"Do I really need five cameras in a smartphone?"

I would not blame you if it was the first thing you asked when you heard about the signature feature of the LG V40 ThinQ, the latest flagship high-end smartphone from the South Korean electronics manufacturer.

LG's new $ 900 phone is in line with other Android smartphones in this class. It is water and dust resistant and has a screen the size of a phablet, an OLED variety of 6 to 4 inches (with a notch), framed by thin glasses.

Inside is a powerful Qualcomm processor with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, expandable (up to 2 terabytes) via microSD. It also has a standard headphone jack – and these days it deserves to be encouraged.

And I must point out that even though the phone has a solid feel, I found it a little slippery and an attraction pole for stains.

Still, you always come back to this camera quintet, which looks like this: The back of the camera contains a module with three different lenses: 16 megapixel super wide angle, 12MP standard, 12MP 2X telephoto zoom. The front of the camera features a pair of cameras consisting of a standard 8 MP lens and a 5MP wide-angle lens.

I intend to reserve all my judgment until I have had the opportunity to take more photos and determine if most of the camera features are rather fun and useful, or more frankly more fanciful. Sorry, LG, but at least with some of the features here, I lean towards it.

One feature that I find useful, at least from time to time, is that you can get a glimpse of what a photo will look like taking with one of the three rear cameras.

And if you choose the "Triple Shot" mode, which is aptly named, you can capture an image taken with the back trio consecutively, the idea being to focus on an object in the center of your scene and hold the camera still until all three of the photos have been taken. Seconds later, the camera generates a GIF. Of course, you have also captured images from the three cameras and can record and / or share all three.

Yet another feature, the "Flash Jump-Cut" mode, also generates a GIF by taking pictures at 3-second intervals. You must choose the number of photos that will be the basis of this GIF (4, 8, 12, 16 or 20 images).

Perhaps the most interesting feature to highlight is called Cine Shot or the ability to create a "living picture" or cinemagraph. It basically means that you're capturing a still image, except that for a chosen portion of the still-animated photo, it looks like a babbling stream behind something otherwise frozen. It is a good effect well done, but I found the process a little tricky. You must stand still to capture three seconds of video, then after photographing the "paint" on the part of the image with your finger where you want to keep motion. The feature works with the rear and front cameras.

When it comes to front-facing cameras, you can switch between them to take your standard selfie or take a wider-angle photo that captures not only your face, but also the cups of all your friends.

There are also other photo features on the V40 on competing phones, including portrait effects that allow you to blur the background while focusing on your main subject.

Email: [email protected]; Follow USA TODAY, Tech Tech columnist on Twitter @edbaig

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