this is the LG G7 ThinQ or think it's such an odd name so I'm gonna refer
to this as a g7 but it's the successor to the very popular g6 that was launched
last year and I had a lot of good things to talk about the device and of course a
few concerns as well but here we are in 2018 with LG's response to the samsung
galaxy s9 the Oneplus 6 the iPhone 10 and a few recent ones so having used
this device for the past few weeks I'm here to share 7 things that you really
need to know before buying the LG G7 so let's dive in but first a quick message
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my attention right away after booting the g7 was the display it's definitely
one of the best panels that have taken a look at this year apart from the galaxy
s9 it spans six point one inches and I'll talk about the size a little bit
later on and it features qhd+ resolution so the content looks very sharp and
clear especially when watching content that supports our resolution it's
perfect for YouTube videos and Netflix the panel technology used here is IPS
instead of amyloid and have nothing to complain about that the color
reproduction is natural not too saturated like Samsung's
and the viewing angles are on point so great stuff LG interestingly enough LG
has implemented a different color matrix within the display in this case it's RGB
W instead of the standard RGB that means there's a separate white channel for the
backlit to pass through resulting in consistent color uniformity as well as
incredible brightness this thing has a boosted mode within the settings tab
that increases the luminosity of the panel making it comfortable to view
content in direct sunlight seriously it's pretty awesome we're
talking a thousand nits in technical terms then there is the notch
sadly it's a new trend this year ever since the launch of the essential phone
and the iPhone 10 and what's even saddening is that there is no other way
to distinguish this device from the competition but it has grown on me and
quite frankly I'm actually loving it so you do have little things like your
time your notification pop-ups your battery status that sort of tuck away in
that area really well and it gives you more real estate when it comes to
viewing the content you also do have the option to hide the knotch
within the settings so it's great that we have those options and I think I'm
okay with that next up is the rear facing wide-angle
lens now I don't mean to praise the quality of the image coming out of that
lens and I'll get to that portion a bit later in this video but it's
specifically the wide-angle aspect you see we're so used to the dual lens
setups on most modern smartphones and the majority of them are standard lens
and a telephoto lens whereas with LG smartphones the wide-angle lens is a
unique addition that lets you compose some great shots giving you a different
perspective capturing a lot more subjects in the frame and you can see
that with these images now one could argue that there are lens add-ons
available in the market that you can just simply add on or simply clip on top
of the standard lens on most smartphones and you can achieve that wide aspect or
that wide perspective but it's an add-on that you're supposed to carry around and
I'm gonna chime in Dimitri here to talk about that a little bit now my keeper
said this whole wide angle perspective is awesome on the smartphone because
you're able to capture so much information from your particular place
or setting and it's a lot more immersive than having to zoom in on a particular
pixel with a telephoto lens and I wish more Android phones had that wide angle
perspective and so this is where the clip-on lenses are quite important they
can be attached to any smartphone they vary in focal lengths so if you want a
fisheye wide-angle a super zoom and macro so it's awesome because they can
be adapted to your environment now the thing is optically they're not perfect
especially this really cheap kit that I picked up for like $25 that you know
there's a lot of flair there's a lot of distortion and optically they're not as
clear as if you would just take a picture with a normal camera but they
give you that additional perspective allowing you to capture a lot more
information and I really love the macro capabilities especially because you can
get really close to subject and just capture things you would
normally be able to do with your standard camera and I feel like the g7
has done that super wide angle perspective right there's no distortion
you know the lines are exactly straight but if you are eager for that additional
wide angle perspective then clip-on lenses are for you look them up in
description below different price points and different brands different qualities
but they are an option to expand that field of view Eber
back to you my next favorite feature of the g7 is the inclusion of the 32-bit
hi-5 Quantic now this might not be a huge deal for some of you out there but
it's certainly something to appreciate especially when you pair it up with some
high-end headphones this guy can easily drive my Achy g/km nexus as well as my
HD 5 9x without breaking a sweat the sound is richer more detailed and
refined it's way more superior to the pixel 2 which by the way uses an
external DAC through the USBC dongle the cheery on top of the stack is that the
user has the option to manually go into the settings and play around with
different presets and eq's defined tune you're comfortable setting awesome stuff
LG okay let's talk about the design and to be honest I'm a bit on the fence
about this one first up it's the form factor this phone
is huge I mean for one hand operation it's really not that feasible especially
when you're trying to reach the top spots so that's something to consider
next up is the glass back it can get super greasy over time and it could
potentially cause drops as well because once the surface gets slippery then it's
