LG V20 Review(MODDERS GUIDE)

The LG V20: you might ask why someone who claims to be a power user is using a 3+ yr old phone. In this review, I will tell you why. 7/27/20 I have moved on. Unfortunately, I haven’t kept this guide up to date for the past few months life has been very hectic. I have recently moved To a Redmi Note 9 Pro as my daily driver, mainly due to the overheating of my V20.I still use my V20’s as my main media consumption device but haven’t put very much time into modding it as of late. I would like to thank this great community and apologize if I offended anyone during my stay. I’m also sorry that this article has become so convoluted over time if I can clarify or help in any way feel free to dm me or email me pupontech@gmail.com. FYI STAY ON NOUGAT AS OF 3/31/20 CHECK OUT SECOND SCREEN STATUS BAR. Click here for Updates Why The V20 After finding the LG g5 to be a pretty terrible phone compared to its competitors, I was looking for a replacement. I had, what would seem to be, a pretty reasonable list of stuff I wanted in a phone. Headphone Jack Removable Battery OLED Screen MicroSD High-End SOC USB C Non-Curved Screen The funny thing was that the Samsung Galaxy S5 fulfilled all these requirements (except for USB C, which wasnt around yet) including waterproofing. All phones after the S5 come only with 6 of the 7 requirements listed. But, I digress. So I bought the v20 for 185 USD and then got a case and two batteries for a grand total of 215 USD. Before I even get started into the specifics of this phone please keep in mind you have to root this phone. This phone without root is mediocre at best, though with root it is my ideal phone. Hundreds of hours and one bricked phone later, I’m gonna try to advise you on the best way to set up this phone, but remember, this is a tinkerer’s phone, not a set it and forget it. Sorta like iOS is to Android, this is to a more mainstream S7 etc. Hardware Let’s go through the main hardware with a quick overview of each point. Front Veiw The first thing you’ll notice when you play with this phone is the screens. Yes, that notch in the top right corner isn’t a notch in the typical sense. This phone has two separate LCD panels. There is the main 5.7-inch panel and a secondary ticker display in which different things can be put up, (even a status bar). The notch has the front-facing camera and proximity sensors. After that you will see a headphone jack which has a separate Hi-Fi DAC, including a high impedance mode which on stock enables automatically, if necessary. (With root you can force it). USB Type C On the rear side of the phone, you have a dual-camera setup which is great when shot in manual and great in Auto with Gcam. (Stock auto is terrible!) There is also a dual flash setup which also gives you a flashlight that is way brighter than other phones. The backing of this phone is the thin, yet super strong (5000 aircraft grade aluminum )backing which allows a removable battery. You will also find your sim and MicroSD card slot near the battery. Build Quality So how does this phone actually feel? Quite honestly, build is fine and the metal-based phone is super refreshing. I don’t like phones with glass on both sides. IMO glass is the dumbest material to put on the back of a phone as it’s super prone to shatter. Putting it on the other half as well would just give me more to worry about. You may ask how thin this phone is, but it doesn’t really matter. You’re putting it into a case! Who are you kidding??!! It is thin enough! Fingerprint Reader Lg’s current design of putting the power and fingerprint reader in one button is my favorite feature. Yes, the downside of having to pick up your phone to fingerprint unlock is a drag but having it on the back is so much more natural, not to mention, a real space saver. The other complaint I see is that you now also have to pick up your phone to turn it on to see notifications etc. That’s completely negated by phones such as this one, with the always-on displays, because the second screen or double tap to wake which this has stock without root. That’s why I believe it to be the best way to do power buttons and fingerprint readers The volume buttons are metal rocker design and feel great. The phone is large and unwieldy being that it’s using a regular 16:9 aspect ratio but you should be aware of that before getting into this. The camera glass is prone to shattering and is probably the weakest part, in terms of durability. Luckily, it’s cheap and super simple to replace so its a non-issue in my opinion. Here is a link for it on Amazon. Mods Thermal Throttling Test. Before you start, I recommend you first do a test to see if you need to do the hardware thermal paste mod using this You should be getting somewhere around 75,000 average, after ten minutes. Please do this in airplane mode. If not, then repaste. In case you don’t know, thermal paste is the toothpaste- like concoction that you put in between the CPU and the heat sink of any computer. The better the compound is as well as the manner in which it is applied, the more efficiently the heat will transfer from the processor. This