I
PHAT PHONES
Ahh, you lazy humans will
mostly listen to music on
mobiles anyway. But if you
care about audio quality...
LG V60 THINQ 5G
Key specs
O 32-bit Quad-DAC
O Bluetooth 5, aptX HD,
Wi-Fi, NFC O Up to 2 days
O 169x78x9mm, 213gSTUFF SAYS This may not be a mainstream choice for a phone, but its audio chops are flaming hot ++++,
£899 / stuff.tv/V605GAUDIO GUIDE
Jack and chill^
This is one of the few
top-end phones with a
wired headphone port,
complete with a more-
powerful-than-most
amp circuit.f you love listening
to music but have
forgotten about LG
mobiles, you’re doing this
whole phone-buying thing
wrong. The LG V60 ThinQ is
hands-down the best phone
around for audio geeks.
Nearly every phone-maker
has gone down the route of
chopping out the headphone
port and replacing it with an
offer to buy a lovely pair of
£350 wireless headphones.
But not LG – it continues to
double down on audio quality.
The V60 ThinQ has that jack
socket and the legendaryQuad-DAC, made by ESS. This
takes those digital Status Quo
tracks and translates them
into a high-quality analogue
signal that your headphones
can understand.
Higher-end hardware
boosts the signal-to-noise
ratio, for pristine sound at up
to 32-bit/ 384KHz. Clearly,
it deserves better than those
£15 Sennheiser earbuds you
bought in 2012. The LG V60
ThinQ also has class-leading
audio-processing modes,
designed to subtly tweak
the character of the sound.
It doesn’t just whack upthe bass by 6dB and apply
cartoonish fake surround
sound like some.
Wireless audio gets some
love too: this is one of just
a handful of phones with
support for the aptX Adaptive
codec. That name may not
scream ‘audiophile’, but it’s
more efficient than aptX HD
and has much lower latency.
It’s next-gen audio streaming
for the masses.
The speakers aren’t on the
same level, with weaker bass
than the iPhone 11 Pro Max,
for example. But they are still
solid little performers, and thedual top and bottom drivers
mean you don’t get lop-sided
audio when watching films.
So, it’s the complete mobile
package? You can even get it
with a case that has a second
screen, and the battery life
is great. But there’s no zoom
cam... and the main practical
issue is that it just isn’t easy
to get hold of in the UK.