In recent years, LG is trying to rebuild its brand image by continuously launching new product lines in the G and V series, but it is not as successful as it wanted.
Perhaps partly because the design of the G and V series is conservative and does not have many differences compared to popular smartphones on the market. This makes customers hesitant when choosing LG phones.
Recently, however, LG has released a new phone available on LG Velvet. With LG Velvet, LG is trying to redirect its image in the smartphone market. LG is shedding the boring image of the G and V series, replacing it with a unique design with its own identity.
- Design and display
The design is the highlight of the LG Velvet. Over the years, LG’s flagship models have remained largely unchanged, making LG smart phones obsolete. Typically the LG V60 of LG, this is the phone with the most modern design of the company. However, when compared to the common ground of competitors in the market, this phone is still far behind.
The LG Velvet is like a new breeze that LG wants to bring to its customers. From the design of the camera body to the arrangement of the camera cluster, all the innovation comes from the Korean phone company.
The back of the device is kind of minimalistic, it has this layer of colorful Gorilla Glass, and then there’s a row of cameras arranged vertically, but in a smaller kind of layout.
LG Velvet is made to be very thin , and honestly this is one of the thinnest smartphones you can find on the market today. The phone is only 7.9mm thick, which gives that elegant, almost refined look you get from LG Velvet. But yeah, the thin design also makes the grip a bit uncertain . Still, even with that slim body LG Velvet carries a 4,300 mAh battery.
The power button sits on the right side, while the left side has the volume buttons , and also a dedicated Google Assistant button. With that call key for the virtual assistant, the user shouldn’t need to do many extra steps just to start talking to Google Assistant.
On the upper edge you’ll see the SIM tray, plus a microSD expansion slot. Then on the bottom edge there’s the USB-C port, an external speaker, and the headphone jack.
As for the display , LG Velvet comes with a 6.8-inch P-OLED, aspect ratio 20.5:9, and a resolution of 2,460 x 1,080. The screen looks good, bright and vivid colors, you know the typical “nice panel” vibe. The two sides are curved, so it feels more modern, and it even makes the whole device seem thinner.
Under the screen there’s an optical fingerprint reader. It looks ok from the outside, but the quality is… not great. The fingerprint reader on the LG Velvet is slow and kind of imprecise , so it creates more hassle for users than real advantages.
- Performance and battery
Instead of using the Snapdragon 865 chip as rivals, LG chose the “weaker” chip line, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G chip. However, LG’s choice is not without reason. With the selection of the 765G chip, this is a chip that integrates 5G modem, which helps to save costs for users.
LG Velvet is equipped with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal memory. These are common parameters on smartphones available on the market today. With the above parameters, perhaps LG Velvet will perform well in daily tasks of users.
During real-life usage, I discovered some lag when switching between apps. This is probably a big minus point for this phone as this is a 2020 phone and should be able to perform these basic tasks smoothly.
Grading on performance , LG Velvet managed to hit 2,718 points on single-core Geekbench 4 and 7,571 points on multi-core Geekbench 4. If you compare it to a rival like the OnePlus 8 Pro, LG Velvet looks well behind since Chinese models reached 4,195 and 13,142 points on Geekbench, for single core and multi-core.
As for the battery, LG kind of surprised everyone by squeezing in a 4,300mAh battery inside a thin body like the LG Velvet.
But the charging situation is where I get kinda disappointed. The LG Velvet takes up to around 2 hours to go from 0 to 100%. And the earlier LG V60 was actually quicker , it fully charged in just 92 minutes, so yeah, that contrast feels off. One more detail about removing the gauze on the LG Velvet is that it still supports wireless charging too.
- Camera
LG Velvet is equipped with 3 rear cameras and 1 selfie camera in the front. The image obtained from the LG Velvet is fine, but nothing special. The phone allows you to zoom up to 10x, but one advice for you is not to use this feature because when zooming up 10x the photos you get will be blurred and very heavy noise.
The selfie camera takes good photos in uniform lighting conditions, but it will have problems when in overexposed or underexposed situations, the device will not be able to accurately balance the light and dark points.
LG Velvet can shoot in 4K, and the footage recorded at that resolution looks pretty good, but honestly there are other phones in the same price segment that manage it even better.
- Software
LG Velvet runs LG UX 10 based on Android 10. With LG UX 10, users will have access to a number of smart features such as screen recording and LG’s 3D sound technology. One minus point is that the app icons on the LG UX 10 are still a bit animated.
One plus point for LG Velvet is that LG has integrated a lot of Google apps on this phone. Including apps like Google Podcasts, Google Photos and Google News are pre-installed.
LG Velvet 5G US Model LMG900UM1A ATT Unlocked 6GB/128GB US Version – Aurora Grey (Renewed): Buy it now
LG Velvet 5G G900UM 128GB AT&T GSM Unlocked Phone 6.8″ – NO CDMA (Silver): Buy it now
LG Velvet 5G G900UM 128GB AT&T GSM Unlocked Phone 6.8″ – NO CDMA (Silver) (Renewed): Buy it now
Tech Reviewer & Product Analyst
Định Bia has spent over 10 years testing consumer electronics with a focus on smart technology. He work as a product advisor at Biareview where he helped customers find the right devices for their needs. He personally tests every product featured on this site using a consistent evaluation framework covering quality, durability, and value. All reviews are based on experience, not influenced by the manufacturer.
