LG V20 review: rear cameras with manual controls are great, second screen is practical, but Galaxy S7 Edge is cheaper, waterproof, and has better battery life
With the demise of Samsung's Galaxy Note 7, Android fans looking for a premium big-screen phone have been left high and dry.
Context & Ripple Effects
LG's V line arrives at an odd moment: last year's LG V10 was praised for its camera and build but dinged for a second screen reviewers called superfluous, so the V20's framing of that same second screen as 'practical' is itself the story of a feature being argued into usefulness.
The timing matters more than the hardware. With Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 gone, the premium big-screen Android slot is vacant, and Tom's Guide's verdict routes those stranded buyers not to LG but to the cheaper, waterproof, longer-lasting Galaxy S7 Edge — meaning LG inherits Samsung's crisis without inheriting its customers.
First-order effects
- Premium big-screen Android buyers left behind by the Note 7's demise must now choose between the V20's manual-camera controls and second screen and the Galaxy S7 Edge's lower price, waterproofing, and battery life — and this review steers them to Samsung.
- LG gets a rare window where its flagship faces no direct phablet rival, but the review shows the advantage is being spent on niche appeal rather than closing the spec gaps that decide purchases.
Second-order effects
- Samsung needs no new flagship to hold the segment: the existing S7 Edge absorbs displaced Note 7 demand at full price, turning LG's opening into a pricing problem the V20 cannot answer.
- The V line continues anyway — the following year's LG V30 keeps the annual cadence but swaps the second-screen question for a bad OLED display and lifelike-camera complaints, showing LG iterating on the same unresolved execution gaps.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the premium Android tier consolidates around whichever vendor ships reliable mainstream specs — waterproofing, battery, price — while rivals differentiate through add-on features that reviewers keep treating as secondary.
- A competitor's recall becomes a structural stress test: the vacated slot rewards incumbents' existing lineups over challengers' new ones, which is why LG's best-timed launch of the V era still loses the recommendation.
The trend: Late-2016 premium Android competition turned on who could credibly fill the Note 7 vacuum, with LG's annually iterated V line pressing niche features against Samsung's entrenched flagship economics.