LG’s release of the V20 could not have come at a better time – hot on the heels of the global recall of competitor Samsung’s Note 7 after reported cases of exploding battery. With its shock resistance, toughened build materials and an interesting design, can the V20 step into that now vacant spot as the front runner in the phablet race?

Design and hardware

At first glance, the V20 is a prettier but more fragile version of its predecessor, last year’s V10. No longer is it protected by steel rails or the shock absorbing rubber that covers the entire back. Instead, the V20 claims to have a US Military Standard 810G rating, which means the phone is shock/impact resistant.

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Though the top and bottom lip are made of polycarbonate and not aluminium, that doesn’t make it any more fragile. I have dropped the phone three times by accident, and each time the battery cover popped off but the phone itself was unharmed. Not a scratch.

Features

The V20 has a quad DAC (digital to analogue convertor) built in and supports 32-bit hi-fi audio. Audio files captured at 32-bit are high quality and “lossless”, meaning either there’s no compression or no quality is lost during compression. The proper way to enjoy this is with high-end earphones, and a pair of B&O earphones are included, one of the fruits of LG’s collaboration with the Danish company.

With quad DAC switched on and a decent pair of earphones, almost any track will sound better. The sound stage is much clearer and you get to hear each instrument, each layer clearly. The only problem with the DAC is that it only works over wired connections, not over Bluetooth.

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Image quality really is nothing to write home about. Rear camera photos are fine during the daytime. The selfie camera is actually just one wide angle sensor, so non-wide angle shots are simulated. You might therefore notice some distortion to the selfies. Nighttime photos approach mediocre because of overly aggressive noise reduction.

Photos taken in manual modes are something else. While they don’t necessarily produce better results, you can save your photos in RAW and manipulate them later.

Manual mode is also filled with cleverness. For example, it’ll lay a green tint over objects when you’re attempting manual focus so you know exactly what will look sharp and what will be out of focus. Video recording in manual is just as powerful but marred by the inability for optical image stabilisation (OIS) to be active at the same time when shooting at a smooth 60 frames per second. When OIS is on, the resulting footage is fairly stable.

The built-in microphones are also quite amazing, as they clearly capture spatial detail very well. Regardless of whether you’re shooting a video, or recording an HD sound clip with the voice recorder, it’ll sound as though you’re right there, minus all the ambient noise.