LG Velvet - user opinions and reviews
1915934- RishiGuru
- uIB
XLR8R, 23 Dec 2020Unfortunately, not yet. Vivo will deliver this update though at some point.Sorry to hear that. However it seems Vivo is putting good effort to keep their NEX lineup up to date.
Both X21UD & NEX S got released in 2018, Q2 and arrived with Android 8.1. However my NEX S gets regular updates receiving Android 10 on Apr, 2020. It was good to know NEX S will get Vivo's latest OriginOS flavor next year. This means NEX S released on June, 2018 with FuntouchOS and Android 8.1 will finally be updated to OriginOS over Android 11. Awesome if this reaches global ROM users.
https://www.gsmarena.com/vivo_unveils_originos_update_roadmap_over_30_phones_to_get_it_in_2021-news-46347.php
One question, from the bunch to Techo & Infinix phones available in India which one do you rate the best? I am keen to buy one.
Thanks in advance!!!
- XLR8R
- P%0
RishiGuru, 22 Dec 2020I am inline with your views. BTW, did the Vivo X21UD received Android 10?Unfortunately, not yet. Vivo will deliver this update though at some point.
- XLR8R
- P%0
joe nodden, 22 Dec 2020Any complaints I have about LG that don't relate to this phone do nothing to influence my... moreI understand where you are coming from. There are value phones out there that can give better specs at this price.
But LG isn't competing with Realme, TCL, Xiaomi, Poco or Tecno/Infinix. Its competing with Oppo, Vivo and Samsung. At the price you buy the Velvet 4G, the options are Samsung's S10 lite or S20 FE (if you pay extra for that dual screen AND run for discount at Samsung), the Oppo Reno phones and Vivo's X series.
If you compare this to something like a Vivo X50, you'll be hard pressed to find anything this phone is much worse at, while there's at least some things this phone is much better at. This phone has no standout features maybe, but I really didnt see any real bummers either.
3211463- joe nodden
- j5{
XLR8R, 22 Dec 2020Its about as useless as IP68, seeing no one warrants that for water resistance anyway.
This... moreAny complaints I have about LG that don't relate to this phone do nothing to influence my opinion here.
This is a 500 euro phone released in 2020 with an SoC from 2018, no high refresh rate display, not even a high resolution, not any redeeming features whatsoever, not the cameras, not the battery, not the charging speed, not the size, especially not the software, and despite this being LG, not even the headphone jack. (Worse than 90% of LG's other jacks) Personal bias changes literally nothing about that.
You can easily find phones at the same price that are better in literally every single way possible. Or ignore the jack and find phones at the same price that are in a whole other dimension of quality.
1915934- RishiGuru
- utg
XLR8R, 22 Dec 20205G does not make sense yet as the major countries in the world have not yet finalized the band... moreI am inline with your views.
BTW, did the Vivo X21UD received Android 10?
1915934- RishiGuru
- utg
XLR8R, 22 Dec 2020The Velvet packs an audio punch even without the quad DAC. Using the same earphones I was hear... moreLG Velvet (Snapdragon 845) most probably uses Qualcomm's flagship Aqstic WCD9341 audio codec. They have used it prior with their LG V30+ in standard mode (HiFi Mode disabled). I don't know if my LG G8X uses the same chip like my V30+ in standard mode.
I found WCD9341 is a dedicated audio chip with ADC, DAC and headphone amplifier built in and mates with their flagship SD8XX lineup. It is not just a random low cost audio codec shoved into a Qualcomm power management IC. This chip contains a very good DAC section and can produce nearly 1 Vrms headphone-out when implemented in high performance mode.
WCD9341 supports PCM playback of upto 384 kHz, native DSD steams upto DSD128 and also DoP (DSD over PCM). However most manufacturers does not implement native DSD/DoP. So we also have a WCD9340 which is identical to WCD9341 but this time without DSD/DoP. Redmi K20 Pro implements WCD9340. With an advertised dynamic range of 130 dB & distortion of -109 dB during audio playback the WCD9341 is quite close to ESS ES9218P SABRE (LG's Quad DAC) or Cirrus Logic CS43199 (Vivo NEX S). Digging deeper I even found Qualcomm partnered to further tune their flagship WCD9341 audio sound signature under guidance given by a group of audiophiles known as "Golden Ears". It just proves Qualcomm was serious with their WCD9341 & WCD9340.
