The LG G8 Review: Solid, But Not Great
by Andrei Frumusanu on April 30, 2019 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- LG
- Smartphones
- LG G8
- LG G8 ThinQ
System Performance
For system performance, we saw the Snapdragon 855 in the Galaxy S10 perform excellently, and there shouldn’t be any reason for the G8 to perform differently. It’s to be noted that the G8 is only our second Snapdragon 855 device we’ve received so the only comparison point we have is the Snapdragon variant of the S10.
Unfortunately, it looks like LG using an older version of the 855 BSP which is lacking some optimisations or lacking some configuration options which improve performance. Among the lacking features is the lack of boost mechanism for the top-app process groups, meaning the scheduler will be less aggressive than what we find on the Galaxy S10.
Let’s see how these differences end up affecting the G8’s performance:
In PCMark’s web-browsing test, the difference ends up as quite major between the G8 and S10 as the former largely lags behind Samsung’s flagship, ending up with scores similar to the G7. The performance here reminds us of the initial benchmark scores from Qualcomm’s QRD855 reference platform in January, which also lacked some scheduler optimisations were commonplace in many of last year's Snapdragon 845 devices.
In the subsequent tests and final PCMark performance score we see the LG G8 lag behind the Galaxy S10, again scoring similarly to the QRD platform.
JS Benchmarks
Since our review of the Galaxy S10 it seems Google has updated the system WebView to a newer version which has had a notable impact on performance, improving things by several performance points compared to a few months ago. We haven’t had the opportunity yet to update our database with the newest figures, which is why in some benchmarks the new G8 scores better than some previously reviewed devices.
In WebXPRT on the other hand we see the less aggressive scheduler settings overshadow the new WebView improvements, and the G8 again end up with worse performance than the Galaxy S10.
System performance verdict
Overall, I’ve actually been quite disappointed with the performance of the G8, even though the benchmarks rank it relatively highly among Android phones. The core issue here I think is software as seemingly the G8 is lacking some of the framework boosters and more aggressive scheduler settings found in competing devices.
Where this is most noticeable is when switching between applications or something as simple as browsing different views in applications. Here the G8 is not only noticeable slower as the new Galaxy S10 in both SoC variants, but it’s also noticeably slower than many of last year’s Snapdragon 855 devices.
What is most shocking however is the fact that the G8 feels slower than the G7. In side-by-side comparisons between the two phones, the G8 is slower in opening a lot of applications or in-app views. This is extremely disappointing and clearly points out that LG has messed up somewhere in terms of the SoC’s BSP integration.
We hope LG will address this in the future with a firmware update, however users shouldn’t be holding their breath on the matter.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
70 Comments
View All Comments
bobsta22 - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link
and in Russia as in USA you will have unfettered access to monitored internet, censored heavily and laughable governments.The Russian 'NSA' is as bad as the USA one.
coburn_c - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
I thought I saw no earpiece in the reveal. Quite a bold move.Gunbuster - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
Fun fact. Other names considered for the G8 ThinQ:G8 You'reWelcomeQ
G8 RIP LGQ
Quantumz0d - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
Wow just not even a word on the 3.5mm jack (just a spec list nod) Huawei didn't include it you mentioned how bad it is and LG of all the OEMs only cared about the Audio Recording in HiFi and processing with ESS Quad DAC9218P. Because people mentioned against your findings on the G7 ?Great.
Even YouTubers like MKBHD gave better credit overall. Especially the price point drop at later point of time.
http://www.esstech.com/index.php/en/news/newsroom/...
Andrei Frumusanu - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
I can't accurately measure high voltage outputs with my setup, and I don't have high impedance headphones to actually need it. With normal headphones the G8 sounds no different or better than say any recent phone with Qualcomm's Aqstic DACs.Don Hrle - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
You poor soul. Even on 5$ chi fi last year G7 with an average lossless file sounds miles ahead of any Qcomm dac. Sometimes it's easier to say: "there's no difference" than "I Know Jack shit bout music quality"Andrei Frumusanu - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
Sometimes it's easier to say "I know jack shit about audio measurements".G8 w/o QDAC: http://images.anandtech.com/doci/14166/G8-1KHz.png
G8 w/ QDAC: http://images.anandtech.com/doci/14166/G8-QDAC-1KH...
