LG V30 vs. iPhone 7 Plus: Can LG’s new flagship take out Apple’s champion?

It’s not the only great phone on the market — there are plenty of others, like Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus. How do the two phones compare? We pit LG V30 vs. iPhone 7 Plus to find out.

Specs

The LG V30 features the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, which is Qualcomm’s latest and greatest mobile chip. Coupled with 4GB of RAM, the LG V30 is quite a powerful phone. The iPhone can match it. According to benchmarks, the aging iPhone is on par or better than almost every single Snapdragon 835-equipped phone to be released so far. That’s thanks to the iPhone’s A10 Fusion chip, which is an absolute powerhouse. While it does only have 3GB of RAM, iOS manages RAM differently and it doesn’t need as much as Android.

When it comes to storage, the iPhone 7 Plus has more options between 32GB and 256GB. The LG V30 offers 64GB as base storage, and 128GB is available in select markets. To compensate, it has a MicroSD card slot, meaning that you can expand upon that storage if you need more.

The two phones are about as powerful as each other. While the iPhone has more storage options, the V30 has a MicroSD card slot. This one’s a tie.

Winner: Tie

Design, display, and durability

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The iPhone has long been heralded as a design champion, and the iPhone 7 Plus is no different — it looks great. By 2017’s smartphone design standards, however, it looks dated. That’s because more and more smartphone manufacturers are adopting the “bezel-less” trend, where the front edges around the screen are reduced for more screen real-estate. It’s how the V30 can have a 6-inch display, despite having smaller dimensions than the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus.

The V30 also uses an OLED screen, which offers better blacks, colors, and contrast over the iPhone’s LCD. Apple is expected to use LG’s OLED screens for its next iPhone, and expect to see a bezel-less design with the iPhone 8 as well. The V30 has a resolution of 2,280 x 1,440 pixels, and the iPhone has a 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution. No matter how you look at it, the V30 has a better display.

On the back of both of the phones you’ll find a dual-lens camera, though the iPhone’s camera protrudes a little more than the V30’s.

Last but not least is durability, and the V30 wins there too. While Apple made headlines for the iPhone’s IP67 waterproofing, LG has taken things a step further by giving the V30 IP68 waterproofing, meaning it’ll be able to withstand up to 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes. The iPhone can only deal with up to 1 meter of water. Either way, you won’t want to take your phone swimming, but if you happen to drop it in the bath it should be fine.

The winner here is clear. While design is largely down to personal preference, the V30 uses more modern design trends — plus it has a better display and should be more durable.

Winner: LG V30

Battery life and charging

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The LG V30 features a battery capacity of 3,300mAh, while the iPhone 7 Plus sits in at 2,900mAh. Now, it’s important to note that a larger battery capacity doesn’t always translate into a longer battery life, and that’s likely especially true give the fact that the V30 has a much larger display with a higher resolution. LG claims the V30 will last 20 hours in continuous talk time, Apple claims the iPhone will hit 21.

Still, the V30 has a few tricks that the iPhone doesn’t. For starters, it supports wireless charging, which can be super convenient for some people. It also offers Quick Charge 3.0, which should help charge your device much quicker than the iPhone. The iPhone’s battery life is only slightly longer, so the wireless and quick charging put the V30 ahead.

Winner: LG V30

Camera

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The iPhone has long been known to offer an excellent camera, but these days other manufacturers have been putting a lot of effort into their own cameras too. The V30 puts a very heavy emphasis on the camera, and like the iPhone it offers a dual-lens shooter.

One of the rear-facing lenses on the V30 is a 13-megapixel wide-angle lens, while the other is a 16-megapixel standard lens. That’s a pretty cool combination, and it bucks the trend of using a telephoto lens in favor of a wide-angle one. The quality is pretty excellent too, and the f/1.6 aperture should help make the camera an excellent choice in low-light situations. The front-facing camera on the V30 sits in at 5-megapixels.

LG has focused more on video with the V30, introducing a new Cine Video mode that offers Cine Effects, color graded filters that you can slap on videos before you start filming. A Point Zoom feature also lets you slowly zoom into anything you tap in the frame, and it makes your shooting skills look like a professional cinematographer.

The iPhone’s camera is also a dual lens setup, and both lenses sit in at 12-megapixels — one standard lens with an f/1.8 aperture and one telephoto lens. It’s a nice combination, and helps in situations where you want to zoom more than usual. It also has a few features the V30 doesn’t — like optical image stabilization, which will help keep photos nice and sharp. The front-facing camera on the iPhone is 7 megapixels, so expect to take better selfies.

Both of these phones have a lot to offer in the camera department. And both have some features that the other doesn’t. This one’s a tie.

Winner: Tie

Software

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The software is arguably the main point of difference between these two phones, and it’s tough to award a winner as it’s largely down to personal preference — but we will talk about some of the main differences between the two operating systems.

iOS, which is the operating system found on the Apple iPhone, is largely hailed as being easier to use than Android. While the gap in ease-of-use has become smaller in recent years, the fact remains that it’s still a little more intuitive and user-friendly.

The trade-off, however, is that Android can do a little more — it offers more customization, a few more features, and is probably better for those who like to tinker with software. One thing to note, the V30 comes with Android 7.1.2, which isn’t the most recent version of Android. LG said it will bring the Android 8.0 Oreo update, but it didn’t share a timeline.

You will never not have immediate access to the latest security and version updates on iOS, so we’re giving the iPhone the win here.

Winner: iPhone 7 Plus

Price and availability

This one’s a little tough to compare — since we don’t actually know exactly when the LG V30 will be available in the U.S., nor how much it will cost. The iPhone 7 Plus has been available for some time now, and starts at $770.

We can expect the LG V30 to have a similar price tag, but because we just don’t know yet, we’re giving this to the iPhone for availability.

Winner: iPhone 7 Plus

Overall winner: Tie

Both phones are powerful, and they both have features the other doesn’t. For example, the V30 has a better display, better durability, more charging options, and a MicroSD card slot; but the iPhone has Portrait Mode, 2x optical zoom, and it gets fast updates. We’ll have to see the V30’s price to see if it can break the tie in its favor — or against.

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