will enhance the clock speed of the processor and sustain it for a longer period of time, which ultimately leads to better performance. LG’s stock thermal paste application is usually terrible, so what you want to do is test out the phone for thermal throttling by using this app. If your phone has a range like this you want to replace the thermal paste. Most people are recommending a pad like this (which is .5 mm) and just watching a youtube video. Please note Stock Rom Software Mods not Los or Aosp I’m personally sticking with stock-based ROMs, although people have had good experiences with using Los and resurrection remix. I urge you to go look at those forums. It seems like performance and battery are slightly better but the overall experience is much better with a stock rom. (The reason why stock rom is a better experience is because all the features work properly. Stock camera, Dac,second screen etc. These vary in support on Los.) So Roms, it’s pretty simple to root your phone with Dirty Santa or Laf depending on your phone. Be sure to use the latest stock-based oreo Nougat rom for your phone from XDA. OREO IS NO LONGER RECOMMENDED SEE HERE And the MK BTTF OC kernel. Upon further review, all variants perform similarly I would like to mention that for myself on the h910 which is the att variant, the kernel seems to have a lot fewer performance issues than other models. You should note that even on the h910 there is some scrolling lag. I haven’t had an issue with it especially since in general I don’t find androids scrolling animation of performance to be on par with either Windows or iOS. So it’s a good thing to keep in mind all of my reviews is based on the h910 and for some reason, LG’s variants have a lot of performance variations. Again YMMV since I don’t have another variant to test with. I recommend this modded version of the main stock based kernel which is mk2000. It is based on his latest version with some improvements. After you have your rom installed, here are the mods you should use. In a kernel manager of your choice set the colors to one of these. In Developer Options Turn OFF automatic system updates Force GPU on 2d Animations .5 Force allow resizing apps Mods using files in os folders High impedance mod – forces high impedance mode on the quad DAC Alpha oreo rounded UI– this will give you the really nice, rounded, recent that I like a lot. USE NOUGAT Charging mod-allows faster charging while screen is on Magisk Mods – these you can find in Magisk Manager Ainur James Dsp- A lossless system-wide eq Audio mod library-needed to have multiple mods Busy box-needed for the system, not sure why Cloudflare for Magisk both ipv4 and ipv6 improves DNS leading to faster internet response times MAGISK SELinux-set this to permissive helps AINUR JAMES DSP work all the time Xposed framework-Xposed for magisk–you need this modded Xposed Apk Youtube Vanced-the best youtube app and as a Magisk module Xposed Modules A lot of people are unhappy with Xposed, for whatever reason. As long as you’re careful with what you install , you’ll be fine. You can find all these within the Xposed app. Screenshot delay remover Prevent running- used instead of Greenify. Use this one (not the one in the repo which has ads) Apps Besides for what I recommend here Wakeblock-lets you set up wake lock blocking improved battery and deep sleep. I use this list. Nap time-best aggressive doze app I have found works better than Greenifies aggressive doze. Turn off agressive doze in Greenify. Bored signs-extend second screen functionality –KILLS YOUR BATTERY NOT RECOMMENDED – Second Screen Status Bar Yes this app gets its own section. This is the single biggest innovation on the LG V20. Made by Daved+ on XDA, this app turns your second screen into a status bar on stock ROMs. This app is beyond optimized and uses very little battery and CPU considering what it does. The fact that this app is always running and uses so few resources is actually incredible. Setup is a bit complicated you have to use a couple of different apps to get rid of the stock status bar. Please join the telegram groups here and here .I can’t stress enough how optimized this app is and how big of a game-changer it is.I can personally vouch for how much time and effort went into the development of this app. Donations for this app are expected. David has taught me so much over the past few years and I would just like to publicly thank him for being an awesome mentor and friend. Build prop tweaks- I recommend build prop editor sys.capture_signboard.enabled=true allows screenshots to capture second screen wifi.supplicant_scan_interval=180 -slows down how often wifi is scanned in order to improve battery ro.telephony.call_ring.delay=0 no delay on ringing when a phone call comes in ro.ril.enable.amr.wideband=1 better phone call sound quality windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec=150 ro.min_pointer_dur=8 ro.max.fling_velocity=12000 ro.min.fling_velocity=8000 improves scrolling performance Themes-(random) OREO ONLY Pixel experience dark Sense Pro Theme Miui Mix One round ui Review post mods Please note: When