Going through the spec sheet I found WCD9341 is designed to consume power anywhere between 6mW to 34mW to operate. In high performance mode it will require all of those 34 mW and maybe LG is providing all the power it needs by dedicated power supply rails to WCD9341. On other hand LG's QuadDAC consumes 2.5 times more power at 80mW but provides over 2 Vrms output, more than twice that of WCD9341. The key however is to find a smartphone manufacturer who understands & values analogue audio and implements WCD9341 in high performance mode.
Last year I bought the Meizu 16th (Meizu 16 in China), which sadly was their last flagship with a headphone jack. At $240 in India, it came with Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC & 8GB RAM. Meizu India provided us a fully Google certified device with Google Playstore (GMS) pre-installed. In short, pretty awesome performance & flagship built quality at a nominal price.
All knows Meizu have a rich history of making portable music players before they ventured into smartphones and still today makes some very good quality headphones & earphones. As such the company understands sound quality like LG & Vivo and many of their previous flagships smartphones came with dedicated DAC solutions. I believe where these three manufacturers excels in audio is internal circuit design & audio tuning which sounds appealing to our ears.
However for 16th, there was no press material indicated anything extraordinary in the audio department. I took for granted it was using some low quality audio codec from Qualcomm. However more I listened music through my Meizu 16th, more I fell in love with this device. One day just for fun I sat down a did some critical listening with some good earphones, and immediately noticed the sound quality is above ordinary through the audio jack. It has to do with both the audio tuning & hardware. I started reasoning my mind how is it possible with Qualcomm codecs and Meizu must have done something special.
After going through some Chinese websites performing detailed tear-downs, I found Meizu 16th was using the highest quality flagship audio codec available from Qualcomm, better known as Aqstic WCD9341. However in real life there still remains a certain gap in performance which Qualcomm needs to fill compared to ESS & Cirrus Logic. In Meizu 16th tear-downs by Chinese media, I found the WCD9341 audio chip sits under its own tiny metal plate cover with graphite & copper shielding on top. So the chip is well isolated from rest of the PCB and other ICs, eliminating a lot of induced noise on the analog stage of WCD9341. Frankly, quite impressed as Meizu shelled more money in the production line to make sure the sound quality remains intact through the 3.5 mm audio jack.
The other fact I noticed on 16th is the power available through audio jack is much higher than similar WCD9341 implementations like in OnePlus 6 (sadly the last OnePlus with audio jack). The OnePlus frankly sounds anemic in comparison, no drive. Meizu seems to have much more power and can drive same headphones much better. This is mostly due a better power supply stage to the audio chip. As such I believe the Velvet implementation is more like Meizu than OnePlus.
Qualcomm deserves credit & also Meizu & LG deserves a pat on their back for bringing to us perhaps the best implementations of Qualcomm Aqstic WCD9341 on a smartphone till date.
- XLR8R
- tTb
Muzik, 22 Dec 2020I never tried any Chinese brand ever. Lets see if croma stores have this mobile, i will check ... moreI dont know how it compares to past G/V series phones, but what I can say, and I am quite sure the measurements will confirm, is that its better than almost any non-LG phone launched in 2019 or 2020 (dont know about Xperias though).
- XLR8R
- tTb
joe nodden, 22 Dec 2020Jeez what are you, an LG marketer? You literally just said the durability certification after ... moreIts about as useless as IP68, seeing no one warrants that for water resistance anyway.
This is the first LG phone I felt worth using in the last five years. You have grudges against a company, take them elsewhere. LG is about as good as any brand you can think of, in some respects better.
3211463- joe nodden
- j5{
XLR8R, 22 Dec 2020I checked this, the Velvet is tested according to MET labs tests under MIL-STD-810G for Transi... moreJeez what are you, an LG marketer? You literally just said the durability certification after I just said how useless it is.
- Muzik
- sGP
XLR8R, 22 Dec 2020The Velvet packs an audio punch even without the quad DAC. Using the same earphones I was hear... moreI never tried any Chinese brand ever. Lets see if croma stores have this mobile, i will check sound quality by myself. Just want to be 100% sure if this match LG G7+ sound. If not better at least this should have equal experience. Thanks for the information.
