LG’s G7 ThinQ is the successor to the G6 with an even taller, brighter screen, better cameras and better audio. Here’s our hands-on review.
Hot on the heels of the V30S ThinQ is the G7 ThinQ. We considered the V30S to be a successor to the LG G6, partly because of its price and flagship status but also because the G7 was nowhere in sight, even at MWC 2018.
However, the G7 is here now and it’s the real successor to the G6. Put the G7 and V30S side by side and there are many similarities. In the past the ‘G’ and ‘V’ ranges were quite distinct but they’re now practically the same.
There are differences, of course, primarily the fact that the G7 has an IPS screen rather than OLED and the faster Snapdragon 845 processor.
We’ve spent some time with a pre-production version of the G7, so although we can’t give a definitive verdict and a rating, we already have a very good idea of how it shapes up against its rivals in terms of specs and performance.
LG hadn’t announced any pricing ahead of the phone’s lauch, but this will have a major bearing on whether it undercuts the competition and is therefore better value.
The V30 (the near-identical phone to the V30S) launched in 2017 at £799/US$809, making it one of the most expensive phones around. Since then, it has dropped to £599/US$599, which means it is much better value.
We expect the G7 to launch at £599/US$599, but it could be £649 or more. Naturally, we’ll update this article as soon as pricing is released.
Keen to reduce the time between announcement and on-sale date, LG says the G7 will go on sale in Korea first, then on 8 June in the US. We’re told the UK release date is « late May », but you’ll find the latest info in our separate LG G7 release date article.
Colour options are similar to the V30, including Aurora Black and Moroccan Blue, and there’s also Platinum Grey. Sadly the red version, Raspberry Rose, won’t be sold in the UK.
LG has clearly stuck with the G6’s design and refined it for the G7. It’s a Gorilla Glass 5 sandwich: a curved glass back is order of the day for 2018 flagships, and unlike the Huawei P20, the G7 supports QI wireless charging, so the glass isn’t simply there to look pretty.
There’s IP68 water resistance, but when other manufacturers use this as an excuse to drop the headphone jack, not LG. Audio is one of the key features of the phone, so it’s great to see a 3.5mm jack on the bottom next to the USB-C port.
Whereas previous LG phones have had their power button integrated with the fingerprint scanner, the G7 ThinQ has a normal sleep/wake button on the right-hand side.
Unusually for an Adroid phone, volume buttons are opposite, a la iPhone.
Below the volume buttons is another that’s dedicated to the Google Assistant, a bit like Samsung’s Bixby button. If you find this annoying you can disable it, but it’s a much easier way of calling up the assistant than holding the on-screen home button.
You can press and release, or press and hold to speak to the Assistant a little like you were using a walkie-talkie. A third mode lets you double-press the button to launch Google Lens. Plus, thanks to far-field mics, you can say « OK Google » from across the room just as you would with a Google Home.
One of the most noticeable design features is the screen notch. It’s by no means the only Android phone with a notch: Huawei’s P20 series has one, as does the OnePlus 6 and Asus ZenFone 5.
Here the notch is a little longer than the P20’s, but not as large as the iPhone X’s. It houses an 8Mp selfie camera and the earpiece speaker, plus an ambient light sensor.
LG calls the sections of screen either side of the notch a ‘second screen’ – a reference to the real second screen on the V-series phone from a couple of years ago. You’ll find options in the Settings app to hide the notch by making the screen black, but you can also opt for different colours or some nifty gradient that make it blend differently.
Some will be miffed that there’s both a notch and a small ‘chin’ at the bottom, but LG says that it’s difficult to make the bottom bezel as thin as the top one because of the electronics required for the IPS screen.
The screen itself has an aspect ratio of 19.5:9 and a resolution of 3120×1440 pixels. It’s tricky to measure its diagonal exactly because of the rounded corners, but LG quotes it as 6.1in.
