Why LG G7 (ThinQ) failed to impress an iPhone fan

imicca
imicca
Sep 1, 2018 · 7 min read

And it took me less than a week to return my purchase.


Somehow I never had a chance to use LG smart phone in my life, despite being heavily interested in mobile phones since 2005. My first phone ever was Nokia 3310, first smartphone — Nokia N73. But things changed with iPhone, since which I only used iPhone as my main everyday phone, the “daily driver”. Throughout years I also bought Samsung phones, then Google Pixels, OnePluses, but never LGs. Ironically, I have mostly LG tech in my home, appliances of course. So, after using my first ever LG phone since 24th of August, 2018, I tweeted this:

Some may say that a week is not enough for a “thorough” testing, but those don’t know how I test phone cameras: I actually dedicated 3 full days just for camera testing, other 2 for everyday tasks, light use and 1 day for heavy gaming/media.

To be absolutely honest, I bought LG to test 3 things: wide angle camera, LG UI skin (that many reviewers claim as bad) and the high quality DAC. And short answers will be:

UI is not as bad, camera is not as good and I can live without DAC.

Starting from the “unboxing experience”, I would say it’s fine, and addition of cleaning cloth is a nice touch. I did not like how some android manufacturers like to put stickers on phones and of course, the bloatware. Both apparent here.

LG G7 back sticker (left) and bloatware apps on the right.

Speaking of design, I really like this design. The back looks like better version of OnePlus 6 and gathers way less fingerprints or dust, but it is very slippery. Despite having a notch, which I am ok with using iPhone X for very long time, I think LG implemented it well, since using “hide the second screen” setting, the phone’s bottom bezel (also known as chin) becomes symmetric with top (the forehead). The display is LCD IPS, which is strange for 2018 and for flagships. I have to say that “super bright mode” total works and makes very bright light, brighter than OLED for sure, but the colours wash away on direct sunlight. This is perhaps the best LCD display I have seen which also translates very well on battery life. I never had a day with dead battery before sleep and fast charging was super fast as well.

The camera

This is the section where I might upset sone LG fans, but I am sorry — your wide angle lens is an underdeveloped “killer-feature” that does not kill. I am using latest OS and updates, this is not the case of pre-alpha software or unreleased hardware that may skewed my impressions, no, I am speaking of actual real world test scenario that anyone with G7 can replicate.

Let’s start from main camera — it’s just OK, barely passes as flagship camera, but is very good mid-range phone camera, competing with OnePlus 6 for example. Low light photos are bad, let’s just face the facts. I have not seen photos this bad since iPhone 7 and Galaxy S7. HDR — does not work most of the time. There is no auto function, you can have it on or off, but even ON it may not activate it, which removes the whole purpose of having it on. AI camera is useless too, and every review I read/watched said the same.

Selfie camera — bad too. I am of dark white/ Caucasian skin and every selfie of me on LG G7 is of red skin. I turn off every camera feature, and just using raw — selfie cam is just bad, colour-wise, sharpness/details and HDR.

Now the big guns — wide angle camera. To be fair, I tested this type of camera on LG G6 while playing with it in a shop. Back then it was revolutionary for me to have this feature and I was thinking of ways I can use it. Let’s just say I was thinking of Go Pro-like videos. Naive me. Videos, for instance, are extremely shaky on wide angle lens and even on standard camera — I noticed considerable shake compared to S9 and iPhone X. And photos — well, it’s cool to take a photo that is wider than any other smartphone camera can make, but the quality of shots is bad. I don’t understand how people deny this. Yes, you can make amazing wide shots outdoors, at very well lit situations and the geometry/distortions are minimal, but try zooming in and seeing what happens with quality. I think wide angle needed higher megapixel count camera, to compensate for bad quality. After about 100 shots with wide angle, I had no interest in continuing more. The inaccuracy of colour & bad sharpness really disappoints.

LG G7 taken on iPhone X.

The UI

As I said, it’s not that bad. There is some getting used to it and some options are confusing, but it’s not impossible to figure out even for iPhone user.

I really like the “hide buttons” double tap feature stolen from Samsung, very handy but for some reason it does not remember which apps are default hidden, or even when typing message on instagram, you can’t see what you type if you choose to hide buttons. I liked some unique features like custom fonts, animations that are very much taken from Cydia/Jailbreak era, file manager was good, battery doctor and management system was good too, but for example “update centre” is just weird. Have it in settings, LG, like everyone else! The bloatware is just unnecessary: what impression does it give when you have an antivirus installed on your phone straight-out-of-the-box? Some small animations and UI design was weird, especially when it comes to speed and widgets. LG needs to further learn how Samsung managed to convince many people not to change “touchwiz” launcher, because I would not keep LG’s launcher if I had to use this phone for long time. Otherwise — the UI is OK, sadly it takes too much RAM. Out of 4GB (which is unacceptable for 2018), UI without any apps running takes 2.5 GB. It’s absurd.

LG G7 first boot screen

The DAC

And finally, we reach another interesting feature of LG phones, not just for LG G7 — the DAC. This hardware enhances audio listening experience by enriching sounds that come from 3.5mm jack. (yes LG kept it, thanks :)

I have never used DAC before. This was genuinely uncharted territory for me and I am glad that tried it. To keep things short, what DAC did to my music files (tested on .flac .wav and .mp3) was to make them a little louder, clearer but not to that point that I was shocked and would not live without this incredible invention. Yes, your music will sound slightly better and you have more control through equalizer. But we had equalizers before, so it’s difficult to compare factually since I am just a consumer who listens music via iPhone X dongle and then tries same music via DAC on LG G7. The options we have there are confusing, too, since I could not hear any difference between digital filters.

The Surround sound was strange as well. I don’t know how useful that is to listeners. I wish they had more information or at least some sort of demo on what option does what using DAC and filters and presets. Overall, DAC was awesome for the first few hours, then my ears go used to it, but even going back to “standard” sound output on iPhone X, I didn’t feel discomfort. However, if you are an audiophile — this is your best phone.

Speaking of audio, how about the speaker. Not “the speakerS” because LG still went with mono speaker, sadly. Compared to iPhone X, to my ears, G7 sounded slightly louder but worse in quality. The lower body of the phone shakes and vibrates when using speaker for music and the “boombox” feature did not help to make sound even louder — placing the phone everywhere I could. On LG’s website, it advises placing the phone on hollow objects, but how many of these you have lying around at home? I used it on wooden table, floor, desk, books, bookshelves … no use. Just make a stereo speaker, LG. You are overthinking.


The verdict

Not much to say here, I really wanted those wide angle photos to be good, but they were not. At least for someone who has been using nothing but Apple devices mainly, and iPhone X in recent months, it was not impressive. Same goes for main camera & selfiecam.

UI — it’s a toss and 50/50 scenario. It’s definitely not bad or unusable, and I would rank it below Samsung’s UI, but above every Chinese UI I have seen.

DAC was nice to have while I had. But not tear dropping when I’ll say goodbye. And overall, the performance of G7 was not the best at this point of time and technology. OP6 just kills with speed, Pixel has the best camera and updates, Samsung is overall still the best choice for non-specific mass android users. And there some other players that just try to capture Western market with triple cameras, game-phones and other types.

And of course there is Apple, living separately in a walled garden, still being being my preferred smartphone company and my LG G7 is going to see another owner very soon.


Thanks for reading.

Written by Micca / imicca / officialimicca

imicca

Written by

imicca

Independent Armenian tech YouTuber in the UK.

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