I say I am comparing, everything is relative to a flagship from this phones release and the next year. Performance Antutu Benchmark Post mods: You the have a phone that’s outperforming next-gen processor based phones, in terms of speed. The performance is perfectly acceptable even for power users. Display The screen is an LCD panel which is pretty good for this type of thing, especially after kcal profiling which completely removes ghosting. It’s bright but on the bluish side of the white point, even post calibration although that tames it a bit. I think, since it’s LCD and not Oled you’ll only getting decent blacks which is good for an LCD but not as good as an Oled. It’s actually quite far from an Oled, to be honest! Network Performance Wifi and cell signal quality is above average, even for flagships, however the Bluetooth range is only average for a flagship. Audio quality from the speaker is passable. Audio quality for phone calls is at the upper end of average, but mic quality is quite a bit better than average. The DAC on this phone is best in the biz. It uses an audiophile-grade ESS Sabre DAC that’s found usually in 150+ dollar daps. Audio HIFI DAC Control This is one of the places that this phone completely outshines almost all other phones on the market. With its exceptional quad DAC, as well as Aptx and Aptx-hd, supported Bluetooth codecs this phone is an audiophile’s dream. The DAC model is an ESS Sabre ES9218 with 32-bit support as well as a 130db SNR. The phone’s stock DAC has a 15 step volume whereas the Quad DAC has 75 steps for much more precise adjustment. Additionally, the quad DAC has left and right volume adjustment with six steps each. Which is really nice if you get colds often as I do. In my Experience using the quad DAC with the Philips SHP9500s, Nad Viso Hp50, and the KZ Es4, the audio sounds cleaner and has a better soundstage. The Philips pair especially well due to the higher power output which really improves their bass response. Cables routed cleanly from the bottom. One of my biggest nitpicks of the LG G5 was how the 3.5 mm jack is on the top of the phone and the USB C port is on the bottom. The V20 doesn’t have this issue. Hd Audio recorder Another aspect of this phone is the audio recording. This phone has three High Acoustic Overload Point microphones. As well as the ability to record 24-bit/192kHz FLAC files. In the video, you have directional audio options as well. Cameras Cameras. This is very interesting! The stock camera libraries are terrible which also effects raw although I’m not sure why. While I jpegs are pretty meh, raw photos are fairly usable especially with tweaking in Snapseed. The manual controls on this camera are brilliant; top notch! The manual video is great though it also suffers from the oversharpening. It’s audio quality is amazing. Three mics and the ability to control the directionality of them, actually makes it work really well. Once we get the modded libraries the camera goes from a B- to a B+ for auto and a b+ to a- for raw for the main. It’s also one step below on each for the wide angle camera. The links in the list below are from the DEV whos username is Helf on XDA of the modded libs. Unfortunately, though the libraries are not yet available for oreo!!!! Some comparisons between stock camera and gcam with and without modded camera binaries – LG V20 -5EV to +1.6EV DNG result from GCam RAW + Modded Libraries on LG V20 (IMX298 sensor) + Single HDR+ RAW frame (14bit RAW) – NO post processing of RAW other than adjusting exposure to detail Dynamic Range LG V20 Camera Mod update teaser 🙂 -5EV to +1.6EV DNG result from GCam RAW + Modded Libraries on LG V20 (IMX298 sensor) + Single HDR+ RAW frame (14bit RAW) – NO post processing of RAW other than adjusting exposure to detail Dynamic Range If you want to get really great auto functionality as well as portrait mode, download the recommended gcam and your jpgs climb to the stocks raw quality. The wide-angle actually lets you get super creative shots. Here are a few samples more can be found on my personal Instagram here. These samples are all stock Oreo samples. Video has all the same issues in terms of libraries as the still images do. The ability to have full manual in video though gives you great flexibility. Additionally, the directional audio recording is a super underrated feature of this phone. You will consistently record solid video with amazing audio compare to the competition. Battery Life Battery life. Typically, most users are getting 3-4 hrs of sot and basically unlimited standby, with the tweaks I recommend above. The battery life issues are completely negated by multiple batteries. Battery case in comparison to a Standard AA Battery. I’m also currently testing out an extended battery case which is your second option. I’m getting about 9 hours of sot and I’m not on wifi and mostly streaming youtube during that time. Here is a reference image to see the size of the battery case. Upon further use please buy yourself either the 4100 mah Perfine li-poly or 8200 perfine. Verdict. Buy it if your willing to put the time in to modify it. It’s dirt cheap at a