New phone - LG V30 - personal opinion
After using a Google Nexus 6 for almost 3 years I decided to upgrade my phone. I considered quite a few options including Samsung Galaxy S8+, Samsung Note 8, Pixel 2 XL, OnePlus 5, and of course the LG V30. So I tried to score them mentally against one another and all but the V30 lost points because of lacking support for LTE band 71, since I am on T-Mobile that would have to count for something.
Samsung S8+:
Lost points because of the dedicated but in my opinion useless Bixby button. It did feature both a microSD slot and a headphone jack both of which I found important.
Samsung Note 8:
Is to me just a marginally bigger version of the S8+ but with a smaller battery to make room for the S-pen. Since I have no really use for the S-pen then that became a negative not a positive. I was really hoping this would be the first phone to support LTE band 71, when I saw it didn't it actually I felt the S8+ was a better choice.
Pixel 2 XL:
To me the Pixel 2 XL is a LG V30 without headphone jack, microSD card slot, and no wireless charging. The quad DAC of the V30 has been replaced by a proprietary imaging chip. The phone does if I am not mistake take some of the best pictures for a cell phone but that is not really enough to make up for what it lacks. I couldn't help but ask myself why I would pay more for the Pixel for what I consider less. Stock Android and fast updates are a positive for this phone.
OnePlus 5:
This phone was initially a strong contender because of the price. It had the headphone jack but lacked the microSD slot. I did however realize that once I had bought new Dash chargers for my car, my wife's car, office, home office, etc. the price savings would be significantly smaller, not only that but since my wife has a Samsung Galaxy S8 we would have to double up on chargers to since we could no longer share chargers and benefit from fast charging.
LG V30:
Ultimately the biggest downside to the V30 was that I had no real experience with LG for a cell phone. I could of course read reviews back and forth on the Internet regarding the V-series but that wasn't really helpful as people either seem to love a phone/brand or hate them. I also have stopped really caring about the reviews because many of them seem biased from the start. I finally just decided to go for it.
I have used the phone since the day it was released and I have very few complaints. I love the location off the power button/fingerprint reader on the back. The phone is fast and I have had no software issues whatsoever. I actually like the screen a lot and I don't see any issues with the display being grainy as some people have complained about. My only complaint regarding the screen is the very aggressive power saving when running display brightness in auto mode. When it is very dark the the brightness goes too far down and the display looses contrast. I wish there was a way to tweak this in the settings without disabling automatic brightness adjustments altogether.
LG has made a strong product in my opinion. I was very apprehensive about this phone at first but now I am happy I took a chance on LG.
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