- The LG G6 and Samsung Galaxy S8 are two of this
years best smartphones.
But there's a reason you may of only heard about one of 'em.
Samsung is throwing its usual marketing muscle behind the
Galaxy for one thing.
And for another, well the S8 might just be the better phone.
To talk about that, I'm joined by someone you
may have heard of.
- Hey, what is up guys I'm KBHD here,
and this is Galaxy S8.
- Versus LG G6.
Before Marques gets into how super awesome the S8 is,
I wanna lay somethin' down.
I do think the Samsung phone has an edge on the G6,
much of it cosmetic.
Holding the two side by side,
the LG phone almost feels like the referenced design
for the Samsung one, the first draft the factory made before
it tooled up for the production model.
And the S8 also has a bunch of other advantages we'll cover
in a second, but the LG G6 has two huge standouts over the
S8 and a few smaller ones too.
The first big one is projected durability.
The G6 is a chunkier phone than the S8
and easier to grip I think, but if you do drop it,
the G6 is also more likely to take a hit gracefully,
at least on paper.
It's certified compliant with MIL-STD 810G.
Now, that's not always as rugged as it sounds
when manufacturers can game test results in a bunch of ways,
but LG has been good enough to let everyone in on which
lab it employed to test the G6,
as well as what procedures it used for that testing.
The G6 passed 14 separate tests,
including low temperature, high temperature,
temperature shock, humidity, vibration,
solar radiation, low pressure, sand and dust,
immersion, rain, and my favorite, salt fog.
Now, Samsung will probably release a Galaxy S8 Active
that meets these same criteria,
it's done so for the past four years.
But if it follows precedent it'll be exclusive to AT&T
and also probably aesthetically challenged.
The regular S8 can be dunked in water like the G6,
it meets the same IP standard.
But if it came down to which of these I'd rather take
hiking on treacherous terrain or braving the salt fog
bog of Serata Four, I'd take the G6.
The other big reason I might choose LG over Samsung,
the camera.
Not because the G6 always outshoots the S8,
each of these can take some wonderful photos,
but because the G6 let's me double up.
That extra camera on the LG is more than mere dormant.
It packs a 125 degree lens that let's you capture much
more of a scene without dealing with a clumsy panorama.
Obviously, this kind of dramatic framing isn't always what
you want and that's why the standard
shooter is there as well.
Between the primary and wide angle cameras,
the G6 can capture photos and video the S8 just can't.
Couple last things before I throw it back to you, Marques.
While the G6's display doesn't have the saturation
or contrast of the S8,
the fact that it's an LCD means it may be less susceptible
to burn in than Samsung's AMOLED.
Also, the G6 totally wins on buttons.
No half-functional Bixby key to get confused with the
volume rocker and yes,
the G6's fingerprint sensor is way easier to feel out
than the S8's ergonomic nightmare.
- So, okay I wouldn't say any of that is wrong,
but I would say that there are definitely, of course,
still valid reasons to prefer the Galaxy S8
over the LG G6.
So, the first biggest reason is that display.
Now, I think the display being an AMOLED,
especially this AMOLED, has it's advantages.
It's a slightly taller screen,
so the aspect ratio is a little bit different,
but it gets some extra pixels of vertical resolution
and it's just an incredible display altogether.
It's contrastier, more punchy and saturated,
but can be toned down and adjusted if you wanna
make that more or less.
But more importantly, it gets brighter over a 1000 nits,
which makes it visible outdoors and bright environments
and the blacks get completely black since it's an OLED,
which is awesome for black wallpapers,
or just about any contrasty scene.
It happens a lot in games.
It covers 100% of the P3 color gamut
and more than 100% of the SRGB colors and others.
It's great for videos, for the camera, for gaming.
It's just the top dog display right now.
And that feeds right up into the next advantage this guy has
which is the display melting right up onto the corners
and the side edge and minimizing the bezel.
Just the overall design of this phone.
While it may be less durable because of it,
it's definitely now the most beautiful smartphone out there.
No other phone looks quite like it.
The display glass melting right over to the edge
to this nearly seamless switch over into the metal sides
and then the glass back.
I mean, it's seriously impressive to hold and to look at.
The screen to body ratio of the Galaxy S8 is rockin',
fits into a slightly narrower and slightly lighter body
than the G6, which might be preferred by some.
But, yeah, you can really tell, like Michael said,
there's small side bezels and then there's no side bezels
and it really does feel like the rough draft
versus the final production.
And then on paper of course, it's easy to point to the
Galaxy S8 as having, you know,
the Snap Dragon 835 versus the 821
and giving the Galaxy S8 a clear performance advantage.
Now, I don't know if that's necessarily true right out
the box, they're both high end chips,
but of course a year or two down the road that may
lead to an advantage as well.
And then even aside from just the specs,
there's little things about the S8 that I prefer
over the G6.
The headphone jack being on the bottom for example,
I happen to like it that way.
Also, not having any carrier branding on any version of the
device at all is also something I prefer
and Galaxy S8 does that.
And finally the other little features,
little extra things in the software,
like the built in iris scanner for those that can't quite
reach the fingerprint reader on the back.
And the touch sensitive,
pressure sensitive Home button on the display
is also really convenient.
All these things accumulate to enough for me to put the
Galaxy S8 on top.
- [Michael] Well argued as always, sir.
Hey, stock music, smoke break's over.
(mellow music fading in)
Look, I'd never tell folks to buy the G6 if the features
and the look of the S8 are what they're really after.
And yeah, the S8 definitely ticks more boxes on the whole,
but too often we get trapped in this cycle of hyperbole.
Where suddenly people are saying,
"Phone A is the only phone anyone should ever buy!
And phone B is a dumpster fire."
Well, that's almost never true.
Each of these represents the best of its respective
manufacturer, at least as far as mainstream targeting goes.
And though I know you don't always like to hear it,
it's the truth in this case.
You're probably gonna be very happy no matter which of these
you end up taking home.
Hopefully this video has helped you solidify your choice.
Let us know which one you went for in the comments.
Thanks so much to Marques Brownlee for joining
me on this one.
Check out his version of this comparison over at MKBHD
and if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to MKBHD
and Mr Mobile, so you don't miss more mobile tech videos
landing every week.
Until next time, thanks for watching!
And stay mobile, my friends.