LG has always been a regular contender in announcing their flagship during the MWC however this year they were late by almost 2 months. Initially there were rumors about LG cancelling the G7 or even naming it differently that is by dropping the 'G' initial however they retained the 'G' and added 'ThinQ' which is their version of AI (welcome to 2018 :-P). The device gains inspiration from Apple to boast the notch however they didn't take the inspiration further and limited themselves to retain the 3.5 mm headphone jack with the dedicated 32 bit Quad DAC.
| SPECS | |
|---|---|
| Display | 6.1 inch IPS LCD |
| Resolution | 2K (3120×1440) 19.5:9 |
| Protection | Gorilla Glass 5 |
| SOC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 4×2.8 GHz KRYO 385 + 4×1.7 GHz KRYO 385 |
| GPU | Adreno 630 |
| RAM and storage | 4GB - 64GB 6GB - 128GB expandable via sdcard |
| Rear camera | 16 MP f/1.6 + 16MP f/1.9 wide angle lens |
| Front camera | 8MP f/1.9 |
| Battery | 3000 mAh with quick charge 3.0 |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5 WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5 GHz) GPS, GLONASS USB type-C , NFC |
| Sensors | Proximity Accelerometer Gyroscope Ambient Light Compass Fingerprint |
The specifications are pretty 2018 - a 6.1 inch 19.5:9 display with 2K resolution and an IPS LCD panel, Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SOC with 4 or 6GB RAM and 64 or 128 GB storage, dual rear cameras, a notch, etc.
LG decided to retain the IPS display here citing better brightness and they have provided an outdoor option which can increase the brightness level upto about 1000 nits - that's actually insane since an average smartphone can go maximum upto 500-600 nits or even lower. Speaking of the display itself if you have read my previous post about the notch then you may know the actual reason behind having a notch. However here the story is something else since to the bottom the bezels are present and the notch is not that small too. Here, LG is touting the available screen space as a secondary display. The full fledged secondary displays were available on the LG V10 and the V20 where they did serve a purpose and were small OLED panels however here it is the same IPS display. LG has also provided an option to hide the notch or rather make is purely black in continuation however being an IPS display the pixels are not Off rather a black bar appears at the top. If you do not like the blacking out of the notch then you can choose some other color variations or textures which will readily distinguish the notch and screen. Anyways enough of Notch ranting and moving ahead to the body, the G7 ThinQ is made up of glass flanked on both the sides with a metallic frame. Gorilla Glass 5 protection is provided on both the sides. The frame houses the power on-off button (which was previously embedded on the fingerprint sensor to the rear), volume buttons and an additional button for bringing up the Google Assistant. Here Samsung provided an inspiration by their Bixby but LG decided to stick to the Google Assistant. We are unclear as to whether the buttons can be mapped to perform other tasks since it is not available as of now however we hope for an optimistic outcome through updates or third party apps. The device is IP68 dust and water resistant along with having the MIL STG-810G rating which was also available with the G6.
The rear houses the fingerprint sensor and the 2 cameras along with the flash and laser autofocus. This time again a wide angle lens has been used with 16 MP f/1.6 aperture (OIS) and another 16MP f/1.9 lens, the latter being the 107° wide angle lens and the former a 71° lens. The front facing camera is of 8 MP with f/1.9 aperture lens and has 90° field of view. With these cameras, LG has included all sorts of AI related capabilities where the AI can detect the object and provide an optimum output by enhancing the picture quality. Apart from that, the manual mode is also available to take full control over the camera if you do not prefer the AI. Similarly, with the likes of the past, the G7 also comes with a full manual mode for it's video making it one of the few devices to boast a manual mode and take full control over the videos too. Portrait mode is also available on the front and rear cameras with the capability to adjust the blur after capture.
The battery capacity is however just 3000 mAh which is a let down since the battery will have to provide power to a 2K IPS display. Although it does come with Quick Charge (3.0) yet we cannot expect much from this smaller capacity. LG, like always makes use of its own Ui and the G7 ThinQ will be running on Android Oreo with promised upgrade to Android P. The device overall seems quite normal or rather just a refresh from the V30 with newer SOC and a notch however one interesting area in the G7 is the speaker which unfortunately is not a stereo speaker yet it is quite loud and the vibration that it produces when placed on a hollow surface can enhance the overall experience ('Boom Box mode' as LG likes to call it ;-) . Usually the vibrations produced by the speakers in our devices (except the Razer Phone) aren't that prominent hence it will be interesting to see as to how they fare in real world scenarios.
The device will be available in 4 color options : Grey, Black, Blue and Red with the availability and pricing ranging from regions.
Do you feel that LG can take flight with the G7 ThinQ considering that their previous flagships have been quite underrated ? Also, does the notch bother you ? Do share your thoughts and also comment on what new feature would you like to see in the upcoming devices.
Do you feel that LG can take flight with the G7 ThinQ considering that their previous flagships have been quite underrated ? Also, does the notch bother you ? Do share your thoughts and also comment on what new feature would you like to see in the upcoming devices.
Images via LG