LG Velvet: The best looking LG phone we've seen in a while

The LG Velvet is LG's signal that it's trying something new. The phone isn't part of the company's G- or V-series or any of the other midrange lines. Right now, the phone is available in South Korea and LG is looking to launch the phone soon in the US for $600 to $700.

Read CNET's LG Velvet review.

With its tapered edges, sharper corners and a vertical camera array, the Velvet doesn't look like other premium LG phones. 

It's more chic than previous LG phones we've seen, and it's narrower, slimmer, lighter and more comfortable to hold than the V60. 

And fear not wire headphone lovers, the Velvet still has a headphone jack.

Like other LG phones, the Velvet works with a Dual Screen accessory that adds a second screen. You can multitask and display two apps at the same time, or expand certain apps across both screens so they work together like a tablet. You can also set up one screen as a digital controller for some mobile games.

The Velvet has a sharp and vibrant 6.8-inch OLED screen. Its 60-hertz display is common on most phones, but that's a lower refresh rate than competitors like the OnePlus 8, which has a 90Hz display. 

The phone runs Android 10 and has 128GB of onboard storage as well as expandable storage up to 2TB.

The phone has a standard 48-megapixel camera, an 8-megapixel wide-angle shooter and a 5-megapixel camera for depth sensing.

The Velvet is powered by a variant of the Snapdragon 765 chipset that enables 5G connectivity. It's not as robust as Qualcomm's latest 865 processor, but it's what keeps the phone's price relatively lower than other flagships. 

Take a look at more angles of the LG Velvet.

The Velvet's triple camera setup takes sharp and colorful photos. The camera also has a digital zoom up to 10x, but at that level, pictures were a lot blurrier and muddled.

On the front is a 16-megapixel camera.

Preliminary tests for continuous video playback on Airplane mode, showed that the Velvet's 4,300-mAh battery lasted 22 hours and 38 minutes. For comparison, the OnePlus 8, which also has a 4,300-mAh battery, clocked in 18 hours and 47 minutes.

We're going to run more battery tests while streaming video and will update the review when those numbers are in.

With its relatively low price, the Velvet faces competitors like the OnePlus 8, Galaxy A71 5G and the Motorola Edge -- all of which deliver great specs and 5G too. Though LG is heading towards a good direction with the Velvet, the phone should have a better display or processor if it wants to stay competitive in this price range.

Read CNET's LG Velvet review.