- XLR8R
- tTb
YUKI93, 28 Jul 2020Being a 4G-only device, I can understand why LG is still sticking with SD845. They could have ... more5G does not make sense yet as the major countries in the world have not yet finalized the bands of the major carriers. Vo5G (voice) is still an issue, and to my knowledge there's no phone that actually does carrier aggregation over 5G today. 2022 is probably a better year for buying a 5G phone.
- XLR8R
- tTb
joe nodden, 07 Aug 2020Hahahahaha they finally added the warning under the "military grade certification". ... moreI checked this, the Velvet is tested according to MET labs tests under MIL-STD-810G for Transit Drop and temperature shock conditions.
- XLR8R
- tTb
Muzik, 26 Nov 2020Yup, that decision is taking us away form LG. But lets see what comes next with a Quad Dac. I ... moreThe Velvet packs an audio punch even without the quad DAC. Using the same earphones I was hearing notes I never knew existed when I was listening on a Xiaomi device....Do not worry.
- XLR8R
- tTb
RishiGuru, 20 Dec 2020What are your initial impressions with the LG Velvet (4G)? Do you think it to be better device... moreImpressions are very good. The main improvement over G8X is actually in software. The UI runs the smoothest I ever saw on an LG phone, and is also better than a few competitors including Samsung (Exynos), Mi and Vivo. The build quality is very premium and apparently the rear glass has oleophobic coating as well, something overlooked on other brands. The battery backup is probably the best I've seen from an SD845 device, but you'll need to charge it once a day anyway. There's no quad DAC but the audio output is awesome from both the stereo speakers and the headphone jack. It probably uses a Qualcomm higher end Aqstic DAC chip. UI feels different, like a cross between One UI and XOS from Infinix. Gaming is smooth, and it runs very cool, heats up noticeably lesser than the Note 20 exynos edition or the Oppo Reno 10X Zoom.
Camera wise, it actually captures a lot of details but tends to produce softer images than what you would expect on an oppo or samsung high end phone. Low light camera also has the same drawbacks. But it has interesting features for audio or video recording including ASMR mode. I would like to say this phone is a treat for indoor photos because it allows consistent photo quality between the main and ultrawide cameras, which is a rarity on smartphones. It does lack advanced macro and telephoto capabilities though.
This phone is the best LG has been for a while and I hope they continue this momentum. If they can fix their Android update frequency and provide regular security patches, they'll be back in all markets as a hot item.
1915934- RishiGuru
- utg
XLR8R, 19 Dec 2020It's battery life is a bit better than the Galaxy Note 20 4G Exynos version. There are pr... moreWhat are your initial impressions with the LG Velvet (4G)? Do you think it to be better device than LG G8X?
- XLR8R
- P%0
star1337, 10 Dec 2020Bought this phone a week ago. Had to return it because I was unable to call someone, the call ... moreIt's battery life is a bit better than the Galaxy Note 20 4G Exynos version. There are probably better phones at this price point in terms of battery life though (S10 Lite, Oppo Reno series).
However, if you are using S20/Note 20 series (Exynos), you'll only miss some performance and camera quality with the LG Velvet. This phone is very premium!
- star1337
- SXK
Bought this phone a week ago. Had to return it because I was unable to call someone, the call would end as soon as the person on the other end picked up. The battery life was also pretty poor, just watching Youtube or using Whatsapp drained the battery pretty quick.
- Nerotso
- rr7
I still wonder why the fast charger trick can't work for the big companies but for Chinese it works well
- Muzik
- sGP
Hajlorr, 26 Nov 2020Snapdragon 845?Yes, in India. They used SD 845 because they didn't launch 5G model in India
- not pleased
- 81e
Bought the LG Velvet at Walmarts. Salesman "set it up". Got home and could log in ONCE. ONE phone call. ONE photo taken - then the phone was nonfunctional. Four Hours on "Chat" , then emails trying to fix problem - different instructions sent - totally opposite info. Phone jammed, no fingerprint ID able to be used. Sent for repairs. Waiting for SLOW return by Canada Post. Email claims it got new tabs, back, inside redone- so really?? This is a NEW phone now?? Then my address book reveals photo of salesman and the person is downloading all my photos. Extremely dissatisfied with the junk quality of the phone, the poor service instructions, the invasions of privacy and now a "new" phone majorly repaired.
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