LG V20 Review(MODDERS GUIDE)

L


THE NOUGAT REVERT

Back to Nougat

The current state of my phone is on Nougat. the reason I reverted to Nougat is due to the only stock-based oreo kernel being MK 2000 having many problems. Including but not limited background app killing which is somewhat but not completely mitigated by setting crazy low LMK values. Scroll and random animation lag, vibration lag, and random kernel watchdog errors. I wasn’t able to record the animation lag as it is quite random but hopefully, you can see from the videos the reloading of apps. Oreo with LKT is quite a bit faster but the problem is the memory management which makes Nougat feel faster overall.

The main features I miss are pips since I use my phone for a crazy amount of youtube as well as the lack of Bluetooth output picker with less than two devices attached.

After playing with SuperRom Nougat for quite a bit and having a lot of issues with the system UI crashing even after multiple reinstalls. I tried weta using the us996 version on my h910 and for me, it’s working way better than Super or fully stock. Things that worked out of the box were the correct apns and ims fully autoconfigured and setup for Tmobile so I got both MMS data and HD calling automatically setup for me. The IR blaster which has been wonky for me on Super and has never worked on Oreo for me works perfectly. The auto-brightness config on weta also seems much more responsive than stock oreo though super is pretty good as well.The outdoor weta auto-brightness config is the best I have found. In general, Weta seems like a more polished rom with more actual dev work put into it as opposed to super rom. Things work and are stable and I love it.I’m using the MK 2000 BTTF OC kernel doesn’t have any of the issues of the MK Oreo kernel. Though users on the 990 have told me that dots is smoother as well as having a higher overclock.

My kernel settings are as follows.

MK 2000 BTTF OC-everything is stock except for

hispeed_freq-960000

fastlane_threshold-45

fastlane-1

There is a bit of battery hit with these settings.

The benchmark performance is a bit lower on Nougat but the actual real-world performance is way faster with almost no UI animation hiccups as opposed to constant ones on oreo. The gaming performance seems about the same may be slightly worse on nougat due to the older drivers but I have to do further testing. It hasn’t been an issue for me and I play PUBG semi-regularly.

The cameras can now use josh’s libs in nougat which there are samples listed in the original review.

Also for myself, I have never been able to get an app do what Dingless does for me, it only works on Nougat so that’s nice to have.

24 Comments

  • Hi!

    Congrats, very nice and detailed review. I changed from a G4 to the V20 and was quite shocked at the JPEG image quality degradation – too much noise reduction going on.
    Regarding the modded camera libraries, do they work on Oreo?

    Thanks and keep up the good work!

    • Thanks for the kind words.
      Unfortunately, they aren’t yet available for oreo, but they will be coming soon according to the dev. I will be updating the article as time goes on.

  • I came to the v20 after my v10 died last week.. Yes, everyone thinks I’m nuts, but can see spending $900+ when the v20 seems to have what I want. Removable battery was top of my list. Great review for the revival of the v20. Thanks for the info, I enjoyed the links to all yhe root stuff etc. I always glaze over when ivisit XDA and I’ve avoided rooting right away but may have to now. Hope the camera extensions for Oreo gets updated soon!

    Thanks again!

    • Hey man sounds good,im sticking with the v20 for a while as well.
      Glad my review could help.
      If I can help you with anything feel free to “shout at me”.

  • Thank you so much for the detailed review!
    I am getting my friend old V20 soon (he likes to upgrade often, I like to take my friends “old” phones) and wanted to see how easy it is to root.

    I have never done so many mods to a phone – most I did was root, maybe different kernel when needed and custom ROM.

    Is it easy to do all the mods you write about?
    Are there any points I might brick my phone I should be careful about?

    Thanks!