just a matter of when you accidentally dropped the smartphone so I'd be extra
careful when it comes to handling especially if you like to use your
smartphone as is without any case or skin something else that can be improved
is the frame and by that I mean the finish now if you recall the g7 actually
featured an aluminum frame which was a lot more solid and sturdier to hold my
hand because the matte finish was actually it just helped a little bit
with the grip when it comes to holding the smartphone whereas with the
stainless steel body or the stainless between construction the phone can you
can easily just slip it it's easily a slippery surface and can pick up
scratches faster as well so that's something to consider also remember that
the glass back and stainless steel edges are continuing problem with many modern
smartphones and they aren't exclusive to LG this is why many of us choose to buy
a case or wrap them in a skin so my commentary here is about the
smartphone market in general without pointing a finger directly at LG I think
it's time to look at smartphone finishes in a whole new way next up are the
speakers and it's not that great especially when it comes to viewing
content in landscape mode you can easily mute that which can get a little
annoying at times I would have wished if they created sort of a dual or stereo
imaging by using or biking taking advantage of the fun facing speaker on
the left side of the display now LG has implemented a pretty cool feature called
the boombox speaker and it essentially resonates the sound coming out of the
drivers into the chassis creating this room filling experience a few places on
top of the desk or any sort of surface it gives you a much richer sound quality
compared to the Sounders that's just coming out of this one speaker whereas
you've got this whole chassis that's emitting that sound and it sort of fills
the room really well it is something it's a pretty cool feature in my opinion
but I really didn't see myself taking advantage of that because I typically
watch content with with the phone on my hands so it really doesn't make much of
a difference the second last thing that I have to talk about is the software
experience you see I feel like LG is really not taking any feedback from
previous reviews from the g6 or the g5 because it really is the exact same
experience from those smartphones I mean the whole phone is loaded with a lot of
bloatware apps and it's got the LG's skin on top of Android so it really
slows down the experience as well because interestingly enough I did a
quick speed comparison launching apps on the g7 and the pixel one by one and the
pixel was actually a lot faster than the g7 and it really proves that software
optimization is still not present even though the g7 has the 845 processor
compared to the 835 on the pixels so it all comes down to optimization LG still
hasn't learned from their mistakes the other thing that really boggles me is
that this phone is still running Android 8.0 and that's just unacceptable because
we're almost near to the Android P upgrade and they're still sticking with
something that's a year old or almost that was out last year and it's just
unacceptable in my opinion LG has a really bad history when it comes to
updating their software so ultimately I just really can recommend this phone if
you're looking for something software experience and the last thing
that I feel needs improvement here is the camera performance you see I love
the inclusion of the wide-angle lens on the smartphone because it helps you
compose some unique shots but the end result is not that great as you can see
these samples don't retain a lot of the details plus the highlights are blown
out in many cases I also noticed a shadow like was a bit longer especially
when shooting HDR and in some cases I was also able to notice some color shift
with some of the images resulting in a weird green shift which wasn't
unpleasant now when it comes to taking selfies LG is slower to catch up on this
front as I wouldn't describe the results here as spectacular since there are
other smartphones on the market that can do better in this price range now there
is a manual mode within the app that lets you adjust the ISO shutter speed
white balance etc but again the software processing just cripples the sensors
true potential perhaps an update could make a day-and-night of a difference you
never know so those are these seven things that you need to know before
buying the LG G7 just to quickly recap the things that I loved about this
device is displayed it's just super bright and very color accurate in my
opinion the wide-angle lens is a great implementation I loved including this
feature in the first place because it lets you capture a lot of subjects not
necessarily a fan of the process or the quality coming out of the sensor and the
last thing is of course inclusion on the hi-fi
DAC because really when it comes to listening to music when you pair it up
with a good pair of headphones it's just amazing the things I didn't like about
this device are the design the speaker implementation software experience and
of course the camera performance it really does boggle down it really
takes away from using the device in the first place because you're looking for a
smart phone especially within the six hundred to a thousand dollar price range
you are expecting a pretty solid experience for that price and I think LG
could tidy up a few things with a software update you never know so that's
the g7 from LG what do you guys think about it in fact if you're willing to
spend $750 in a smart phone where would this be on that list would it be
somewhere between the Oneplus 6 and the Galaxy S9 or would it be somewhere else
love to hear your thoughts I'm Eber with Hardware Canucks thank you so much
for watching make sure to check out our new boot sequence Channel and of course
we have relevant content whatever here thanks again for watching and we'll see
you and next one