little over one hundred dollars on eBay. You’ll spend about two hundred dollars in all, with a case, extra batteries, and an SD card. Please note this phone is not recommended for the average user. THE NOUGAT REVERT Back to Nougat The current state of my phone is on Nougat. the reason I reverted to Nougat is due to the only stock-based oreo kernel being MK 2000 having many problems. Including but not limited background app killing which is somewhat but not completely mitigated by setting crazy low LMK values. Scroll and random animation lag, vibration lag, and random kernel watchdog errors. I wasn’t able to record the animation lag as it is quite random but hopefully, you can see from the videos the reloading of apps. Oreo with LKT is quite a bit faster but the problem is the memory management which makes Nougat feel faster overall. [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwProx_Be9M[/youtube] The main features I miss are pips since I use my phone for a crazy amount of youtube as well as the lack of Bluetooth output picker with less than two devices attached. After playing with SuperRom Nougat for quite a bit and having a lot of issues with the system UI crashing even after multiple reinstalls. I tried weta using the us996 version on my h910 and for me, it’s working way better than Super or fully stock. Things that worked out of the box were the correct apns and ims fully autoconfigured and setup for Tmobile so I got both MMS data and HD calling automatically setup for me. The IR blaster which has been wonky for me on Super and has never worked on Oreo for me works perfectly. The auto-brightness config on weta also seems much more responsive than stock oreo though super is pretty good as well.The outdoor weta auto-brightness config is the best I have found. In general, Weta seems like a more polished rom with more actual dev work put into it as opposed to super rom. Things work and are stable and I love it.I’m using the MK 2000 BTTF OC kernel doesn’t have any of the issues of the MK Oreo kernel. Though users on the 990 have told me that dots is smoother as well as having a higher overclock. My kernel settings are as follows. MK 2000 BTTF OC-everything is stock except for hispeed_freq-960000 fastlane_threshold-45 fastlane-1 There is a bit of battery hit with these settings. The benchmark performance is a bit lower on Nougat but the actual real-world performance is way faster with almost no UI animation hiccups as opposed to constant ones on oreo. The gaming performance seems about the same may be slightly worse on nougat due to the older drivers but I have to do further testing. It hasn’t been an issue for me and I play PUBG semi-regularly. The cameras can now use josh’s libs in nougat which there are samples listed in the original review. Also for myself, I have never been able to get an app do what Dingless does for me, it only works on Nougat so that’s nice to have. Updates 3/31/2020 Hey, I’m back due to coronavirus I have more time.I tried cleaning up the post a bit. Part of the cleaning was including the instructions to revert back to Nougat in the original half of the review. It’s still a bit convoluted so please contact me if you need any help. Some more actually exciting news we have a dev making a new kernel for Oreo. I have been alpha testing it for the past few weeks and its incredible. I can’t wait for the dev and the person leading the team, to get this out for all of you. ARCHIVES Unfortunately, as life has gotten much busier i havent been able to keep up my plans with this phone. I haven’t gone back to oreo to test memory management mods. And I haven’t been able to work on los 16 comparison. For now, I’m going to have to leave it to minor updates of apps and governors on nougat.I apologize for all you waiting on other more in-depth updates. 9/22/19 Full nougat downgrade still coming, just started school up again so been busy sorry for the delay almost done. Use prevent running instead of Greenify (on both Oreo and Nougat) listed down below. Wakeblock list to make your life easier, be careful may bootloop. Wifi bonding magisk module removed still cant confirm if it works or not. 08/07/19 Full Nougat Downgrade experience, settings, and apps coming soon. Reverted back to nougat after much urging from various people. So far it seems there is a big issue of oreo mk kernel killing apps upon exit and nougat doesn’t. I will be providing more feedback as I test as well as what I’m using on nougat in the near future. 08/05/19 I still recommend the clang version of the kernel its still better than the other MK variants. AKT Ghostpepper is now recommended get it here Please donate to a new kernel https://forum.xda-developers.com/v20/development/bounty-kernel-h990ds-stock-oreo-t3952667 Nothing else new for now, Stay Tuned. 5/21/19 Clarified thermal test run in airplane mode updated to latest MK 2.2 clang kernel Complete new section regarding Model Variants Kernels removed universal gms doze due to crashing android VM removed WhatsApp extensions Xposed module due to issues Added modded libraries comparison from imgur clarified which libs my shots were with