LG V10 hands-on: solid build quality, second screen proves to be useful but awkwardly placed
Context & Ripple Effects
Weeks after the phone leaked with an auxiliary 'ticker' screen above the main display, Gizmodo's first hands-on verdict is split: build quality impresses, and the second screen turns out genuinely useful — just badly placed.
The piece matters because it opens a scoring thread reviewers would keep pulling for years: The Verge's full V10 review later calls the same second screen superfluous and gimmicky, even as it praises the camera and construction — the exact tension this hands-on flags.
First-order effects
- Early adopters choosing between LG and rival flagships in the 2015 holiday window get their first usable read on the V10's differentiator before full reviews land.
- The hands-on sets the frame competitors and reviewers respond to: the second screen is a real feature, not a spec-sheet flourish — but ergonomics, not capability, are its weakness.
Second-order effects
- Rather than abandoning the idea after mixed verdicts, LG doubles down on the format: the V50 ThinQ ships with an attachable Dual Screen accessory, trading the built-in ticker for a bolt-on second OLED.
- Each generation forces reviewers to re-litigate the same question — the V30 review drops the ticker entirely in favor of display and camera polish, while the LG Wing's fold-out second display gets the same 'interesting but few uses' judgment.
Third-order effects
- If the review pattern holds — every secondary-screen variant rated novel but unnecessary — LG's V line risks being defined by hardware experiments rather than the core refinements (battery, display, camera) that decide flagship purchases.
- The recurring verdict points toward a structural conclusion for LG: secondary displays work better as optional accessories than as baked-in differentiators, since they add cost and bulk without a use case reviewers can consistently endorse.
The trend: Across five years of V-series flagships, LG keeps reworking the secondary-display idea — integrated ticker, detachable accessory, fold-out panel — while reviewers keep concluding the gimmick never earns its cost.