    • Hey dude sorry for the delay been crazy busy.
      So with the v20 like most phones your gonna have to find what the exact variant is. Once you have that info you can go ahead and look on xda for instructions to get root. Unfortunately, most of the methods to root the v20 are somewhat complicated and this is the part you have to be super super careful. So a lot of these mods are magisk modules which is the current recommend root method. With magisk modules If you install one it will usually work but if it doesn’t and you go into a boot loop u can uninstall magisk modules withing twrp. Xposed is a little more complicated and you have to be more careful with its mods but there are way to remove those as well. Really the parts u should be most worried about is the root process to get twrp as well as making sure if it’s a variant-specific thing like a kernel that you flash the correct variant. Let me know if that helps. If you want me and a few others with v20s are super active on telegram and we can guide u through.

  • As you can see @ xda I have been inspired by your blog. Thank you so much. Bring a hifi nerd I intend to keep this phone as long as possible and I try out most of your recommendations. I have never got greenify to work properly though, it ends up taking more battery than it gives. I don’t yet know what i am doing wrong.

    • Hey most people seem to have that experience I for some reason haven’t,are you using it with the xposed module though?If its not working for you just skip it. Again trying the best I can but not everything will work for everyone. Also I really appreciate the coffees it means a lot. If i can help any further feel free to comment here or shoot me an email from the contact page or the xda thread or telegram.Also as a hifi guy how do you like the jamesdsp I love it though poweramp is still super awesome for flacs. I use jamesdsp when streaming,hbu?

      • Did you flash ainur sauron/narsil? seems you use jamesdsp. I have big issue when using ainur sauron, hifi mode not processing at some audio files even it both mp3 and hi-res even some files is ok.

        • I only use the jamesdsp module. Have you tried installing both audio modification library and audio compatibility library modules in conjunction with ainur sauron?

          • Yes, I did it and still doesn’t work. I also tried 60ohms both earphone and headphone then sounds gonna weird. crackling and hissing.
            So I just copying modded mixer_paths_tasha.xml from ainur sauron and uninstall that modul

  • Awesome, thanks for the blog again u/aygross1929 ! A few questions:
    1. Which extended battery are you testing? How long have you tested it for, and what’s the SOT / accubattery estimate of its capacity?
    2. Any guidance on RR vs LineageOS vs Alpha Omega? I’m looking to go for a custom ROM for better smoothness and battery life, but don’t want to sacrifice on the special features like the stock style second screen, DAC, LG camera etc.

    • Hey sorry for the delayed response.Im testing the Perfine lipoly 8200 which is hard to find. I also just purchased a shenmz 8500 lipoly.
      Accubattery is pretty terrible with the estimates since the kernel isn’t properly coded for it.I usually get 10 hrs sot but you have to charge a couple of hrs past 100 percent IMO. The charge percentages aren’t accurate since the kernel isn’t coded for it.I’m working on an in-depth update for stock oreo vs stock nougat with mk kernel.I hope to do a slow-motion video to capture animations lag but have been super busy. After that, I plan on testing Los/RR. From what I know about Los camera, it doesn’t work at all. Dac with gamma kernel should work but isnt ideal. Second screen on los 15 with gamma kernel kinda works but its using bored signs as a base and is super buggy. Los 16 is using the built in notch feature so you essentially have a giant notch, ymmv if you care about that. Overall performance and battery life is definitely better on Los. Stock Nougat is the most stable and has the better performance of the two stock options but you lose out in terms of battery life as well as pip and updated GPU drivers.

  • Firstly, thanks for the awesome and in-depth guide. Do you have the links to the nougat rom and kernel? Everything on XDA seems to be dead.

    • You should be able to since it has the blu_active governor.

      What kernel manager are you using.

      If you have ex kernel manager go to cpu tab- governor options

  • hey im back, thanks for the help.

    i am trying to install this kernel but i keep getting “error update 2”

    US996Santa_BTTF-BETA2-mk2000.zip
    Jul 14, 2019 | 10:00PM

    its located here:

    https://androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=296722

    i saw some other people post about it not installing correctly, but i never saw a fix for this.

    do you have any idea what is going on with this?

    thanks again so much for all of your help

  • Hello. This post was extremely interesting, particularly because I
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    Abildgaard Valenzuela

Hey, my name is Avrohom Yosef Gross but I just go by Ay.

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