600 Euro hip flask: The LG Velvet is a beautiful 5G mid-range

The LG Velvet is a very good-looking representative of the new 5G middle class. Ntv.de tried out what the smartphone has to offer and whether it quickly runs out of breath in the high-speed network.

The 5G expansion in Germany is gradually picking up speed, especially Telekom has already built up a fairly large network. Appropriately, there are also more and more mid-range smartphones that master the new high-speed standard without tearing too big holes in the wallet when buying. One of them is the LG Velvet, which is available for around 600 euros. ntv.de has tried whether the investment is worthwhile.

Attractive and waterproof

The LG Velvet is a pretty smartphone with a velvety shimmering back and glass surfaces curved to the side of the shiny steel frame. It has a 6.8 inch screen, but is extremely flat at 5.9 millimeters and fairly light at 180 grams. Despite its size, it is very comfortable to hold. And although it is a piece of jewelry, it is dust and waterproof according to IP68.

The OLED display makes a great impression with strong contrasts and natural colors. Although it only resolves in Full HD +, it is still sharp enough with a pixel density of 395 ppi to display even the finest details. That the display does not offer a refresh rate higher than 60 Hertz is not necessarily to be expected in the price range and will not disturb most users. The integrated fingerprint sensor responds briskly.

Average camera

A typical mid-range camera with a wide-angle and super-wide-angle lens sits on the back. The third camera is used for depth measurement. The 48-megapixel main camera delivers very nice results in daylight, but cannot keep up with the upper class in low light. The same applies to the 8 megapixel super wide-angle clips. The recordings are absolutely okay, but nothing more.

However, LG has given the camera app some interesting gadgets. So you can take photos with a more or less successful 3D effect depending on the motif. With videos, you have the option of focusing the sound recording on voices and suppressing ambient noise. If these are limited, the effect works quite well.

Efficient 5G chip

The LG Velvet is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 765, which can access 6 gigabytes (GB) of RAM. It is a high-end chip with an integrated 5G modem. For everyday smartphone use, this means that the performance is sufficient, but the power consumption is limited. This is especially true in 5G networks, where chips with outsourced modems can quickly drain batteries.

In the test, the LG Velvet lasted almost as long even with a permanent 5G connection as in the LTE network. The battery capacity of 4300 milliamp hours makes the device good for the day, in an emergency it can be quickly recharged with its 12.6 watt power supply.

The device is also modern and fully equipped with Bluetooth 5.1, WLAN ac, USB 3.1 and jack socket. With 128 GB, the flash memory is generous, who needs more can expand it with microSD cards.

A good offer with 5G network

The LG Velvet is an attractive and good smartphone of the upper middle class. If you are looking for a modern 5G device with good endurance, you will hardly find an equal rival at the moment. As long as you don't have a 5G network or don't need it, you can get similar or better-equipped devices for less than 600 euros. Maybe you wait a bit longer, the beautiful 5G hip flask will soon be available for 550 euros or less.