3D Touch on the LG V30? More like a Taptic Engine

Pocketnow

By Jules Wang

Published Aug 14, 2017

Complex haptic feedback has been teased for the V30, but is it 3D Touch or something more comprehensive like what the Apple Watch did?

You would’ve thought that LG would have mentioned this feature in detail through its unrelenting press releases about the V30 leading up to its launch, but all this got was a throwaway line at the end of the page.

That feature is essentially 3D Touch — well, at least that’s what Weibo analyst Ice Universe calls it. The only bit from LG’s latest V30 statement that concedes a hint that this exists is the mention of haptic feedback customization.

Part of that is where Immersion Technology, the firm behind the Taptic Engine on the Apple Watch, comes into play. It told 9to5Google that it teamed with LG to incorporate “complex vibration effects” into the V30’s graphic interface.

The TouchSense suite allows for the synchronization of on-screen transitions, button presses and such with buzzes of different qualities — parameters like strength, fine-point location and duration can be drastically varied to create an intended effect on the user.

For example, in the camera app, when you take a picture you feel a shutter click, just like a DSLR; when you adjust camera settings, it feels like you’re spinning a finely tuned mechanical knob. When you dismiss a notification, navigate from one home screen to another, and perform several other interactions, you feel subtle effects that match the animations perfectly, resulting in better usability and perceived design quality.

It’s a passive experience enhancement, not a feature that requires the user to go out of their way to use it — this is not the home screen implementation seen from the iPhone 6s onward.

The Galaxy Note 8, expected to launch just 8 days before the V30 on August 23, is said not to feature any 3D Touch-like feature.