Gadget

LG V40 ThinQ debuts 5 cameras on a phone

Arthur Goldstuck

While Huawei and Samsung lead the high-tech charge on Apple for handset domination, “minor” smartphone brands like Sony and LG keep springing surprises. Especially in the camera department, both have been able to take advantage of massive research and development budgets that span, respectively, their electronics and appliances businesses.

Now, it’s LG’s turn, briefly, to set the smartphone agenda. Ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month, where it is expected to launch the successor to its G7 ThinQ handset, it has sprung a timely surprise on South African users.

The V40 ThinQ is the successor to the V30, which didn’t quite match the magic of the earlier V20+, a delightful device that this column named Smartphone of the Year back in 2017. The V40 is the first device from a major manufacturer that offers 5 cameras, with three at the back and two in front. It optimizes the photographic process with artificial intelligence, helped along by Google Assistant.

We put the phone through its paces at the launch, but first asked Deon Prinsloo, general manager of LG Mobile South Africa, what a phone could be doing with five lenses.

“We need to understand the configuration of the three lenses,” he said. “One is a 16 Megapixel, 170 degree super wide angle lens without any blurring on the edges, so that it can do landscapes a lot clearer, instead of being limited by width. The second lens is a standard lens, but with an aperture of f1.5 for very clear, bright pictures. The third lens is a telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom. It has the ability to capture pictures far out and the images remain perfectly clear.

“Ultimately all three work together and one is able to capture a scene, zoom in on an object, or take dedicated portrait photographs, without moving. We are not slapping on cameras for the sake of cameras. Each lens serves a specific purpose.”

Click here to read about the coolest functions of the V40.

One of the coolest functions of the three-lens array is Triple View, which kicks in when the user activates the camera. Focusing on the same object, it applies all three lenses, and shows what it looks like via telephoto, standard and wide angle. The user chooses the best image, and the handset activates that mode for the shot.

“If you move to the front of the device, you have a standard 8Mp lens and a wide-angle 5Mp. Now it’s not only about the selfie, but also the groupfie. The nice thing there is that they work in tandem, and create perfect bokeh picture effects (the background is blurred while the subject of the picture remains sharp) with a swipe of the finger.”

The rear cameras have the same bokeh function, with a slider to increase or decrease the blur.

“The display is QHD+, with the most pixels of any QHD+ phone currently on the market, 40% more than on the V30+, its predecessor, yet not at a premium price. Through a partnership with Vodacom, we are able to bring it to market at a price point much lower than the V30+.”

Click here to find out why the price of the V40 will be a shock.

The pricing will come as a shock to those who feel compelled to stick to the more dominant brands. It is likely to retail at around R12,500, half the price of the top-of-the-range iPhones that have substantially less advanced functionality. The V30+ retailed at around R14,500. The new phone is expected to cost around R599 on contract, compared to R679 for the V30+. Vodacom will be bundling it with a second handset, the LG K9, valued at R2700, on its Flexi 60 package.

In short, it’s a ridiculously good phone for its price. In this sense, it is reminiscent of the Huawei Ascend P6, the 2013 handset that broke Huawei into the high-end market with a device that cost half that of equivalent flagships from big brands.

The big question is how this phone differs from the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and P20 Pro, both of which introduced triple rear cameras at competitive price points last year.

The fundamental difference, it turns out, is not in the hardware, but in the software that manages the lenses. Triple view and triple shot, which takes the three pictures at the same time, are the obvious stand-out. But then there is the Penta shot, which stands for five shots. It applies all three rear lenses, and simultaneously captures the user or group in front of the handset, through the two selfie cameras. It then stitches together the five images and creates a GIF file.

The ability to combine front and rear images was first introduced by Nokia barely two years ago, yet that seems a generation ago in smartphone years. Expect the Penta effect to spread to other brands, and possibly become a new Instagram trend in the coming years.

Artificial intelligence (AI) comes into its own on this device at a level that has not been experienced on smartphones before. An AI Shutter automatically selects the best shutter speed to capture pictures at optimal quality, while an Auto AI Balance captures the temperature of colours and automatically adjusts settings to have clear photos without over- or under-exposure.

Read on to find out about new camera modes on the V40.

The V40 also introduces new camera modes, like a backlight effect in selfie mode. The user can also adjust the colours of the background, for example changing it from blue to green to red.

“Something really cool is the Makeup Pro mode,” says Prinsloo. The feature, he says, is a response to the K-beauty trend, the beauty equivalent of the K-Pop phenomenon in Korea. “K-beauty is booming in Korea at the moment, and this feature helps meet the demands of the market. It applies 10 different filters, from which you select one in selfie mode, and then go on to add a blusher filter or more eyeshadow, for example, to get different cosmetic styles in selfie images.”

Somehow, we didn’t get round to testing that mode, but the triple-shot was tested on a human against the Joburg skyline and at a dinner table. In both cases, it opened new perspectives on the scene, not to mention new complications in deciding which pics were worth keeping, uploading to the Google Cloud, or consigning to the digital beyond.

That is the problem with such amazing camera functionality: if we already produce too many photos to choose, sort or catalogue, what will triple-shot and Penta-shot do to our lives? But, let’s face it, this will be beautiful chaos.

Click here to see the specs of the LG V40 ThinQ.

Specs of the LG V40 ThinQ

Core features

Camera

16MP Super Wide (F1.9 / 1.0μm / 107°)

12MP Standard (F1.5 / 1.4μm / 78°)

12MP Telephoto (F2.4 / 1.0μm / 45°)

8MP Standard (F1.9 / 1.12μm / 80°)

5MP Wide (F2.2 / 1.12μm / 90°)

Connecting

Sound

Battery

Other

Click here to see why the LG Electronics South Africa managing director thinks we are in the midst of a revolution.

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