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.
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djayjp - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
Good thing we have speaker measurements because who could possibly want NAND benchmarks? You should stop including benchmarks in SSD reviews as well.Dr. Swag - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
What happened to nand benchmarks? That was one of the big things I liked reading anandtech reviews for. It would also be nice if you didn't remove the display measurement comparison graphs so that we could actually compare different displays to see how they did against each other. I like the addition of speaker evaluations but that should be an addition, not a replacement...faizoff - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
Will the LG V30 review not be done due to the lottery display situation?Andrei Frumusanu - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
Phone reviews released before December 2018 were shelved as AT didn't have a mobile editor at the time before I rejoined, and it didn't make sense logistically to try to catch up with past devices when it was better to focus to be on time with the newer releases.Performance, battery, and camera evaluations of the V30 are included in all follow-up reviews from that date on.
lopri - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
December 2017, you mean?Andrei Frumusanu - Saturday, August 11, 2018 - link
Yes sorry, I'm a year ahead >_>eastcoast_pete - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
@Andrei/Anandtech: First, thanks for the review! Would it be possible to include the water-proofing as a line in the specs table in future reviews, as well as the hours of use (intensive) one gets out of a full charge. Lastly, please add a line in the conclusions on past record and promised future on OS updates of that phone maker. These three are key decision points, at least for me. I don't want to worry about getting the phone wet in a downpour, and having to take the charger with me, then look for and stay at a power outlet every few hours is really not exactly "mobile". Similarly, it's more than just annoying if a brand-new phone stays stuck two releases behind current Android versions for years or forever - I don't appreciate built-in obsolescence in $ 500+ phones.While I get the criticism of a too-blueish white balance, water-proofing (IP68, 67 or not), hours of intense use per full charge and keeping the OS current for the next 2-3 years are more important to me for a purchase decision than bluish screens, although I'd like a good white balance, too. The camera in the LG7 is a letdown, especially the video. Why still no EIS in 4K or at 1080 p60, and why not offer HEVC recording? The 845 is perfectly capable of all these. Not having those is just lazy, and not on flagship level.
Regarding the hours of use, this is another disappointing result. LG, hang your head in shame!, Don't try to make an S9+ clone; instead, make a true alternative, and dare to be different. To all phone makers: I get it, thin is hip, but a. I don't use my phone to cut vegetables with, so don't need razor-blade thinness and b. I rather take a slightly thicker and larger (longer) phone with a 4000-5000 mAh battery over a slim phone that won't make it through the day.
Andrei Frumusanu - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
Added in the IP68 rating - somehow I missed putting that into the table.In regards to hours of usage of a full charge. That's an inexact metric and can't and won't post subjective numbers. The battery tests are reliable, reproducible metrics that I think are still extremely good. In my usage I found the web test largely correlated with overall device runtime - of course this will differ for most users based on screen brightness and cellular connectivity.
zeeBomb - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
Andrei reviewing phones again? Man I'm just so disappointing it has only 3,000 mAh...CLEARLY rushed and the display is tooo blue.abufrejoval - Saturday, August 11, 2018 - link
I had the same reaction when the OnePlus 5 didn't have a bigger battery either. On my older phones I could observe the battery counting down just reading an article like this.But the 835 and 845 or I guess anything done on that 10nm FinFET LPE process feels twice as power efficient as the 14nm LPP from the 820 and it's the first time I never worry about the phone battery any more. Even after a long day, I've never dropped below 70% remaining charge and I tend to panic below 50%, just seeing 15% on review pictures makes me sweat :-)
But I'm not a smombie or a member of the look-down-clan and I guess others will want 12 hours with a non-stop screen full of Facebook action...
And then QuickCharge gives you another day within minutes.