Long-rumoured, the LG G7 ThinQ is finally here! Here’s everything we know about LG’s new handset. The LG G7 ThinQ price has yet to be confirmed but UK
Long-rumoured, the LG G7 ThinQ is finally here! Here’s everything we know about LG’s new handset.
The LG G7 ThinQ price has yet to be confirmed but UK and US release date will be towards the end of May or beginning of June.
LG normally releases two flagship phones a year, one in the form of the G-Series in the middle of the year and the other in the form of the V-Series towards the end of the year. We were thinking we might see the LG G7 during February but instead we got a revamped 2018 AI-touting version of the LG V30 – the V30S ThinQ at Mobile World Congress.
LG’s ThinQ platform was first announced early last year. All gear carrying the ThinQ branding will be artificially intelligent (or, rather, feature AI technologies) to better understand your habits and needs.
LG does like to experiment with design (remember the modular G5), but overall it’s a conservatively-designed smartphone that’s light on gimmicks. The G7 design certainly takes a few tips from the LG V30 plus there’s the now-familiar notch we’ve seen from others.
The LG G7 ThinQ features a metal core and a glass front and rear. It offers an almost all screen front with a notch design at the top, while on the rear you’ll find a vertically-aligned dual camera and a circular fingerprint sensor.
THe LG G7 ThinQ is available in five colours: Aurora Black, Platinum Grey, Moroccan Blue and Raspberry Rose.
The G7 ThinQ measures 153.2 x 71.9 x 7.9mm and weighs 162g. It is IP68 water and dust resistant while there’s a headphone jack at the bottom.
There’s a dedicated Google Assistant button on the device, located on the opposite side from the power button (that’s the left as you look at it, underneath the volume buttons). It’s the first button on a smartphone dedicated to Google Assistant – obviously, Samsung has had a Bixby button since the Galaxy S8. This button can also take you directly to Google Lens.
Large displays are the biggest trend of flagship smartphones over the last year, with many devices opting for an 18:9 (or thereabouts) aspect ratio over the standard 16:9 we’d seen previously. The G7’s display has a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, which has been achieved by reducing the size of the bottom bezel.
The G7 ThinQ will sport a 6.1-inch FullView Super Bright LCDdisplay that will have a peak brightness of a retina-searing 1,000 nits – the brightest ever for a smartphone .
It has a Quad HD+ resolution at 3,120 x 1,440 pixels for a pixel density of 564ppi and it offers HDR10 and Dolby Vision support. The G7 will be HDR10-compatible for both recording and playback.
LG is bigging up its Super Bright LCD display technology as being ued in the G7, and says that it allows the phone to be used in any lighting conditions, including bright sunlight. Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5 is used for the outer screen glass.
The LG G7 software features various user-selectable display modes, each of which adjusts the colour settings depending on the type of content on screen. It is also possible to hide the notch at the top of the screen.
There’s also an Auto mode that will automatically analyse the content on the display, whether it be videos, game, photo or web, and will adjust it for the optimal settings.
LG has a good track record over the last couple of years in terms of camera performance. There will also be some AI enhancements to the camera software, too.
A dual 16MP (f1.6,) camera will be on the rear, with a standard lens coupled with a wide-angle lens. The wide-angle camera boasts a 107-degree field-of-view and f/1.9 aperture, while the standard camera has a f/1.6 aperture.
There is optical image stabilisation on board both rear lenses, as well as phase detection autofocus and a manual mode for adjusting shutter speed, ISO, exposure and white balance. The G7 ThinQ cameras also feature AI Cam enhancements so it detects what kind of scene the camera is seeing (the LG G7 ThinQ incorporates EyeEm’s image recognition technology as part of Vision AI to determine the best camera setting for a particular image) as well as producing great low light shots.
The front-facing camera is 8 megapixels and has a portrait mode, plus there are live photos and 3D camera stickers. You can also apply bokeh/portrait effects after the shot has been taken.
There are 11 new settings on the camera based on what you are shooting. The camera will now read: Person, Pet, Food, Sunrise, Sunset, Landscape, City, Flower, Baby, Animal, Beverage, Fruit, Snow, Sky, Beach, Group of People, Night sky, Text, and Low Light, and adjust the settings accordingly.
The LG G7 is based upon Qualcomm’s high-end Snapdragon 845 platform. There’s also 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage and microSD for storage expansion (up to a whopping 2TB!). If you plump for the 128GB storage option then you get 6GB of RAM.
You also get a 3,000mAh battery, charged via USB Type-C with Quick Charge support.
Apparently sound is a big focus for the new phone and LG has confirmed it will be the first smartphone to offer DTS:X 3D Surround Sound, for up to 7.1 channel performance without the need for headphones. There’s also a four-channel DAC for improved audio through the headphone jack as well as MQA support for Hi-Res.
LG has also confrmed the Boombox Speaker on board increases the base sound level by more than 6dB with twice the amount of bass.
Naturally, there’s Bluetooth 5.0 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
The LG G7 is based on Android Oreo with LG’s UX 6.0 interface over the top.
Like the V30S, the G7 ThinQ – and other ThinQ products – there’s a focus on AI technologies. As a result, the G7 ThinQ features Voice AI that responds to voice commands.
EyeEm’s image recognition tech means you can organise your photo gallery with a feature called QTag. This organises images based on 1162 concepts or keywords within them, and sorts them in up to 155 smart albums.
Google Assistant is set to be front and centre and it sounds from leaks like LG has been working with Google to more deeply integrate Assistant with the G7 ThinQ’s functions. This should lead to a better user experience than with Samsung’s Bixby. As we said above, we’re hearing there may be a dedicated Google Assistant button on the device.
LG has been working hard on the software side and has even opened a new facility in Magok-dong, Seoul to provide “customers worldwide with faster, timelier, smartphone operating system and software updates”.
