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.
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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.