And then there are the cameras. Before LG's V-series was retooled to become synonymous with 5G, it was meant as a sort of tool for content creators and the media-obsessed. They were among the first phones we've ever used that gave us five cameras, not to mention the first that let us shoot video with a flat log profile so you could color grade your footage afterward. This year, though, LG is playing it safe.

The most notable change is a reduction in the number of cameras: The V60 only has three, a 10-megapixel front-facer, a 13-megapixel rear ultra-wide with a 117-degree field of view, and the 64-megapixel main wide sensor. That last one will almost certainly see the most use, but not exactly for the reasons you'd think. Yes, it seems to take crisp, detailed photos with solid color reproduction under the right conditions -- I say "seems" because the weather was pretty dreary on the day we tested it, so most of the sample photos we took couldn't help a but look a bit drab.

What's really odd here is that, rather than give the V60 a dedicated telephoto camera like its last two V-series phones, LG decided that we're all better off using this main camera for zoom photos. I, uh, disagree. The company says you'll be able to push in up to 10x without a significant reduction in quality, but during our testing, the results were anything but satisfying -- fine details tended to get smeared into oblivion. That's not a huge surprise since we're looking at a purely digital zoom method, but it's still awfully disappointing. For a time, V-series camera setups were all about flexibility, and there's precious little of it here.

For what it's worth, LG has added a handful of new camera features here to help sweeten the deal -- it's just too bad they didn't seem to work very well. Consider video: The V60 can capture 8K footage at 24FPS if you're into that sort of thing, but I noticed an annoying hint of lag as I stood on a balcony zooming in on the New York City skyline. When there's a delay between moving the camera and seeing that movement reflected on the screen, thing start to feel cumbersome and unnatural almost immediately. Hopefully this gets ironed out by the time the V60 is released.