lg v20 rumors

LG V20 Specs

Top-end specs in tow? Check! Standing-out hardware features? You bet! Noteworthy software functionalities? Also on board! That's what applied to the intriguing LG V10 behemoth last fall, when LG decided it's high time it spiced up its device lineup. And it did spice it up just right — with two front-facing cameras, and more interestingly, an auxiliary display just above the regular one, the V10 was truly a device that stood out. However, upon closer inspection it exhibited one too many flaws that somewhat marred the general user experience.

The V10 is in the past now, and it seems that LG thinks it can decipher the secrets of the market by unleashing a follow-up to the V10. It will be called the V20, not the V11 like some speculated, and we now know it is getting announced in a couple of weeks' time - on September 6 in San Francisco, and so far it seems like it will be a mashup between the LG V10 and the LG G5.

Design: The V20 is expected to feature a G5-like full-metal design. It will likely feature modular design. 
Display: We expect LG to throw in either a 5.5 or a 5.7-inch display on the V20, most likely a quad HD one anyway.

Hardware: A Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset paired with 4 gigs of RAM will be present.
Camera: The V20 will likely feature a dual-camera setup at the back, but possibly not at the front. One of the rear cameras is expected to be a 21MP one.

Software: The device could very well be the first device in the world to arrive with Android 7.0 Nougat on board.
Release date: The phone will be announced on September 6 and will possibly hit the shelves around October 1. USA will be getting it.

Design

We just had the pleasure of being treated to some alleged LG V20 renders, which suggest that the phone will be getting an LG G5 makeover. The renders heavily hint that LG might ditch the plastic of the V10 for a full-metal body, just like the G5. This will be welcome since we were not particularly big fans of the unimpressive plastic at the back and the bland color options of the V10.

Oh, and while it's impossible to judge from the renders themselves, we might speculate that the LG V20 might offer modular support, just like the G5. 

What makes us think so? First of all, the renders heavily hint at that - we can see a button latch release on the right side of the device, which will be used to detach the "Friends" modules from the device itself and swap them at your will. Secondly, the tagline of the announcement teaser for the V20 clearly says "Play More", which is similar to the one of the LG G5, and we all know that it ended up being a modular device. Also, it makes perfect sense that LG will continue to establish its modular Friends ecosystem.

Size-wise, the latest info we have suggests that the V20 will measure at 159.5 x 78.1 x 7.7, (though the rear camera bump is obviously thicker), so it's about the same size as the V10, which measures 159.6 x 79.3 x 8.6 mm. In general, the V20 could be noticeably thinner, which will be more than welcome. It also looks that the side bezels are kept to a sanitary minimum, which would also be a pretty good trait, though we won't be content until the fish goes in the frying pan.

Being an LG device, we expected the V20 to feature the signature by now rear-positioned power/fingerprint reader and volume buttons, but according to the latest leaks LG might be going for a more mainstream approach with the volume rocker, which is seemingly positioned on the left side of the device. We really hope that this time around they provide more feedback and are way less wobbly than the ones on the V10. The signature rear-positioned home button which also doubles as a fingerprint scanner is still at the back, though.

Display

Oh, here's where it gets interesting, or at least, should get interesting! No beating around the bush - one of the highlights of the V10 was its auxiliary 'ticker' LCD display, which was always on and functioned as a task switcher and an organizer, of sorts. We found it useful, especially for power users, and we really hope that the V20 comes with a similar display on board. We have no idea if this is happening yet, but we know it's illogical for the V20 to be stripped of that standout feature.

It seems that the secondary display will be back with the V20, and while we have no idea if it will feature any functionality improvements, we're hopeful that it does. 

As far as the main display is concerned, we already mentioned that we are expecting LG to put either a 5.5 or a 5.7-inch display on its V20. The screen will most likely be a quad HD one, meaning at its resolution will be 1,440 by 2,560 pixels. That's more than acceptable for us, but let's hope that LG nails the calibration of the display. In retrospective, the V10's display was quite cold and blueish, which was definitely offputting to say the least.

Hardware

We will be totally surprised if the LG V20 doesn't come with a Snapdragon 820 chipset and some 4GB of RAM on board. This is the current gold standard, though we'd be definitely pleased if LG put a Snapdragon 821 and/or 6GB of RAM inside.

Back in 2015, the LG V10 was LG's most powerful phone, but with the arrival of the not too shabby G5 the Korean company will have to outdo itself once again, even more so if it wants to effectively challenge its adversaries.

As far as native storage goes, we hope that the V10 once again ships with 64 gigs of storage right out of the box. Additionally, keeping the V10's microSD card slot on board won't hurt.

We were pleasantly surprised that the V10 features a removable back and battery, enabling its users to swap the battery at will. If the V20 ends up being a modular device, you can bet that you will be able to swap battery modules at will. Speaking of batteries, we hope that the V20 either boasts a larger battery or better battery optimization than the V10. As a reminder, the latter boasted a 3,000mAh juicer that was both quick to charge and quick to discharge - we've never been fans of that!

Camera

The rumor mill claims that the V20 will be endowed with a 21MP camera at the rear. This will be a significant increase over the V10's 16MP one, though this doesn't necessarily mean that the V20 will be in another ballpark at all. There's much more to camera quality than megapixels alone, so we are keeping fingers crossed for great image post-processing.

According to the latest leaks, the V20 could be also getting a G5-like dual-camera setup at the back, too. It's highly probable that it will function much like the one on the LG flagship - one of the cameras will function like a regular one, whereas the other one could be a wide-angle one and produce interesting fisheye pictures.

However, it seems there might not be a dual selfie camera setup on the V20. We don't know how we feel about this yet, since we were generally happy with LG's crack at making the V10 a notable selfie-taking machine.

In our review, we called the V10's dual 5MP front cameras "glorious, producing deep, colorful, nicely detailed portraits", though we were not particular fans of the extreme beautification feature that it enabled by default and leads to displeasing selfies. Let's hope that the V20 does not stray away from that narrative, despite possibly featuring a single front-facing snapper.

All in all, LG nailed it in the camera department with the V10 and the G5, and we really hope that the V20 will prove to be a worthy successor to both devices.

Release date and expectations

As we already told you, the LG V20 goes official on September 6. We've got no idea when it will be hitting the shelves - it could be anywhere between a couple of weeks to a month or even two, yet here's to hoping that the window between the announcement and the release will be as short as possible. 

However, the renders we stumbled upon the other day might be giving us a hint about the V20's release date — the date on the phone's lock screen is none other than October 1. Take this with a grain of salt, but this is our best speculation as of now!