LG V20 Unlocked International Version for $440

On the “Phones as DAPs” front, the international version of the LG V20, H990DS, factory-unlocked but does not work with CDMA since that’s a US market thing, with dual SIMs, is on sale, in new condition, for $440 with free shipping by NeverMSRP on eBay in black or silver. The pink is out of stock. Limit five per buyer.

Check bands in the listing and online if you are not certain this will work with your carrier of choice. A US charging adapter will be included by the seller. Since this is imported, no LG USA warranty.

This has a headphone jack, it is USB-C powered, supports Bluetooth 4.2 with apt-X, and has the highly talked about Quad DAC. 4GB of RAM, 64GB on-board storage, microSD (up to 256GB), and removable battery bode well for music playback. The size may be a bit of a detriment if you plan to use it as a pocket DAC.

I’m finding a 6-inch phone (I don’t have this one) with a headphone cord attached to it becomes a bit of a pocket monster. On the other hand, if you like to watch music videos or concerts on the phone, the extra screen and resolution can be handy. Remember, if you are paying for Google Play All Access or YouTube RED, you can download the YouTube Music app and play YouTube music ad-free either in video or audio-only mode (saves battery, especially if you are not looking at the screen). You are not going to get audiophile-level streaming from YouTube Music, but some content cannot be found or purchased from the various music streaming services (eg, “Cassette” from “Viet Cong” reborn as “Preoccupations” ~ as seen at Coachella 2017 ~ after getting yelled at for inappropriate use of a name. The band seems to have trouble picking names in general, both of their studio albums are self-titled, and their first EP was titled “Cassette”).