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
GPU Performance
GPU performance again is a known vector for the G7 as it should not differ from other Snapdragon 845 devices. The only way the G7 is to distinguish itself from other phones is in terms of the device’s thermal dissipation design and the resulting sustained performance.
In the CPU-bound 3DMark Physics test the main factor for lower sustained performance is the throttling levels imposed by the thermal drivers. Here the G7 ends up as the worst Snapdragon 845 device with a 40% performance regression compared to its peak performance.
When looking at 3D/GPU performance we however see the G7 perform quite well as it manages to surpass sustained performance of other Snapdragon 845 devices, bar the OnePlus6’s excellent results.
As a reminder, the sustained performance scores are done by continuously running the workload under constant environmental conditions until its performance no longer degrades (and it reaches thermal equilibrium).
In GFXBench Manhattan again the G7 performs great as it manages to shrink the peak-to-sustained performance delta, again only trailing the OnePlus 6.
Finally for the T-Rex test we see a similar advantage over Xiaomi and Samsung’s S845 phones. I re-verified the scores of the latter by running them again side-by-side to the G7 and OnePlus 6 to eliminate any concerns of changing environmental conditions and indeed the resulting scores were identical.
While not matching the OnePlus 6 – the G7 does fare quite well against all other devices. Like on the OP6, I’m not sure if this is due to a better thermal design of the phone or if there’s been a rework in the thermal drivers. What can be said however is that the G7, like the OP6, does exhibit lower temperature hotspots during testing than the MIX 2S and S9+. I verified the power consumption of the G7 to also eliminate the possibility of a potentially more efficient chip bin and again the power matched that of previous S845 phones, so like on the OP6, the better performance cannot be attributed to lower power.
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johntmosher - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
My LG G4 died from Boot Loop a little over a month after the warranty expired. Verizon and LG did not offer anything to make up for the fact that it was sold to me at a time when they already knew about the Boot Loop failure rates. LG and Verizon are both on my shit list and will stay that way for quite some time.takeshi7 - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
I don't care about waterproofing on my phone. LG needs to bring back removable batteries. That's the whole reason I bought their phones. If I want waterproofing I'll go out and buy a waterproof case.UtilityMax - Friday, August 10, 2018 - link
Just buy a power bank. Removable battery as a run time extender is as inconvenient as it gets. Also, some of those low-end smartphones with A53 CPUs as their main cores can get an amazing run time. I can forget to charge my honor 6X and it can still last through the day with just 40% in the morning.jabber - Saturday, August 11, 2018 - link
Yeah I have a LG G4 which has been a great phone but this September I am coming up for three years with it and was going to replace it (probably a G6). However, I remembered I could change the battery and really the G4 still does everything I need so I just got a new battery. Sorted for another year at least...Dragonstongue - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
so even higher specs with a low Mah battery, for shame..."modern" smartphones IMO especially the ones that have high to very high end (for phone) specs should not hamper them with "normal" size batteries that tend to be in the range of 2200-3200 they should be targeting a minimum of 3200-4200 range, especially when they have the space to cram a larger battery in there (which many of them do)I just don't get t when "knock off" brands manage to often use a better display AND larger battery, shame of the bigger companies expecting as much $ as they can think to get away charging and using a dinky little battery....example even lower spec G4 Play had a 2800Mah battery REMOVABLE, this is much higher spec but barely any increase in battery capacity, I do not give a crud what OS version it is using, the capacity of the battery matters very much >:(
Xex360 - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
The notch again no innovation especially from LG, I had the V20 and the second screen can be very useful and didn't ruin the whole experience, the G6 were nearly perfect beside the decision to use a year old SOC plus no wireless charging.hirschma - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
The LG V35 is what should be the flagship. Better specs, better display, more memory, plus the audio, wide angle camera and 845 from the G7. I've had mine for a week, and it's definitely the best phone I've ever had.Hubb1e - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
I got this phone after some bad experiences with Samsung and this is the most accurate review of it I've seen to date. The biggest downside for the G7 is the unreliable camera. Some shots are okay, some are downright bad. And most reviewers don't shoot pictures of moving subjects, but the G7 consistently misses focus on moving subjects. All the issues with the camera in this review I've seen in my use. Most of it I think is related to it's inability to auto focus on the correct subject. When using manual focus, the camera actually takes good pictures.The rest of the phone is actually really great. I don't notice the color calibration in regular use, and the speaker is great even if other flagships also offer great speakers. The size of the phone is the best out there. It is comfortable and has a large screen without feeling too wide to hold and use in one hand. While I do mostly use BT headphones, I have a range of wired headphones and when I use them they sound amazing on the G7 in comparison to other phone's weak headphone output.
And the last great feature, but one that was not touched on in this review, is the outstanding idle battery life of the G7. Even with the always on display enabled, the G7 barely loses any charge when idle. If I don't use my phone very much, I can end the day with 80% of my battery life left. Most days I have 40-50% of battery left over even taking pictures, making calls, watching videos, and browsing the web. In comparison to Samsung phones I've had that can lose 5% an hour at idle, the idle power use of the G7 makes it outlast every other phone I've ever used.
SkyBill40 - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
I have a V30 after having upgraded from a V10 a while back. Personally speaking, I'd rate the V series above the G series but that's just me. I can say that I've been quite satisfied with my V30 and given how close to each other these phones happen to be, it wouldn't be worth it to "upgrade."LG has come a long way with their phones (that boot loop issue was a killer) and are genuinely competitive with every other high end device out there.
Lavkesh - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
Its amazing how average these so called Android flagships are when compared to the iPhone where every details is thought out. The worst thing is that they arent cheap either.