outputs 12MP images by default. The lens in front of it has a 26mm equivalent focal length in 35mm film camera terms and an f/1.8 aperture. Autofocus is phase detection based, there's no optical image stabilization.

The ultra wide angle cam employs a modest 8MP imager paired with a 15mm equivalent lens with an f/2.2 aperture. This one lacks autofocus. The 5MP depth-sensing module has an f/2.4 aperture lens, for what that's worth.

There is no dedicated 'macro' cam and with the ultra wide having its focused fixed further away, you're at the mercy of the main cam's close focus distance of about 9cm for doing close-ups. Which may very well be better than using some of the 2MP macro cams out there. But we digress.

For selfies, you get a 16MP front-facing cam with a fairly long 29mm equivalent lens with an f/1.9 aperture. This too is fixed focus.

LG's camera app is straightforward to use. Swipe across the screen to switch between modes or swipe vertically to switch between the front and rear cameras. Accessing Night mode (or Night view in LG's words) takes more than the ideal number of steps in the default state of the app - you need to scroll all the way to the right on the mode selector to get to the 'More' pane and it's there. You can add, remove and rearrange modes on the main carousel, however, so you can set things up to your liking.

The viewfinder's top row contains a toggle to engage the dual screen for viewfinder, shortcut to settings, an aspect ratio select (where the full 48MP mode is too), a filter menu, flash mode selector and a self timer.

There's a Manual Camera mode for stills (but not one for video as on the V60, for example) where you can tweak shooting parameters yourself. White balance can be set by light temperature (but no presets for common light sources), manual focus is available with a unitless scale from close focus to infinity (with optional focus peaking too), ISO can be set in the 50-3200 range and shutter speed options vary between 1/4000s and 20s (1/8s is the longest available on the ultra wide). Exposure compensation can be adjusted in the -2 to +2 EV range in 1/6EV stops. A tiny histogram is available too.

Camera app

Image quality

The Velvet takes overall pleasing photos with its main cam. Colors are nice and punchy but not over the top. The images have a distinctly contrasty look and shadows in particular may look a bit too dark on occasion, though we'd call it more of a conscious choice on LG's part than a deficiency in processing.

The phone resolves good detail for its 12MP standard photo size. Some noise can be seen if you look closely (for example, the windows on the left of the second sample), but it's nowhere near being an issue.

Daylight samples, main cam, 12MP

The Auto scene optimizer should tailor the shooting parameters to the scene. We found it to give colors a boost - particularly noticeable in the blues of skies and greens of foliage. If you prefer that look, go for it - we appreciate the ability to toggle off in settings.

Daylight samples, main cam, 12MP, Auto scene optimizer on

The 48MP mode will give you some extra detail in bright daylight at the expense of a decrease in dynamic range and marginal drop in saturation.

Daylight samples, main cam, 48MP

LG didn't fit a telephoto camera on the Velvet, but there is a 2x toggle in the viewfinder and the zoomed in shots actually don't look half bad, particularly if you manage expectations. There's a bit of noise, random textures like grass have a distinctly oversharpened appearance, but the images are more than usable overall.

Daylight samples, 2x zoom

The ultra wide angle cam on the Velvet does a fair job for the hardware. Its shots are quite soft, there's noticeable noise and fringing around high-contrast edges, but dynamic range is good and the colors are likeable, if a bit overdone with the saturation.

Daylight samples, ultra wide cam

Main camera photos in low light are detailed but on the noisy side. They're also quite dark for our liking, pretty much regardless of how well lit the scene is. Dynamic range is fairly wide if the auto HDR decides to kick in, less so without it. Color reproduction is on point - there are no reddish color casts and no major loss in saturation.

Low-light samples, main cam

Night mode on the Velvet has its own opinion as to when it should work and when it shouldn't. As in, you could go into into Night view, but the phone won't be doing the extra exposures and image stacking if it deems the light is above a certain level.

Even when it does engage, it doesn't make a world of a difference in terms of lifting the shadows. You may notice improved noise performance and some extra sharpening, but Night view is not the Night mode we know and love. Which is a somewhat strange development, given that the V60's Night view did give more noticeable results.

Low-light samples, main cam, Night mode

2x zoom shots don't get to benefit from HDR processing and have distinctly blown highlights. The photos are not great in terms of detail either though if you stick to fairly well lit scenes and fit to screen magnifications, they could still be usable. There's no Night view for 2x zoom.

Low-light samples, 2x zoom

The ultra wide cam's low-light shots are soft and lacking in detail. It's got some issues with colors in some of our warmly-lit scenes making for a washed out undersaturated look. We're not seeing an appreciable improvement if using Night view either.

Low-light samples, ultra wide cam

Low-light samples, ultra wide cam, Night mode

Portrait mode

Portrait mode on the Velvet works decently, provided you don't torture it with complex scenes with plants in front of your subject. Even in simpler circumstances, it's prone to making hazy outlines and weird aliasing in the border areas.

Portrait samples

The Velvet's portrait mode is neither here nor there with non-human subjects too. That hydrant's left edge is lost to the bokeh algorithms, and both the street sign and the trash can shots are the only successful samples of each of their respective 5-6 shot sequences.

