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
GPU Performance
GPU and gaming performance of the G8 is something that is dictated by both the SoC as well as the phone's overall hardware design, specifically its thermal dissipation design.
We saw the Snapdragon 855 perform very well in the Galaxy S10, although the absolute improvements compared to the previous generation were quite conservative. Here the new LG G8 could distinguish itself by showcasing different thermal characteristics and possibly better sustained performance figures.
In the 3DMark Physics test which is mostly a CPU-bound workload within a GPU power constrained scenario, we indeed see the G8 performing better than the Galaxy S10+, which is a promising start. Huawei’s Kirin 980 phones here still lead the pack in terms of both peak as well as sustained performance.
The graphics test puts the G8 in line with the S10+ - both showcasing excellent performance. The Note9 still leads here due to Samsung having extremely lax thermal constraints on that device, resulting in quite high skin temperatures in long sustained scenarios.
In both Vulkan Aztec tests the G8 also leads the S10+ in the sustained performance department, even though the absolute improvements over last year’s G7 aren’t very big.
Finally, in Manhattan and T-Rex the G8 posts the most muted performance improvements over the G7, ending up almost identical sustained performance scores as last year’s phone. Here we also see the G8 tie with the Galaxy S10+.
Overall the GPU performance of the G8 and the Snapdragon 855 is very similar to that of the Galaxy S10+. The G8 is ahead of Samsung’s phone in some tests, which seems to be tied to more lax CPU thermal constraints. On other tests, the phone is pretty much in line with what we saw on the S10: conservative improvements over last year’s Snapdragon 845 phones such as the G7.
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.