Head-to-Head: LG V30 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 8

Head-to-Head: LG V30 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 8

The Battle of Korean Brands!

LG pulled the wraps off their newest flagship device and it’s pretty much unanimous with the team that the LG V30 is a solid contender.  As you may have noticed, John is in Berlin and has gotten his hand on the device but he also took another device from another Korean company with him — the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. It’s time to see what these two phones from Korea against offer in a head-to-head battle!

Let’s take a look at their spec sheets first!

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Specs

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor (US, Europe), Exynos 8895 processor (Asia, rest of the world)
  • 6GB of RAM
  • 6.3-inch Quad HD+ resolution, 18.5:9 aspect ratio,  2960 x 1440 resolution display, Gorilla Glass 5
  • 12-megapixel twin rear camera with Dual Pixel tech, wide-angle camera with f/1.7 aperture lens, OIS, PDAF, 2x optical zoom lens with f/2.4 aperture lens with OIS, PDAF
  • 8-megapixel front camera with f/1.7 aperture
  • 64GB of storage, expandable via microSD up to 256GB
  • Dual SIM
  • 3G, LTE
  • WiFi, Bluetooth,  GPS, A-GPS, Fingerprints scanner, facial recognition tech, iris scanner, USB Type-C, NFC, Wireless charging
  • 3300mAh battery
  • Android 7.1.1 Nougat with TouchWiz UI

LG V30 Specs

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor
  • 4GB LPDDR4 RAM
  • 6.0-inch 18:9 QuadHD+ OLED FullVision Display (2880 x 1440 / 538ppi) with Corning Gorilla Glass 5
  • 64GB UFS 2.0 internal storage (128GB for the V30+), expandable up to 2TB via microSD
  • Standard 16-megapixel, f/1.6 and wide-angle 13-megapixel, f/1.9 rear cameras
  • Wide-angle 5-megapixel, f/1.9 front camera
  • 4G LTE
  • WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, A-GPS, GLONASS
  • USB Type-C port, Fingerprint sensor, Voice and Face Recognition
  • 32-bit Advanced Hi-Fi Quad DAC
  • Android 7.1.2 Nougat (LG UX 6.0 UI)
  • 3300mAh Li-Ion battery, with Quick Charge 3.0, wireless charging support

Both phones look gorgeous but…

LG turned up the heat in terms of design with the V30. It still looks very similar to the LG G6 but has touches of its predecessor in the V series but is a tad curvier than both, which lends a lot to the device’s ergonomics. There’s no question that Samsung’s Infinity Display grabs your attention, but it’s less pronounced as the ones on the company’s previous releases in the S series and the Note 8 lost some curves overall.

While we commend Samsung being able to cram that much screen real estate on their device that also meant that the fingerprint scanner has been placed at a harder to reach locale than the ones on the S series and requires more hand gymnastics to reach the top of the screen. It may be narrower than the LG V30 but its more likely that you’d use the phone with two hands rather than one. It’s a tough call, but we’ll give this one to LG; plus you can actually use the fingerprint scanner on the V30.

More RAM = Auto Win for Samsung

In terms of processing power, the edge definitely goes to Samsung. LG was finally able to get their hands on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, which is the same processor that the Galaxy Note 8 units being sold in the West. For us here in the Philippines, however, we’re getting the Exynos 8895 which has been shown to output more power than the Snapdragon 835 (at least on paper), pair that with 2 more gigs of RAM and we can easily declare Sammy the winner in this part of the battle.

Infinity Display vs Full Vision

On one hand, you’ve got Samsung’s Infinity Display and on the other, you’ve got the Full Vision Display by LG. This would have been an easy win for Samsung yet again, except that LG has finally changed display over to an OLED panel that’s more comparable to the Super AMOLED displays Sammy has had on their flagship and high-tiered phones for quite some time now. The Note 8 definitely has a size advantage over the V30 and those curves also make it sexier to look, but that maybe is the chink in its armor.

We’ve seen the displays on the S8 and S8+ shatter on quite a couple of drop tests, which makes us wonder if the Note 8 can survive a beating. You’ve got a more traditional, flat display with the V30 but that may mean it can withstand a bit more punishment and there’s already chatter that it can. Who wins the battle of displays? It’s pretty much a toss up, but the Quad DAC on the V30 may tip the scales in LG’s favor if we’re talking about the overall AV experience on these devices.

A Tale of Two Cameras

We can’t call this until we’ve gotten more hands-on time with LG V30 and actually taken sample shots to compare it to the Note 8. On paper though, it looks like we’re giving the Note 8 in terms of taking stills; mostly due to the fact that the OIS on both cameras will most likely produce better results in almost every situation. Lea has already taken the Note 8 for a spin in New York and has been able to take awesome photos even in low-light situations.

However, LG has added a store suite of features to the V30’s video capabilities, such as shooting in Cine Video, which pushes it over as the winner in that category. We’ll most likely be doing a camera comparison when we get both phones at HQ but, for now, we declare this part of the bout a no contest.

Price Wars Yet to be Won

We can really tell you which device has better value for money since LG hasn’t released the price for the V30 just yet. What we do know is that the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is expensive; just shy of Php 50,000. Sure, you’ve got a lot of new features and the S-Pen, but that’s a serious amount of moolah to drop on a smartphone. If LG prices the V30 right, and there have been “guesstimates” that it will cost somewhere around $750 or Php 38k, you may be seeing more value out of LG’s recently outed device and it makes viable option against the two S series devices from Sammy.

While you wait until we get a full review for the LG V30 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 up and running, you may want to check out a couple of these articles:

LG V30 Quick Review: The Note Better Watch Out

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Hands-On Review

 

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