LG has officially unveiled a new smartphone with not one, but five cameras on it.
The LG V40 ThinQ (long name) puts rivals like the Note9, iPhone XS and XZ3 to shame by boasting three full-size cameras on the back and a further two on the front.
On the back is a 16MP super wide-angle, 12MP standard lens and a 12MP telephoto lens for long distance shots. Turn the phone around and you’ll find a 5MP wide-angle lens and a 8MP standard lens.
Despite its somewhat bug-eyed appearance, the V40 ThinQ’s abundance of cameras means it can offer some rather neat features that its rivals can’t.
For starters there’s Triple Shot which lets you press the shutter button and the camera will cycle through each of the cameras effectively giving you three versions of the same image to choose from.
The super wide-angle lens lets you take GoPro style photos which take in much more of the surrounding scenery without having to stand much, much further bak.
The most interesting feature by far however is Cine Shot which uses all three lenses to take a photo/movie hybrid.
Essentially it takes a picture and a video and then afterwards paint over the areas of the picture that you want to be video. An example would be you standing in a street while the cars move behind you.
Of course LG hasn’t forgotten the competition entirely and so the V40 ThinQ can also do many of the same tricks that you’ll find on its rivals too. There’s a professional lighting feature which changes the lighting of an image as well as AR Emoji for creating your own animated emoji.
Finally there’s Bokeh effect on both the front and back cameras with the ability to adjust the background blur after you’ve taken the image.
In addition to its quirky features this is still a flagship Android smartphone so there’s a 6.4-inch QHD+ OLED display which covers almost all of the front of the phone.
For audiophiles there’s a Digital-to-Analogue converter (DAC) which seriously improves the sound quality of high-resolution audio tracks. Finally the phone comes with what is being called a Boombox speaker which LG claims offers double the bass of conventional smartphone speakers.
There’s no confirmed UK release date just yet but it’s likely that LG will be bringing its photo-obsessed flagship to our shores within the next few months.