LG V40 ThinQ hands-on review

LG's usual stuff on top of Android 8.1

The V40 ThinQ boots Android 8.1 Oreo with LG's in-house launcher on top. Sadly, gone are the days of the V20 which was at the time the first phone to launch on Nougat. It is what it is. Anyway, the V40's user interface is basically identical to that of the G7 - colorful icons, white menus, the proprietary Smart Bulletin - it's all here.

User interface: Lockscreen • Homescreen • .. and another one • Quick toggles • Task switcher

Synthetic benchmarks

The V40 ThinQ is powered by the Snapdragon 845 - aside from custom SoCs from Samsung and Huawei, that's the norm for Android flagships this year. The test unit we have has 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. There were hardly any surprises with the benchmark scores, but you can see the numbers we got out of the V40 below.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS
  11472
• vivo NEX S
  9160
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  9026
• OnePlus 6
  9011
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  9003
• HTC U12+
  9001
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  8883
• LG G7 ThinQ
  8865
• LG V40 ThinQ
  8769
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  8607
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  8494
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  8349
• Oppo Find X
  8018
• Huawei P20 Pro
  6679
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  6428
• LG V30
  6365
• Google Pixel 2 XL (Android 9)
  6055

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS
  4823
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  3771
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  3642
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  2486
• vivo NEX S
  2466
• HTC U12+
  2456
• OnePlus 6
  2450
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  2438
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  2431
• LG V40 ThinQ
  2425
• LG G7 ThinQ
  2395
• Oppo Find X
  2322
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  2199
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  1915
• Huawei P20 Pro
  1907
• LG V30
  1901
• Google Pixel 2 XL (Android 9)
  1807

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS
  47
• vivo NEX S
  34
• OnePlus 6
  33
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  33
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  31
• Oppo Find X
  28
• Huawei P20 Pro
  21
• HTC U12+
  20
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  20
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  19
• LG G7 ThinQ
  18
• LG V40 ThinQ
  18
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  14
• LG V30
  13
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  13
• Google Pixel 2 XL (Android 9)
  13

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS
  346379
• Oppo Find X
  291218
• vivo NEX S
  287081
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  284555
• LG V40 ThinQ
  270634
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  265314
• OnePlus 6
  264200
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  264044
• HTC U12+
  263696
• LG G7 ThinQ
  259393
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  248823
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  246660
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  217298
• Huawei P20 Pro
  209884
• Google Pixel 2 XL (Android 9)
  206711
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  203119
• LG V30
  182374

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS
  60
• Oppo Find X
  35
• LG G7 ThinQ
  35
• LG V40 ThinQ
  35
• OnePlus 6
  35
• HTC U12+
  35
• vivo NEX S
  35
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  35
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  35
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  35
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  33
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  28
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  28
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  25
• LG V30
  24
• Google Pixel 2 XL (Android 9)
  24
• Huawei P20 Pro
  23

Initial impressions

Ever since dual cameras came around, some of us here have been asking 'what about three?'. And not really Huawei's three, more like three separate focal lengths type of three.

There were the telephoto secondary cams and there was also LG persevering with their ultra wides. So it comes as no surprise that it's precisely LG bringing us the coveted triple setup adding a telephoto cam (in smartphone terms, at least) to complement its usual regular+ultra wide duo.

Now there are practicalities to deal with, like battery life, display brightness and colors, and all sorts of other testing, plus some more thorough pixel peeping than what we could do for this hands-on - the usual stuff that goes in an in-depth review. We'll be working on that in the coming days, no doubt about that.

But to wrap this up - it's three separate standalone cameras covering a focal length 'range' of 16mm to 50mm - with all those lenses on its back, LG needs to have messed up all the other stuff for the V40 ThinQ not to be a winner. After all, there can't be too many cameras on a smartphone, and no other has more yet.