SD S10+ : http://images.anandtech.com/doci/14166/SnapdragonS...
You're right. I should have said the G8 sounds worse, albeit I didn't spend enough time on it.
Quantumz0d - Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - link
From the HeadFi and XDA and other sources, the Audio processing (3.5mm out and Recording) on the G8 / Any LG ESS phone, the audio is routed through the ESS only and the number of the DAC delta sigma filters (DAC pipelines) vary, Also when you plug in the high impedance headphones and the Preset/Filters and DTS X the DAC switch shines more and the AMP as well. For instance, Final Audio E5000. No smartphone in the world can drive it, except for the LG phones.Okay, for your graphs here's another answer https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php...
Followed by this thread https://www.head-fi.org/threads/music-apps-tips-an...
The post also mentions the VRms output being less (Which you mentioned in the G7 review), the reason being the LG tuning of the DAC at 2 Volts is quoted for the HiFi High Impedance gear past 80Ohms (Last of the 3 modes of LG phones) maybe LG Engg team decided not to drain battery on low impedance headsets since it does show that low output with the low impedance gear.
I guess all those people are delusional. I can clearly hear the difference of the bad US Note 8 Audio a.k.a the Aqstic vs my decade old iPod in the Car Audio system, with the IEMs the V30 decimates the iPod to oblivion of it's sheer clarity and solid Sub Bass. We never saw any mention of the 48KHz up-sampling/conversion on Anandtech, Android "by default" up samples it. So perhaps instead of the outright denial and bashing the phone's audio to oblivion perhaps a fair share of content would have been reasonable.
Andrei Frumusanu - Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - link
I never said it wouldn't drive high impedance. Quality might be great, but I don't even have such a unit.> For instance, Final Audio E5000.
Why do you go from high-impedance headphones to 14Ω IEMs? That's exactly the opposite of what you claim the G8 is most optimised to drive. The output impedance based on some reports are just 0.5Ω different between the S10 and G8.
> From the HeadFi and XDA and other sources
The same XDA masterminds who post BS based on XML files they don't understand?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/bbrpci/t...
> the audio is routed through the ESS only and the number of the DAC delta sigma filters (DAC pipelines)
As opposed to being routed to what else? Every flagship I'm aware of works with the ASoC converters.
> We never saw any mention of the 48KHz up-sampling/conversion on Anandtech, Android "by default" up samples it.
Both the S10 and G8 upsample to 192KHz and many devices before that as well, but, you're welcome to believe XDA forum people more.
Quantumz0d - Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - link
E5000 sensitivity is lower at 93dB at its impedance despite being low, that's the reason why any smartphone can't get them louder without a powerful AMP, making it hard to drive vs LG ESS which can drive it. May need to mod the ESS with Root to get it to AUX if the user isn't fine (Subjective, more below)I didn't do the ESS Mode hacks on V30, the High Impedance Mode is useful for the High power required sets (HD6XX, which I have, works fair but those cans need more power like iFi BL, as they have 300Ohms) automatically unlike some people hear improvement with Low Impedance gear too. I left it at Factory levels, auto switch modes as per the IEM/Headset because I tried and it distorts with little volume increase (need to be careful) my 10Ohm Dunu Triple Driver Hybrids. But EVGA NU Audio card has the Master Volume adjustment which they mention if using the low impedance gear take care of that Volume knob as the HW output might destroy the headphone/IEM gear similar to how the ESS hacks do enable High Impedance Mode always.
I just mentioned 3.5mm out goes through ESS only because I thought your w and w/o DAC measurements might be interpreted by many as no effect.
Up sampling mentioned because many see the values/readings of 44.1 vs 48 differ some prefer having it same as the original sample rate, a few apps do that UAPP does it, Neutron also for Bitperfect mode.
Also just an FYI, the Nex has an AKM 437xA DAC SoC like ESS9218P in LG and many mention it has a good sound reproduction.
I think unless you have a good gear a.k.a transducers and a great audio files with high quality they won't notice the soundstage and clarity. Since transducers are primary in importance then a powerful AMP then a DAC processor.