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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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.