The LG G7 Review: A Rushed Attempt?
by Andrei Frumusanu on August 9, 2018 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- LG
- Mobile
- LG G7 ThinQ
- LG G7
Battery Life
Performing the battery life tests on the G7 was a daunting task as the display makes it extremely difficult to maintain a set brightness. While in daily usage this is not an issue, it has extremely aggressive APL brightness scaling / CAB (Content adaptive brightness) with swings of up to 100nits on the backlight intensity.
For the browsing test, I actually had to set the display brightness to a level that took into account the average APL over the duration of the whole web test cycle as to maintain an overall average 200 nits brightness on the backlight. Least to say, battery testing on the G7 is extremely challenging due to this.
The resulting battery life run for the web-browsing test was quite good as the G7 ended up with a runtime just shy of 10 hours. Considering the phone’s 3000mAh battery, this is an overall good result and well in the range of other Snapdragon 845 devices. As expected, the smaller battery didn't handicap the phone in comparison to the G6, as the SoC efficiency gains compensate for the 10% smaller battery and actually goes beyond that, outlasting the G6 by an hour and a half.
PCMark’s battery run ended up with only 7 hours, although because of the aforementioned display brightness variations I’m not all that confident in this result as I adjusted the screen to the best of my abilities.
Overall the G7 perfromed quite well in the battery tests. Again it’s to be noted that subjective battery life of the phone will very much depend on your screen brightness usage patterns, and the lower brightness you will use, the worse will the G7 fare against other devices. The brighter you drive the phone, the better it will fare against other competitors.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
69 Comments
View All Comments
collegsd - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
https://bit.ly/2IpXaSM
https://bit.ly/2UyJJY6
amosbatto - Wednesday, August 22, 2018 - link
There is not a single smartphone on the market that I want to buy, because I want three features:3.5mm audio jack, dual front facing speakers and a removable battery.
19.5:9 screens and bezelless design offers nothing useful in my opinion.
I really hate being forced to buy a new phone, just because the battery no longer holds a decent charge after 500 discharge cycles. I really wish that tech reviewers would talk about how hard it is to replace the battery and how well the phone is designed to survive drops. I could care less about CPU benchmarks, compared to how long the phone will last.
eastcoast_pete - Friday, August 24, 2018 - link
Well, I am in your boat. Recently decided to go back to the future, bought a new-in-box V20 with warranty for about $ 250 with taxes, added a big ass replacement battery with (claimed) 6800 mAh (vs. the 3200 stock) for about $30, and - so far, so good. The phone is bulky, due to its necessary bigger replacement back, but I am Ok with that. Battery seems to be living up to its specs (6 weeks in), easily get 2 days of full use, despite Snapdragon 820 and bright screen setting. Wish many of the LG apps would be better or could be uninstalled or at least disabled, but the V20 seems to be as good as it gets if one wants a 16:9 screen, a removable battery, and decent phone performance. I suggest LG also goes "back to the future" and makes the next V phone (V40?) with a removable battery once again - there is a market there that Samsung is not serving.Ultraman1966 - Tuesday, September 18, 2018 - link
You can't use the biggest disappointment twice in the review when it lists two different things!!!al3xisss - Tuesday, October 2, 2018 - link
Do you know if they have pushed a software update to fix the display and camera calibration?Archipelago - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link
Thanks for the great review. The wide angle camera is a critical feature for me. I have a V20 and a G6 and was hoping that the G7 would be my next phone, a phone with a better camera than the G6. I guess I will hold on to the G6. I too hope that LG will have a software fix for the camera problems, but I am dubious. LG seems to produce, sell and forget.joser0913 - Saturday, December 29, 2018 - link
I think this is a very fair review for the G7. I've had it for 1 week and almost all the reviews are accurate. I just want to mention one thing that I think should have been mentioned in the conclusions of the review. Is this phone better for audiophiles? That is a point of sale for some people and should have been directed properlyIn addition, he did not mention the DTS: X 3D Surround function, which can be enjoyed in some scenarios (movies and some games).
Hrel - Monday, January 28, 2019 - link
I can't believe you test Huawei but not Sony smartphones. Sony makes the best value smartphones period, review them.Sakisucc - Sunday, February 3, 2019 - link
The audio recordings from LG G7 Fit are total crap. There are lack of bass and mid frequencies. Same problem is in Video records. Too much only high trebles and noise, pair this with too aggressive noise reduction and you have just unusable sound.I must sell that phone is ASAP