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The specs are about what you would expect for a 2016 flagship: a Snapdragon 820, 4GB of RAM, a 3200mAh battery, and a 5.7-inch, 2560x1440 IPS LCD. The V20's big eyecatcher is the always-on second screen, a small area above the main screen that can display a series of mini apps—power controls, app shortcuts, calendar events, music controls, or a text string.

We weren't enamored by LG's earlier 2016 flagship, the LG G5 . But LG has made great strides with the V20 and seems to have solved most of the issues we had with the previous flagship. The G5's modular system is no more, along with the build-quality problems that it caused. Gone are the uneven seams and sharp edges, while the V20 keeps the removable battery and MicroSD slot by going with a more traditional removable back plate design.

The V20 is one of the rare metal phones to do this, and it works very well. The trade-off is that you miss out on the aluminum unibody construction in order to make the back removable, but we didn't notice any ill effects from that design change. The device is again made out of aluminum, but instead of the aluminum-coated-in-plastic design of the LG G5, your hands are actually touching metal when you touch the back of the V20.

The mechanism to reattach the back worked well in the few minutes we got to play with it. A series of snap connectors encircle the perimeter of the phone, and once you've clicked everything together, the phone feels solid. Like the LG G5 opening, the V20 uses an "eject" button on the side instead of a fingernail slot to pop the back off.



The back of the V20 is similar to the LG G5. The rear of the phone has a main camera—a 16MP sensor with a 75-degree field of view—and a secondary "wide angle" camera—an 8MP sensor with a 135-degree field of view. For the front camera, the V20 tries the same trick with a single lens, switching between a 5MP 120-degree "wide mode" and a 5MP 83-degree "normal mode."

Returning to the back: on the left and right of the lenses are LG's usual color sensor and laser autofocus system. Below the camera is a physical power button with an integrated fingerprint sensor.

The LG V20 promises to have great audio with something LG is calling a "32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC," which LG says "delivers a crisp and clear sound that comes closest to a live performance when using compatible wired headphones" by "reducing up to 50 percent of ambient noise levels." Don't pay too much attention to the audiophile-grade branding: 16-bit audio is enough to accurately store everything in the human range of hearing. Just take the feature as LG saying it paid special attention to the audio output on the phone.

Both Google and LG tout the LG V20 as the "first new smartphone" to come with Android 7.0 Nougat. This is technically true, sure, but this is "Nougat" with heavy air quotes, since it has LG's skin slathered on top. Split screen has made it intact, along with Direct Reply from the notification panel. But things like the notification redesign have been paved over with LG's aesthetics.

In screenshots and our video you'll see a puzzling new Google icon called "In apps." We couldn't figure out what it was at the time of the video recording (and it didn't really work), but the next day Google announced "In Apps" as a new way to search through content from your apps. It ought to bring up things like contacts, messages, songs, notes, and any other apps that feel like plugging in to the system. On the V20 this has a special icon, but on most phones there should be a new "In Apps" tab on the right of the Google search results interface.

As usual, we asked about LG's participation in Google's monthly Android security update program. We were told security updates would be determined on a "per-carrier" basis. The pricing is up to carriers, too. LG wouldn't even give us a ballpark price for the V20, but we guess it'll be somewhere around the V10's $700 price tag.

The LG V20 will be available in Korea starting this month in dark gray, silver, and pink. It will be out sometime soon in the US whenever carriers get around to it.