LG V10 unveiled with dual front cameras and second display

LG has unveiled its next flagship smartphone, the V10, ahead of its official launch event. A proper announcement isn’t due until later today, as LG is holding a dedicated press conference for it in New York. However, that hasn’t stopped LG from uploading the official product video for the V10 to YouTube this morning. 

Taking several cues from the LG G4, the V10 has a number of additional features to make it a truly premium handset. The first is its second, always-on display, which runs along the top of the phone above the main display and shows the time, date, weather, battery bar and any notification icons when the screen is turned off. When the screen is turned on, though, the second screen can be used to display music controls, calendar notifications and additional shortcut icons, allowing you to seamlessly jump in and out of apps without having to return to the main home screen.

Admittedly, it’s not unlike what Samsung tried to do with the original Galaxy Note Edge, but from the product video it looks like LG’s implementation is far more practical. Of course, there’s still a normal 5.7in 2,560×1,440 screen beneath the second display, which uses the same Quantum IPS panel as the G4.  

^ The V10 will be available in Space Black, Luxe White, the incredibly dull-sounding Modern Beige, Ocean Blue and Opal Blue

As for the phone’s design, it seems the V10 will ditch the G4’s leather casing for what LG’s calling “dura-skin”, which is a kind of soft-touch textured material that’s designed to protect against scratches and enhance the phone’s overall durability. It will also have a stainless steel “dura-guard” frame, but, like the G4, it won’t be a unibody chassis. Instead, the dura-skin casing can be removed, so you can get to the removable 3,000mAh battery. You’ll also find a microSD card slot here, which can take cards up to a massive 2TB in size, but the phone will come with 64GB of onboard storage as standard anyway. It’s a fairly hefty device, though, as LG has said it will weigh 192g and measure 159x79x8.6mm. 

Components-wise, the V10 will use the same hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chip as the G4, although this time accompanied by a whopping 4GB of RAM, and it will have a 16-megapixel rear camera. The V10 also has dual front-facing cameras, one of which has a narrow 80-degree lens for selfies while the other has a wider 120-degree lens for “groufie” shots. Both sensors only have a 5-megapixel resolution, but the V10 can actually combine these images together to create wider group shots.

Like the G4, the V10 gives you full control over the camera’s shutter speed, white balance, focus and ISO levels, while video mode lets you control the frame rate and switch between 16:9 and 21:9 aspect ratios. It also has a Steady Record feature, which minimises hand shake with its electronic image stabilisation, as well as a 15-second auto edit function which lets you cut longer videos into 15-second clips for sharing on social media – all of which you can do within the camera app itself. There are also three directional microphones on hand for enhancing your video’s audio.

The V10 will be available in Korea later this month, with the US, China and other key countries in Asia, South America and the Middle East following soon after. There’s no word on pricing or an official UK release date just yet, but hopefully we’ll find out more this afternoon. We’ll bring you all the latest news as it’s announced.