New LG Phone

LG today is unveiling its V20 smartphone, which follows up on the V10 that LG introduced last year. The new version of this large 5.7-inch handset has a newer chip, more sophisticated dual rear cameras, more battery capacity, and a more elegant feel. Oh — and it’s the first phone to ship with Android Nougat, the newest version of Android.

The V20 is also the first phone to get In Apps, a new homescreen shortcut in Android that makes it easy to search through content on all installed apps. When you boot up the V20 for the first time, it’s one of the first things you see. Unfortunately the feature wasn’t working on the V20 that I had a chance to try out at a press briefing in San Francisco last week. But an LG representative assured me that it will work when it ships.

The V20 comes with several unconventional features that were part of the V10, including the customizable “second screen” at the top, the combination fingerprint scanner and power button on the back, and a case you can snap off to replace the battery. But the rugged silicone back has been replaced with a smooth aluminum alloy, and on the front, there’s just one 5-megapixel wide-angle camera, instead of two cameras. The “second screen” is twice as bright as the one on the V10 and uses a larger font size for text.