LG V20: can you record clear audio at a concert?

The LG V20 is easily the most-hyped smartphone of the year when it comes to audio capabilities.

Between the quad-DAC hardware and Hi-Res Audio support, the firm is positioning their phone as an audio playback beast of note. However, LG has also sold the V20 on its audio recording abilities, featuring three high-quality microphones, an HD audio recorder app and Hi-Res Audio recording support in the camera.

In fact, when using the camera app, users can adjust the microphone directivity, low-cut filter, gain and LMT (limiter) features, giving a range of hitherto unseen audio recording options.

So then, just how does it fare in the real world? Well, we took the phone to Mercury in Cape Town to record some live music, uploading the results to YouTube.

The LG V20 didn’t fare badly, but it’s clear that you’ll want to muck about with settings

What were the results then? Well, we’ve got an interesting mix, as all the clips sound very loud and punchy, but crackling is by far the biggest offender in many of them.

Otherwise, vocals were reproduced impressively, but I also found that clipping would occur at times when the bands got loud.

Of course, the LG V20’s audio options mean you should tweak the options to get the best results (such as LMT and gain), but it’s clear that simply hitting “record” isn’t always going to get the best results. I’d also love to see LG implement preset video recording options (like a concert mode).