Samsung Galaxy S9 vs LG V30S ThinQ: Which one should you buy?

Can LG V30S ThinQ take on Samsung’s best smartphone of 2018, the Galaxy S9? Well, the answer is short and simple — No!

As expected, Samsung and LG unveiled their best smartphone offering at the Mobile World Congress 2018 in the form of Galaxy S9 and V30S ThinQ. Speaking of the former device, it’s undoubtedly a decent upgrade over last year’s Galaxy S8 with an improved processor and more enticing tricks under the hood. However, the latter is straight away an inconsequential upgrade over one of my favorite smartphones of 2017 — the LG V30/V30 Plus. In this Samsung Galaxy S9 vs LG V30S ThinQ article, we’ll be sharing with you all the information you need to help you decide which flagship smartphone you should go for in 2018.

Prior to launch, both manufacturers have had to deal with a plethora of leaks and rumors, revealing just about everything related to their respective flagship handsets. We pretty much knew the specs and features of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and LG V30S ThinQ even before their official launch. So, the launch event was pretty boring and a blatant repetition of everything we’ve heard and seen from the leaks. The only part where the rumor mill got wrong was about the naming of the LG handset, which was initially rumored to be called LG V30 Plus Alpha.

Without further ado, let’s just compare the two flagship devices side by side and see which one deserves the crown for the best smartphone of 2018:

Samsung Galaxy S9 vs LG V30S ThinQ: Specs in a nutshell

Samsung Galaxy S9 specs

• Display: 5.8-inch QuadHD+ Super AMOLED, 1440×2960 pixels, 18:9 aspect ratio
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 (10nm) octa-core CPU or Exynos 9810 Octa (based on your region)
• Graphics processor (GPU): Adreno 630 (Qualcomm Snapdragon) or Mali-G72 MP18 (Exynos)
• RAM: 4GB RAM
• Internal Storage: 64/128/256GB (expandable up to 400GB via microSD slot)
• Operating System version: Android 8.0 Oreo
• Battery capacity: 3000mAh
• Primary camera: 12MP rear shooter with a user-adjustable aperture (f/1.5 to f/2.4), 1/2.5″ sensor size, 1.4µm pixel size, Dual-Pixel phase detection autofocus, Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), LED flash, Geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, Auto HDR, panorama, 2160p@60fps, 1080p@240fps, 720p@960fps, HDR, and dual video recording
• Secondary camera: 8MP front-facing snapper with f/1.7 aperture, 1/3.6″ sensor size, 1.22µm pixel size, autofocus, 1440p@30fps, Auto HDR and dual video call
• Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, 4G LTE, NFC, Type-C USB
• Features: IP68 certified, Samsung Pay, Samsung DeX, Fast battery charging (Quick Charge 2.0), Wireless charging, Samsung’s voice assistant Bixby, AR Emoji (Samsung’s reply to Apple’s Animoji), and Iris scanner

LG V30S ThinQ specs

• Display: 6.0-inch QuadHD+ P-OLED, 1440x 2880 pixels, 18:9 aspect ratio
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (10nm) octa-core CPU
• Graphics Processor (GPU): Adreno 540
• RAM: 6GB
• Internal storage: 128/256GB (expandable up to 256GB via microSD slot)
• Operating System version: Android 8.0 Oreo
• Battery capacity: 3300mAh
• Primary camera: dual rear shooters with 16MP (f/1.6 aperture, 1µm pixel size, 3-axis OIS, PDAF) and 13MP (f/1.9) sensors, phase detection, and laser autofocus, LED flash, Geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, HDR, panorama, 2160@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps, 720p@120fps, HDR video recording
• Secondary camera: 5MP front-facing shooter with f/2.2 aperture, 1/5″ sensor size, 1.12µm pixel size
• Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, 4G LTE, NFC, Type-C USB
• Features: MIL-STD 810G certified, IP68 certified, Fingerprint sensor, Fast charging support (QuickCharge 3.0), Wireless charging, ThinQ AI

Samsung Galaxy S9 vs LG V30S ThinQ: Samsung’s monopoly over SD845 supplies

As expected from the beginning, LG simply couldn’t manage to get their hands on Qualcomm’s latest and most powerful chipset — Snapdragon 845. Samsung had reportedly managed to buy up all of the initial stock of SD845 chipsets, which it now uses to power the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus handsets. The Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus smartphones, being the first Snapdragon 845-powered devices, therefore has a notorious advantage over other flagships including LG V30S ThinQ and Xperia XZ2.

As a direct consequence of this monopoly, LG had to settle with Snapdragon 835 chipsets for their new flagship. This is also the reason why LG decided to put on hold the launch of LG G7, and instead, launch an improved variant of last year’s LG V30 handset.

For the sake of comparison, the Snapdragon 845 is said to be 25% faster than the Snapdragon 835 in terms of performance. According to Qualcomm, the new chipset will be 10% more power efficient and the new Adreno 630 GPU integrated on the chipset will bring about 30% graphics improvement. So, you’ll be missing out all these improvements in case you’re going for the LG V30S ThinQ.

Samsung Galaxy S9 vs LG V30S ThinQ: Camera comparison

Firstly, let’s get this out of the way: The Galaxy S9 comes with a 12MP shooter on the rear with a variable aperture that you can adjust between f/1.5 and f/2.4, while the V30S ThinQ has a dual camera setup that consists of a 16MP sensor with f/1.6 aperture and a 13MP sensor with f/1.9 aperture.

On the front, there is an 8MP snapper with a f/1.7 aperture in the case of Galaxy S9. On the other hand, the V30S ThinQ is fitted with a 5MP snapper with a f/2.2 aperture. It’s worth noting that both LG V30 and V30S ThinQ share similar camera hardware, while the S9 features a slightly better camera technology than last year’s S8.

Though the V30S ThinQ’s camera technology is a year old already, that doesn’t mean LG has used an inferior camera set up in their first 2018 flagship handset. In fact, LG V30’s rear camera still manages to beat the S9’s when it comes to low-light shots. However, the shots taken on the Galaxy S9 does look slightly sharper than those taken on the V30S ThinQ in brighter lighting conditions.

It’s worth noting that there’s a Plus variant of Galaxy S9 that rocks a dual camera setup — 12MP (f/1.5-2.4)+12MP (f/2.4). However, we’ve taken only the normal variant into consideration for this article.

Samsung Galaxy S9 vs LG V30S ThinQ: Conclusion

In case you’re an LG fanboy rooting for an upgrade, you might want to hold off your plans on getting a V30S ThinQ. It’s pretty much a V30, but with more RAM and AI features. Also, it’s worth noting that the so-called AI features of V30S ThinQ are coming to other V30 variants as well — so you don’t really need to care about the existence of this phone if you already own a V30 or V30 Plus. Though the V30S is not really a worthy upgrade over the V30 variants, it still confuses me why LG has gone so far to put a ridiculous price tag of about $1000 (KRW 1,048,300) for the device.

With a better processor and some neat camera tricks under the hood, Samsung’s Galaxy S9 is simply the best Android smartphone released so far. In case you’re looking for a flagship phone to buy in 2018, you’d be better off with a Galaxy S9 that costs only about $720.