LG V40 ThinQ: Five-camera flagship smartphone unveiled

LG just announced their fifth phone in just under a year. After the V30, V30S ThinQ, V35 and G7 ThinQ comes the V40 ThinQ, the company’s new flagship with a twist – it features five cameras.

That’s three lenses on the back and two on the front, something we’ve never seen in a phone before. In fact, only a handful of phones has a triple-lens rear setup (Huawei’s P20 Pro, the Porsche Design Mate RS and the Oppo R17 Pro).

Five lenses might be the V40 ThinQ’s major headline, but there’s plenty more to get excited about too. Read on for the full rundown on LG’s latest offering, from price and release date to features and design.

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LG V40 ThinQ release date and price: When will it be available in the UK?

The V40 ThinQ is available to preorder in the US from 11-12 October, depending on the network provider, with many of them making the phone available from $900.

None of the V range of phones has been released in the UK before, so it’s fairly unlikely that this phone will be released here either. If it did, we’d expect the phone to come in at around the same price point – £900 – but right now we don’t know exactly when the phone will get a UK release.

LG V40 ThinQ features: What will it do?

Well, the cameras are the star feature of the phone, so let’s take a look at them first. On the back, there are three lenses – a 12-megapixel f/1.5 standard lens, a 16-megapixel f/1.9 107-degree super-wide lens, and a 12-megapixel f/2.4 telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom. At the front, there’s an 8-megapixel f/2.4 standard lens, and a 5-megapixel f/2.2 wide-angle lens.

New camera features include an AI Composition feature, which adjusts the position of your subject for optimally balanced photos; 3D Light Effect; and Cine Shot – a cinemagraph maker. LG’s Super Bright tech is also included, boosting brightness in dark environments.

Part of the phone’s name is ThinQ, meaning that the device features built-in “AI”. This feature was announced at CES 2018 and comes in a wide range of LG products, meaning that it comes equipped with voice, video, sensor, spatial and body recognition and detection.

Internally, the V40 ThinQ features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 with 6GB or LPDDR4x RAM, and either 64GB or 128GB of internal storage. That can be expanded up to 2TB via microSD, though.

The 6.4in OLED display is larger than the V30, but a 3,120 x 1,440 resolution (a 19.5:9 aspect ratio) means that the great pixel density is retained (538ppi). The phone is also a few millimetres larger and a few grams weightier than its predecessor, coming in at 158.7 x 75.8 x 7.7mm and 169g.

This is all powered by a 3,300mAh battery, which doesn’t sound huge – Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 comes with 4,000mAh battery, for example. That is, however, the tradeoff for a slimmer and lighter phone. There’s also a USB Type-C port, a rear-facing fingerprint sensor, and wireless charging with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.

LG V40 ThinQ design: What will it look like?

As you read above, it’s a bit bigger – both the phone itself and the display – than its predecessor, the V30. Bezels have been slimmed, though, and there’s a notch, which may be a turnoff for some. But it’s not huge, and the fingerprint sensor – mounted on the glass rear of the phone – means there’s no button on the front of the phone for a pretty minimalist design.

Colour-wise, there will be four to choose from – New Aurora Black, New Platinum Gray, New Moroccan Blue and Carmine Red.