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
System Performance
System performance of the G7 is also something that shouldn’t have too many surprises as we expect the phone to behave very similar to existing Snapdragon 845 devices out there – that’s to say, it should be excellent.
Starting off with PCMark, the G7 fares very well in the web browsing test scoring just a tad more than existing S845 devices. Fluctuations here can vary depending on minute scheduler/DVFS settings down to actual hardware changes such as possible DRAM timing differences.
The video editing score ends up the same as the Mi MIX 2S.
In the writing test which is likely the most important part of the PCMark suite we see that the G7 fares a bit worse than the OnePlus 6 and MIX 2S, however it still has a considerable lead over the Galaxy S9+.
The Photo Editing test we see the G7 as the lowest performing Snapdragon 845 device.
Data Manipulation score is high for the G7, outscoring most other devices. This along with the performance lead in the web test could point out to slight memory latency advantages for the G7.
Overall the LG G7’s performance in PCMark is only outshadowed by the OnePlus 6 and MIX 2S.
Moving onto the browser web tests performed under a WebView shell, the G7 performs slightly worse in WebXPRT 3.
Overall the performance of the G7 was excellent and would satisfy the vast majority of users. I have to add that in terms of feel and experience, I do think that the G7 was among the worst of the Snapdragon 845 devices. There was a notable little delay when switching between Android activities and in general opening applications wasn’t quite as fast as on the OP6 or MIX2S. Looking at the kernel source code it looks like the G7 is running an older branch for the S845 scheduler and it’s more similar to what Samsung was using on the Galaxy S9 as there’s some newer features missing on both devices that are present on the OnePlus and Xiaomi phones.
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melgross - Friday, August 10, 2018 - link
Interestingbthatvwhile they include theciphones in a few benchmarks, they aren’t mentioned in the article even once.lucam - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
iPad Pro review anytime soon? Or You guys have given up on testing tablets?collegsd - Friday, July 5, 2019 - link
https://bit.ly/2Xt0XYc
https://bit.ly/32jw9bk
ados_cz - Friday, August 10, 2018 - link
I got new G6 week ago and was really disappointed with the jpeg processing and softness of the ultrawide angle module. Then someone noted that Google Pixel camera app was ported to other snapdragon devices and gets much better results. You can still see that it is not perfect if you pixel-peep, but I am in peace with it now when using the ported app.https://photos.app.goo.gl/d4K6LH4oazGmboBK6
abufrejoval - Saturday, August 11, 2018 - link
Must be quite a sight, seeing you walk around Luxemburg taking pictures with dozens of phones...Andrei Frumusanu - Saturday, August 11, 2018 - link
It's more of an issue of having enough pockets...chadhumm - Saturday, August 11, 2018 - link
One comment. I loved LG's but I had to return the LGG7 the worst phone Ive ever had in regards to reception. Makes all the bells and whistles worthless. This in many areas city and rural. Traded for the S9 it is much better but not as good as the Motorola z force that I was replacing. Too bad because I had good luck with the g2 and g3nikon133 - Sunday, August 12, 2018 - link
I'm reasonably happy with G7. Got it for my work phone as it is much cheaper than S9+ here in NZ... $1000 vs $1500.Camera is my only real disappointment - yes it does watercolor greenery. That said, I am a bit of a camera freak, and there is no camera phone that really satisfies me - whenever I plan to shoot, I will have at least RX100 on me, if not dSLR. This makes me dislike G7 camera even more - but, at the same time, it makes me not care much as well, since I usually don't depend on phone cameras. Down-sampled to ~2MP (1080p full screen), photos are usable. This is really where my phone cameras' expectations end, regardless of model.
Oddly, screen color hasn't really impacted me, albeit I have moved to this phone from Nexus 5X and Lumia 950 XL... both should have decent screens, if memory serves. Might be because I use phone under different light and ever-changing conditions are preventing me from really having an issue with screen accuracy. Screen readability is quite good, even under sun, and resolution is a pleasure. I am wearing glasses for distance and they don't work well up close, so I usually look at the phone screen over the glasses, and, in result, bring phone very close to my face... where resolution shows more than from "normal" reading distance.
Battery holds well in my scenario. Even at the begging when phone use was higher than average - downloading and trying apps, setting accounts, running initial updates etc., I was not draining more than 60% between morning and evening. Everyday use it is 30 - 40%. Basically I can do full 2 days, and with wireless chargers at my office desk and bedside, absolutely no problems here... that said, I don't play games on phone.
Overall? Happy, so far. I'm aware of compromises, but price difference more than justifies them, imho. I am also not a big fan of Samsung's curved screen - it does nook nice but it also does expose screen more, judging from my colleagues' experiences with S7 Edge and S8.
jvl - Sunday, August 12, 2018 - link
But...does it Loop Good®?!? Or will we have to wait until we find out?Great_Scott - Thursday, August 16, 2018 - link
What this review did better than anything else was convince me to get a OnePlus6. It has the best camera at mid/high light levels and the (very well done) LCD screen of the G7 is inefficient at the lowest light levels (which is where I set my phone the vast majority of the time). The smaller-sized battery isn't great either.