LG V20 v. Huawei Mate 9: Camera-derie between rivals

Final words

They say you shouldn't judge people by the clothes they wear, is there a similar saying about smartphones? Because we think you can tell a lot about a person by phone they use. If you see someone packing an LG V20 or a Huawei Mate 9, that's clearly a person that surfs the web a lot, for example.

If we let our audiophile selves run the show, they'd pick the LG V20 - for the awesome sound quality (both playing and recording), even if we swap the B&O headphones for our own pair. The wide camera gives videos that 'action cam', though we're not sure we'd risk an expensive phone and prop it up on the handlebars of our bikes.

The secondary screen may be a defining feature of the V20, but we think it has been surpassed by Always On Displays (including LG G5's). Yes, it offers an extra place for shortcuts, not part of the regular Android UI, but it was not a killer feature for us.

We would pick the Huawei Mate 9 for its great battery life and gaming performance. A particularly powerful loudspeaker also helps and we liked the deep blacks of the screen.

The dual camera wasn't perfect (our biggest issue was with video capture), but still edged out the LG overall. We liked the high quality zoom and bokeh effect and the selfie camera trounced the V20 cam.

Here's a tip - open the battery info screen on your phone and check what used the most power. Games or the music player? How long is your screen on time? Also check your gallery, it should give you instant feedback of how many photos and videos you took over the last few days.

Well, with that in mind, which phone is for you? Despite superficial similarities, the LG V20 and Huawei Mate 9 have very different characters and would suit different people.