Rather than use the traditional sub-pixel arrangement of red, green and blue, the G7’s MLCD+ display adds a white pixel to boost brightness without using more power. You might therefore argue that a quarter of the pixels don’t add anything to picture quality – and you’d be right – but resolution is higher than some competitors already and it looks nice and sharp.
It offers a Super Bright mode which raises brightness to 1000 nits for a maximum of three minutes, aiding screen readability when outdoors in sunny conditions. To enable it, you have to move the brightness slider to 100%, then tap on the sun icon which appears to the left of it.
We took the G7 outdoors in very bright conditions and it’s definitely easier to see the screen in Super Bright mode when using the phone dialler or a messaging app. It’s also useful when using the viewfinder to frame a photo, but it’s not meant to be used for long periods: it turns off after three minutes to preserve battery life and prevent overheating.
Colours looks vibrant and there isn’t a really noticeable colour shift when tilting the phone and viewing off axis.
In the Settings app there’s a choice of six colour modes, similar to those you’d find on a TV: Eco, Cinema, Cinema and more. By default, the mode will be chosen automatically based on the app you’re using. There’s an Expert mode where you can fine-tune the settings manually, even down to adjusting the red, green and blue levels individually.
Thanks to that high brightness, the screen supports HDR 10 content, and covers 100 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut, so it can display all the necessary colours.
Unfortunately, refresh rate is fixed, so there’s no difference whether you pick Game mode or Cinema.
The screen defaults to quad HD out of the box, but you can choose a lower resolution if you want to try and eke out more battery life. Being an IPS panel, it isn’t compatible with Google’s Daydream VR headset.
As befits a flagship Android phone in 2018, the G7 has the latest Snapdragon 845 processor. Depending on region, it’s paired with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM and 64GB or 128GB of internal storage. The UK model will have the 4GB / 64GB combo, but as there’s a microSD slot in the SIM tray, you can expand that storage easily.
In Geekbench 4, the G7 scored 8979 in the multicore test and 2312 in the single-core. So it’s certainly quick. In JetStream, it managed 86.5, another top-end score.
As you’d expect, all the supporting hardware is the latest standard including 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5. There’s NFC too, which you can use for Google Pay.
Despite having a mono speaker in the bottom edge rather than stereo speakers, the G7’s sounds better than you’d expect from a phone. That’s because the ‘resonance chamber’ is 17 times larger than previous phones. Any empty space inside the phone is used, and the water-resistant tape forms a seal that effectively makes the whole phone a speaker cabinet.
This setup means the back of the phone vibrates, and bass is certainly better than any other current phone. It’s no Bluetooth speaker replacement, but it’s impressive nonetheless. We listened to a variety of genres on it and found that piano and bassier stringed instruments such as cellos sound much more full-bodied than on any other current flagship.
Because the phone itself vibrates, sound (and volume) improves if you place it on a surface. You’ll notice the most difference if you put it on something thin such as a cardboard box or – as LG did in demos – a guitar. This amplifies the sound much more than it does with other phones, but you’re unlikely to hear the benefit on a kitchen worktop, desk or a dining table as they’re generally too thick to vibrate.
Putting the G7 in a case will mote this ‘boom box’ effect, especially if you pick a silicone case or anything that isn’t hard.
As with the V30S, a quad DAC is used. This hi-fi kit was missing from the UK version of the G6, so it’s good to see it in the G7. There’s support for MQA files, which is used for hi-res audio (including streaming).
The G7 is the first phone to have a DTS:X 3D system which turns any headphones into a virtual 7.1 sound system.
It’s currently exclusive to LG, which says you don’t need special video which has DTS:X 3D sound. Instead it will work with any video, including YouTube and Netflix streams.
With most phones sharing similar internal components, manufacturers are increasingly trying to differentiate by adding more cameras. The G7 takes the same approach as its predecessors: one standard camera and one wide-angle.
The main camera is the same as the V30S’s with a 71° field of view. It has a 16Mp sensor and optical stabilisation. The wide-angle camera has a 107° field of view and reduced distortion compared to older phones.
