LG's V series of phones are all about size.
After all, the company just released the top-of-the-line G7 ThinQ, so what can it do to make another flagship model stand out just a few weeks later? It can make it bigger, that's what.
The V35 ThinQ is for anyone who likes the G7, but feels like it just isn't quite enough phone for them.
The V35 is physically larger, with a notch-free OLED screen and a bigger battery. LG hasn't announced pricing yet, but we got to take an early look at the phone ahead of its release in July.
Is Bigger Better?
In terms of design and size, the V35 ThinQ has quite a bit in common with last year's V30 (and the lesser-known V30+).
The front and back are clad in Gorilla Glass 4, with metal along the sides, and a fingerprint sensor on the back, below its two camera sensors.
The phone comes in black or gray.
No matter the color, it measures 5.97 by 2.97 by 0.29 inches (HWD), which is virtually identical to the V30.
It's wider than the G7 (6.03 by 2.83 by 0.31 inches), which will please anyone looking for a phone that feels a bit more substantial.
But for most people, it can be a little uncomfortable to hold and use in one hand.
Left to right: LG V35 ThinQ, LG G7 ThinQ
Like previous generations, the V35 is super durable, supporting the military standard 810G rating for protection against drops, bumps, and other abuse.
It's also rated IP68 waterproof, which means it can surive immersion in five feet of water for 30 minutes.
The headphone jack is up top, unlike the G7, which places it on the botton.
Volume buttons are on the left, and there's a USB-C port and speaker at the bottom.
The fingerprint sensor on the back doubles as the power button.
The phone also has a micro SD card slot capable of taking cards up to 2TB.
There's no Google Assistant button.
The V35 features a 6-inch, 2,880-by-1,440-pixel OLED display with a crisp 538 pixels per inch (ppi).
There's no distracting notch cut out at the top, like there is on the G7 and the OnePlus 6.
It's a sharp panel, with rich, saturated colors and deep, inky blacks.
Comparing it with the G7's LCD, it's easy to see the improvement in terms of color saturation and brightness. The panel also supports HDR10 content and can be enabled to always show time, date, and notifications, even when the rest of the screen is off.
Audio
Even without a dedicated Google Assistant button, you can still enable the voice assistant to take advantage of the phone's far-field microphones, which can pick up voices in noisy environments from up to 17 feet away.
Speaking of audio, the V35 doesn't have the G7's Boombox feature, which uses the phone's body as a resonance chamber to amplify sound.
Instead, the V35 has a fairly standard bottom-ported speaker that's reasonably loud, but tinny.
Fortunately, all of LG's other recent audiophile-friendly features are present.
You have a 32-bit high-fidelity quad DAC and a variety of audio settings and balance controls.
These features resulted in a noticeable improvement in the quality of audio when we tested the G7, so it's good to see them here.
The phone supports Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless playback on two audio devices at the same time.
Hardware and Software
When it comes to hardware, the V35 sticks to what works.
It's powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor clocked at 2.8GHz, with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.
We didn't get a chance to run any benchmarks, but we didn't notice any stutter or slowdown in the brief time we spent with the phone.
The increase in RAM over the G7 (6GB versus 4GB) is helpful if you plan to keep the phone for at least a couple of years.
The V35 has a 3,300mAh battery, slightly larger than the G7's 3,000mAh cell, which clocked a solid 6 hours, 28 minutes of streaming video over LTE at maximum screen brightness.
The phone supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging with the included adapter, as well as wireless charging.
Like the G7, the V35 has a 16-megapixel primary camera sensor with a 71-degree field of view, and a secondary 16-megapixel wide-angle lens with a 107-degree field of view.
This lets you switch easily between standard and wide-angle shots, making the V35 great for taking pictures of landscapes, building, and other scenery.
The phone also has an AI-powered camera mode that can look at scenery and other objects and automatically determine the best settings to shoot in.
In a brightly lit outdoor demo area, it had no trouble snapping images with bright colors and plenty of detail.
When you're shooting in low light, a Super Bright Camera mode uses pixel binning to combine four pixels into one "super" pixel for clearer shots.
This also worked great in our demo, though we'll need to see how it fares in real-world use.
See How We Test Cell Phones
Some features feel a little behind the competition, however.
You can record 4K video at 30fps, but not at 60fps like on the OnePlus 6.
The V35 also shoots slow-motion video at 240fps, which isn't as impressive as the 960fps captured by the Sony Xperia XZ2.
However, you can record HDR10 video, which a nice advantage over the Galaxy S9.
The software seems mostly the same as the G7.
The V35 runs Android 8.0 Android 8.0 Oreo with LG's UX 7.0 skin on top.
It's a pretty heavy software layer that makes a number of visual changes to app icons and the Settings menu.
By default, it removes the app drawer, but you can change that.
Aside from LG's preloaded apps, you also get some carrier bloatware.
An update to Android P is promised at some point in the future.
Network and Availability
AT&T is the only carrier that will be selling the V35 directly, but it will also be available through Google Fi.
It supports LTE bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/12/14/29/29/29/30/38/39/40/41/46/66, for comprehensive coverage on AT&T.
Dual-band Wi-Fi and NFC are also supported.
We don't have pricing details just yet, but expect the V35 to cost around $850.
Preorders begin June 1, a month before the phone starts shipping.
Overall, the LG V35 ThinQ is an incremental upgrade to the V30 that adopts most of the specs and features of the G7 and puts them into a bigger body with an OLED display, more RAM, and a larger battery.
We'll have to wait and see if that's enough for it to make a splash.
Check back for a full review soon.
