The LG V60 and VELVET Review: A Classic & A Design Restart
by Andrei Frumusanu on July 15, 2020 9:00 AM ESTSystem Performance
System performance of the two LG devices are interesting as they’re one of the first times we’re able to contrast Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765 versus the Snapdragon 865 from the same vendor, using the same software optimisations and design. We’re expecting the S765 to naturally fare worse, but the question is, how much worse is it?
Starting off with the web browsing test in PCMark which is very sensible to performance responsiveness of the DVFS system, we see that the V60 and Velvet both fare quite averagely. The V60 is in line with the OnePlus 8 devices at 60Hz in this test which is pretty much what we’d expect, but that also means it’s also slower than last year’s G8, which seemingly didn’t have an as quite conservative software configuration.
The Velvet isn’t doing well at all and besides of the weirdly behaving S20 Ultra with the Exynos 990 at 60Hz, is the worst performing devices here.
The writing sub-test which is generally more indicative of every-day performance of a device is again also quite contrasting between the two phones. The V60 fares well as is amongst the better performing Snapdragon 865 devices. The Velvet, which certainly not a slouch, compares more alike a 2018 flagship device in the scores.
In the Photo Editing test which makes use of the GPU power, there’s a huge difference in performance between the two phones. Again the V60 is in line with other S865 devices, whilst the Velvet tends to really lag behind the pack with its weaker GPU.
Overall, in PCMark, we see the V60 ending up on par with other 2020 flagship devices, although not quite able to best Samsung’s software optimisations. The Velvet is as expected a lower performing device, but it’s still quite a notable difference in the scores.
In the web-browsing and Javascipt browser tests, things are largely bottlenecked by the single-threaded performance of the CPUs of the SoC. With the Snapdragon 765 using a Cortex-A76 at 2.3GHz peak, the end performance is naturally quite a bit less than the more expensive flagship silicon. Generally, it seems the SoC falls in somewhere between a Snapdragon 845 and 855 in terms of performance, which is right where you’d expect it to be.
Overall Performance
Overall, the LG V60 was a very good performer and offers amongst the best experiences in 2020 – although LG’s lack of a higher refresh rate screen does mean it doesn’t quite give the smoothness that other devices are able to provide – although that’s just a compromise between performance and battery life.
The LG Velvet was actually a bit disappointing for me, and it really reminded me that the processing power of today’s SoCs are actually being fully utilised for daily usage of the phones. It’s not that the Velvet was unusable or a slouch, but I immediately noticed that it wasn’t quite as well of a performer compared to say the V60. In general terms, I would say the phone feels more like a 2018 flagship device in terms of responsiveness.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
81 Comments
View All Comments
flyingpants265 - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
Yeah, I've owned about 15 phones over the years. Never once have I experienced severe battery degradation. I think it exists mostly inside people's heads. It's much more likely that your usage patterns or software have changed, or just that you haven't noticed your battery running down constantly. You're not likely to notice a 20% drop, that's like 4 hours instead of 5... The way people talk it's like their "phone doesn't hold a charge anymore" ... Never really happened to me.RaduR - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
Not true.There are some problems here. In 2 years I see clear battery degradation . Try an app and you will see. All my phones after 1.5-2 years are at 25% battery degradation . That leaves 75% usable.
Also in 2 years apps get bigger and bigger eating core ram and battery . So you will see SOT and standby degradation .
It is not huge but it is.
From 12 -15 hous to 10 house usage time it's a difference that MAY create discomfort .
The above are correct only if you are a heavy user. ....
TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
I am a heavy user, constantly streaming audio and often video on my phone, and after 4 years its gone from 12 hours of SoT to 9.5. Losing 25% over 4 years isnt too bad.Bigger batteries are always welcome.
People also need to wean themselves off of fast charging. The heat generated from rapid charging wears down batteries faster. There's a reason most iphone batteries last as long as they do: they are still using their 5 watt chargers and the batteries dont even get warm.
With the ever growing battery capacities charging only overnight is truly viable. And the reduced number of charge cycles also extends battery life by several years.
nico_mach - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
Apps DO NOT 'get bigger and bigger'. Games, if you're playing any cutting edge games (whatever that means on mobile) maybe. But NO.The most common cause on my phones over time is that Android resets Google preferences that run in the background. You shouldn't have much of anything else running in the background so it doesn't matter how 'big' your apps get for battery life, except when you're using them.
And of course batteries age. But my s8 started out pretty big (compare to iphone 6, wow!) and is still going strong in year 3 or whatever this is now. Which is a shame, I'd like to switch back to apple actually, but I'm too frugal to give up on this phone.
nutxoo - Thursday, July 16, 2020 - link
I got myself and the wife the dual screen version of the v60. They were 899 BOGO. 450 seemed reasonable to me. We replaced our v30s that we never had issues with. We had gotten the v30s BOGO and each one had a rebate for a projector. The v30s replaced the g4s we got BOGO and we had those for 25 months until one did the boot loop but after 25 months we needed phones anyways'As long as I can get em BOGO and dont have issues I will keep getting LG.
PeachNCream - Friday, July 17, 2020 - link
I'm sorry, but I'm lost here. What does BOGO mean?nicolaim - Friday, July 17, 2020 - link
Buy one, get one free, a.k.a. two-for-one.flyingpants265 - Sunday, July 19, 2020 - link
I'm so sick and tired of the battery thing. Just stop. It's very easy to replace the battery on most phones, just buy the tools required or take it to a reputable shop.0x1874DE4C - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
USB 2? 2000 called and wants its interface back.TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
USB 3 needs an extra controller and 99% of people only use it to charge. Not worth the cost to LG