Portrait samples, non-human subjects

Selfies

Selfies from the Velvet, on the other hand, are properly good. Despite the lack of autofocus, - LG got the distance right and the images usually turn out excellently sharp in bright light. In slightly dimmer conditions it'll bring the shutter speed down to 1/30s and that may introduce some shake. Either that, or failure to align the frames when HDR-ing. Taking multiple shots to ensure that you get a sharp one is sound practice.

Selfie samples

Portraits are very good as well - subject separation is about as good as one can reasonably expect from a single cam solution. Oddly, we had fewer issues with shake when taking pictures in Portrait mode, compared to regular Photo mode.

Selfie portraits

Video recording

The Velvet records video in up to 4K at 30fps with its main cam, with 1080p at 30fps and 60fps also available. The ultra wide is limited to 1080p at 30fps. There's no 2x zoom level when shooting videos, which is a bit odd. A toggle in settings lets you switch to using the h.265 codec to save on storage with the h.264 being used by default.

A couple of LG-exclusive previously available modes are present on the Velvet too - ASMR mode for amplifying even the softest sounds you subject makes, and Voice Bokeh for focusing on a subject's voice and reducing ambient noise (because that's totally what 'bokeh' stands for in the first place).

Audio modes: ASMR • Voice Bokeh

4K footage (48Mbpsbit rate) out of the Velvet's main cam is sharp and detailed with low noise. Colors are spot-on, contrast is high but detail remains legible in both the highlights and shadows. 1080p clips at 30fps (17Mbps) have that all too common oversharpened and overprocessed detail rendition, but color reproduction and dynamic range remain pleasing. 1080p at 60fps videos (24Mbps) have a distinctly interlaced look and an annoying jagged rendering of every slanted line.

The ultra wide angle cam's output comes with some extra pop in terms of color and contrast, similarly to stills. Its videos are okay - not bad, nothing special.

Video stabilization is available on both the main cam ad the ultra wide. 4K and 1080p/30fps from the main cam are nicely smooth, with walking-induced shake ironed out almost completely. Pans do have that split-second delay when you start moving but it can be alleviated with even slower panning. 1080p/60fps is shakier, but you'll likely want to avoid that anyway on grounds of poor quality.

The ultra wide cam's 1080p/30fps footage is also very competently stabilized.

The Steady cam mode comes with a 1x/2x toggle of its own and the 2x is actually sort of a hack to get the Velvet to record zoomed in footage. 1080p at 30fps is what you get, it comes from the main cam and it's pretty usable both on a tripod and hand-held. The 1x mode is sourced from the ultra wide, with a field of view ever so slightly narrower than the main cam's 1x outside of Steady cam. This mode too produces super stable footage.

Competition

With a price tag of €650, the LG Velvet is no ordinary midranger - last year's flagships can be had for as much. Take for example the Galaxy S10 Plus. Samsung's plus size offering for 2019 has an even better display, more powerful chipset, a telephoto camera (and an overall superior experience and image quality). Admittedly, there's no 5G on the S10+, much less a Dual Screen.

But you can have the Dual Screen with the LG G8X too, and with the accessory included that retails for Velvet money - the Velvet's €650 number will get you a DS only in the pre-order stage. Sure, the G8X tops out at 4G, but it's as good or better in most areas - beefier chipset, somewhat longer battery life, more capable camera (particularly for video, though still no telephoto). You can have the G8X in any color of your choosing, as long as it's New Aurora Black, and the Velvet's paint jobs are more and fancier, that has to count for something.

The Morotola Edge is another member of that premium midranger breed. It comes with the same chipset as the Velvet - so 5G is a go, it's got a more capable camera system that includes a telephoto and a 90Hz refresh rate display. The Velvet is IP68-rated, however.

Another 90Hz HDR-capable display comes on the OnePlus 8, complete with the reigning flagship chipset from Qualcomm. OnePlus didn't bother fitting a telephoto either, so the two are mostly on a level playing field in the camera department, though the OP does offer 4K60 recording. The OnePlus lasts longer on a charge and tops up faster, but is missing wireless charging. Perhaps more importantly, the Velvet is a headphone jack and a memory card slot ahead of the OP.

Samsung Galaxy S10+ • LG G8X ThinQ • Motorola Edge • OnePlus 8

Verdict

LG's doing a change of pace with this year's premium roster. Gone are the letters and numbers and ThinQ branding (how does one end up at a mouthful like the G8X ThinQ), in comes the Velvet with its expressive personality. With that much of it, universal appeal is inherently out of the question, obviously.

If you absolutely must have the latest and greatest processor, or a state of the art camera system, the Velvet isn't for you. We reckon that in due time LG will come up with an Ultimate, or a Titanium, or some other name to signify a true all-out phone, to cater to your flagship longings.

If, however, you value style on top of everything, don't want to actually pay the flagship premium, nor are you too keen to wait for one from LG, and feel like a second screen can add value to your everyday smartphone use, the Velvet will fit nicely. Just make sure you get one while the Dual Screen comes for free - €650 for the entire package seems reasonable, €650 for just the phone - not so much.

Pros

• Premium build, exquisite color schemes, IP68 rating.
• Dual Screen accessory opens up possibilities for multitasking.
• Overall solid OLED display(s).
• Very good battery life.
• 3.5mm jack, stereo speakers, microSD slot.
• Great selfies.

Cons

• Slow charging.
• No telephoto camera, low-res ultra wide.
• So-so results from the main cam in low light, ultra wide is nearly useless in the dark.

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