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.
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PeachNCream - Thursday, May 2, 2019 - link
You audio people are oddities to say the least. Most of us don't really care about what umoos and ah-ahs are driving our transmorgofiers in high-low-moosepedience headphones and we don't think that one thing "destroys" another thing in terms of sound quality in our car (which is filled with road noise) because we don't live in our vehicles. While it's perfectly fine that you care and you hear things that the rest of us just shrug about, most of us use a cheap pair of earbuds or headphones we spent less than $20 on, never do anything to our car's sound besides turning the radio on or off, and sometimes spend hours playing 128kbps mp3s on a phone's integrated speaker because who cares anyway. I suggest not worrying about it. Do your research, live deep in that fidelity world, and don't hassle the reviewers for skimming over stuff that is entirely unimportant for the vast majority of us that only care to the extent that we can hear the phone ring when we get a call.ZolaIII - Sunday, May 5, 2019 - link
Don't, I mean even assume you are speaking for majority of people. There is a gear that is both affordable and sounds rather good. From product that are in music lovers category to entry level audiophile one's. So you can buy a more than decent can's for 25~30$ (for example Superlux HD-668B over the ear or MEE M6 Pro first gen EMI's), hopefully the good DAC for 25~30$ soon or a DAP (DAC, BT) for 100$ right now, while pair of good car speakers (main bass/mids unit's + twitters) is around 140$. Problem with LG is that their implementation simply isn't really good to shine with budget lo impedance headphones.joser0913 - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link
Andrei, you might want to read this article (http://somegadgetguy.com/2017/11/30/how-android-po...I think Juan Bagnell, as well as many other reviewers are right, LG delivers the best wired headphone experience and that should be highlighted
ZolaIII - Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - link
You don't use headphones for the measurement that's actually very wrong approach. I assume nothing changed much nor did LG make it right as usual so it probably stayed the same.https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php...
While DAC is very capable for actually enjoying it with low impedance headphones as most people use it anyhow you need to look elsewhere, recommended goes for times being to Shanling M0 DAP for some 100$. We will see how things go with Meizu's new USB DAC dingle...
dxcanas - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
The G8's site describes a "night shot mode" at the bottom of the page, and I've read of it in other reviews. I couldn't find any mention of this mode in the llow light evaluation - was it not helpful?https://www.lg.com/us/mobile-phones/g8-thinq/camer...
Andrei Frumusanu - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
There's no dedicated mode, it just automatically goes into a lower light mode. It's active in the sample shots.Andrei Frumusanu - Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - link
As a correction, the mode is actually there as a dedicated mode buried in the "More" mode settings. It gives the same results as auto in low-light.dxcanas - Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - link
Cool, thanks for the update and correction!Peddy2299 - Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - link
LG makes some if the best phones on the market. The best phones for me on the market arr LGs. They meet my daily phone needs on the high-end basis. No other phone does that for me. All the comparing on stuff those other brands just don't work out for me.sonny73n - Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - link
Sure. Because you don’t have much to choose from at local stores if you live in the US. It’s hard to buy something when you can’t physically feel it. But if you dare to take a risk with one of those Chinese phones like Huawei, Meizu, Oppo or ZTE, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed because they’re much better in terms of performance and quality per dollar. They won’t rob you like LG, Samsung, Sony or Apple do.I used to buy at least 2 “high end” phones per years just for myself. Glad I woke up. Now a $300 Chinese phone is just as good.