My first 'big' daily driver phone, LG V50 ThinQ: pt.1 <unboxing & overview> + (pre-release version) settings walkthrough video

[Reminder]:
This review unit was provided from LG and I am writing this with my thoughts and opinions!

There will be 'Table of Contents' soon, to help navigating through this series of reviewing of LG V50 ThinQ.

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[Intro]:

I have preferred small phones. Any phone over 5.2 inches(in 16:9 aspect ratio)... felt uncomfortable for me.
But I had very lucky chance to have LG V50 ThinQ in my hands and get my hands on that.
So lets get into this....

oh, before this, this may give you some idea what this phone is like:

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[unboxing]:
(After uploading, I realized the resultant pics here are mostly upside-down. I have no idea on this so I will leave them as that. Apologies!)

As LG provided both the phone itself and Dual Screen, I have both in my possession.
Anyway... getting into the phone box first -- the main one:

Now. traditional(as LG continuously includes this in their phone for past several years), nice feeling cloth and the phone itself underneath.
(Some characteristics of the phone on the wrap. And yes, I wanted to preserve it so I managed to push the phone from open bottom -- successful. lol)

So this is how the phone looks like naked.
I'd recommend against using this naked, cause this is so... I mean, too... slippery. It can even slide anywhere, so I suggest you to get any case to prevent disaster....

OK, about the size? Not my sweep spot, but it's acceptable.
Being super flat on the back(slippery, though...), or having 3.5mm jack/port(yeah, so many manufacturers just take that out nowadays... ☹️) are definitely welcoming aspects from my first glance.

Digging into the box further, there are small box full of little stuffs (SIM ejection tool, along with quick start guide and data transfer guide, etc...), charger, USB A -> C adapter hidden inside the cable, and... earphone.
I assume that's Quadbeat 3 minor downgraded version, but I wasn't eager to open that up so I won't. (lol)

Lets move on to Dual Screen box....

So simple on this box here. Just a quick start slip and the Dual Screen itself, with sponge inside. That's it!
(Of course I wanted to preserve wrap here as well. Done the same way as earlier, lol)

So... what do you think about the Dual Screen?
I think it deserves as main selling point, like Razer Phone series having 120Hz refresh rate as main selling point, along with high quality speakers that justifies huge bezels.
That... is actually what made me attracted to this phone, despite its size.

Yeah, some would have laughed at this concept. Like, how could this be even close to foldables?
But, think again, after seeing Galaxy Fold news.
I agree with some Youtubers saying "Foldables are not future(, yet)." -- i.e. Tech Rant
I could say, from my first few days of using it, this is still practical, and more importantly, more stable.

This accessory looked promising to me.
Of course, some drawbacks you could consider as dealbreaker:
angles that Dual Screen is locked stable are limited(only 90, 180 or 360 degrees -- completely snapped to the back), the bulk -- size and weight.
But, if you still want to enjoy contents bigger and at the same time, this could be convenient solution for you. Looking into 5G, this could be attractive option for you in the future to enjoy contents.

With update on May 10th, it got even better. Wiz Lock....
I strongly suggest you to go into that app after installation (you are likely to be prompted with the message from notification to install that), because if you switch to 'On'... you could be surprised.
Don't have to use Brave to work around limitation of video pausing in background, so even play 2 vids at the same time(though, of course, sound will come from only either one), or play game and videos!
I strongly demand this to be preloaded and 'On' by default, this makes Dual Screen really what it is.
(As I checked with some apps, some classic Sonic games don't seem to play nicely with this feature. It just paused after it lost focus. But many other apps were just fine, including games.)

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[Specs (some of them to note myself)]:

// (audio):
Since I enjoy listening to music, I loved this phone having so many good ones here.
3.5mm jack(as I mentioned earlier), Hi-Fi quad DAC (not only using good chipset but also producing actual measurements to back up), stereo speaker (finally!) with boombox applied for bottom firing one.

// (camera):
3 on the rear, 2 on the front.
Juan Bagnell praised the camera on G8 to be great, so I could expect him to grade this one even better.
Anyway, so camera on this V50 would be able to compete with other phone.
In my personal results for few days, it was good. Not better than Pixel 1(with Pixel 3 Gcam port) -- bit odd result after manual focusing, and sharpness -- in my humble opinion, but still good.
Especially wide angle was fun stuff.
But I'll probably look into that in the future, along with Gcam port for this phone.

//(rest):
You may know how it would be like, like the sites here.
https://www.gsmarena.com/lg_v50_thinq_5g-9607.php

That site is even more comprehensive than the spec sheet I got and looks correct, so I'll just summarize a bit:
Snapdragon 855 with X50 modem for 5G, 6 GB RAM, 4000mAh battery.
And there's some big heat dissipation area, increased from last year's V40:

(left: V40 / right: V50, with vapor chamber)

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[Outro]:

If there's reason, I could change my mind preferring smaller phones.
And as I said earlier, Dual Screen could be it -- one of the reasons I'll love this V50.

Of course, I already could see some disappointments down the line,
but I think this phone deserves some lights and some good competition.

OK, so the reason why I emphasized 'big' in the titles to go through series overall:

• my first phone as daily driver that is 'big' to me
• my first step towards such 'big' phones
• enjoying contents 'bigger' with Dual Screen
• 'big' meaning that this Dual Screen will have...

So I will be going through features that this Dual Screen offers in upcoming posts.
What it has to offer, is it good enough, etc.
And of course, if I can, also look into other aspects of this phone as well.

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So here's some settings walkthrough with pre-release version.
There were differences since the May 10th update so I will note below:

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• Screen Color option mysteriously disappearing when Dual Screen is still attached but powered off seemed to have been fixed.
• Wiz Lock has been added as recommendation to download (I mentioned above in the post)

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