Yes, the LG V30's camera really does have an f/1.6 aperture

Could the LG V30 be its best-ever flagship phone? There's a good shout for it, and part of that comes down to its cameras. LG is making a big deal about the primary shooter in particular: a 16MP sensor with improved optics and an industry-leading f/1.6 aperture. With all of that focus on the camera, somewhere along the way a rumor has started that LG is lying about the aperture, claiming that it is actually f/1.7 — a number offered by other smartphones.

This just isn't true.

As is so often the case, the first handful of phones to hit the hands of the press — and be on display at trade shows like IFA 2017 — have non-final pre-production software, and sometimes even pre-production hardware. That software often has bugs, and that's precisely what we're looking at here: camera software that is unintentionally reporting the wrong aperture in the EXIF data of the pictures.

An LG spokesperson has confirmed to Android Central that the V30's main camera is, indeed, shooting at f/1.6 despite the software bug on some evaluation phones that shows otherwise. One of the LG V30s Android Central is currently using — a European unit — is actually properly displaying f/1.6 on photos as well.

This is what happens with pre-production software, folks.

Given the imaging-focused marketing approach around the V30, which specifically touts the uniqueness of the f/1.6 aperture, I don't quite understand why LG would ever lie about something so blatantly. And so, of course, it isn't lying about it at all. Carry on, folks — the V30's camera has the hardware LG says it does, and now we can move on to evaluating its actual photo performance.