LG is a popular brand among consumers, but when we speak of their smartphones, there are few classics that come to mind. There was a time when LG used to launch its flagship with a lot of noise, but now we see them quietly launching their devices. Despite of having very bold smartphones such as the LG G-Flex (a curved screen phone), the brand still find themselves struggling to gain popularity among consumers, specially due to recent competition from budget brands.
The company has decided to put all its faith in the new G7+ ThinQ which is the latest instalment of their G series line-up. ‘ThinQ’ as the name suggests, has deeper integration of AI features. This device is a complete makeover from its predecessor and packs the latest generation hardware. LG says this device has got all of it and more, to take on the competition. But can consumers finally say “Life’s Good” with the new G7 plus ThinQ?
Design and display
The LG G7+ ThinQ follows a unibody glass design with aluminium sides. With 7.9mm of thickness and a weight of just 162 grams, the device is quite slim and easy to hold in the hands. The right side of device has a power button while the left sports volume up/down keys along with a dedicated button for Google Now. The back of the device holds a fingerprint sensor placed just below the rear cameras.
LG has taken the build quality of the device to a whole new level by making it MIL-STD certified (US Military drop-test standards). LG claims, the device can easily withstand a 8 feet drop. In addition to these, the G7+ ThinQ also holds IP68 certifications, making it dust and water-proof up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes.
The LG G7+ ThinQ comes with a 6.1-inch QHD display with a screen resolution of 3120 x 1440. LG claims a screen brightness of 1000 nits making it easily viewable under direct sunlight. The top of the screen has a notch, which LG likes to call the second screen display as it can be customised. The screen also supports an always-on-display, which uses very little energy to show time and notifications.
Features
The LG G7+ ThinQ comes equipped with Qualcomm’s latest generation of Snapdragon 845 processors. It runs on Android 8.0 (Oreo) which LG has optimised with its UX 7.0 ROM. The user interface is neat and easy to use. There are a bunch of pre-loaded applications like Smart Cleaning, LG Health tracker and a floating bar which further enhances the user experience.
The LG G7+ ThinQ sports 16MP dual-lens cameras. The standard lens has a 71 degree field-of-view while the secondary camera has a wide-angle lens with a 107 degree field-of-view. It is also capable of capturing HDR images. LG uses its laser auto-focus technology for faster focusing. The front camera is an 8MP shooter which has the ability to click crisp photos. The device has in-built Google Lens support which can be used to identify and even buy products. In addition to these, it also has several different modes like Cine, Food and a fully manual mode which lets you take complete control over the camera. If you love to have film-like effects in your pictures, LG has also included 17 preloaded presets to quickly enhance your images.
LG smartphone really comes loaded when it comes to audio experience. LG likes to call its speaker technology, Boombox, and it is claimed to produce louder and crisper sound that the competition. It uses a 32 bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC which is capable of producing high-quality audio output. If you are a music professional, you can also connect the LG G7+ to a MIDI device using a USB cable. The high-quality DAC is a very unique offering.
The G7+ ThinQ has Wi-Fi 802.11 ac with dual-band support (2.4/5.0 Ghz). It also supports latest generation Bluetooth 5.0 LE which ensures longer coverage along with low-power consumption. In addition to that, it supports NFC which can be used to make instant payments besides other benefits. To power all these features, the LG G7+ ThinQ has a massive 3000 mAh battery which Quick Charge support. And if you hate carrying wires around, the device also supports wireless charging. The G7+ ThinQ truly is packed with features.
Performance
The LG G7+ ThinQ runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor clocked at 2.8 GHz. The base variant has 4GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. There is also a higher variant of the device which comes with 6GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. The device we tested was a base variant and we did not face any kind of issues while our tests. The UI on the G7+ is easy to use and there is barely any noticeable lag or stuttering. To test the single and multi-core performance, we ran the Geekbench 4 benchmark. The device managed to achieve a single-core score of 2457 and a multi-core score of 8802 which is pretty close to its nearest competition.
The G7+ ThinQ comes equipped with Adreno 630 GPU to take care of graphics performance. We ran 3DMark’s Sling Shot Extreme test and the device managed to achieve an impressive score of 3,714. We also ran PUBG and Fortnite on the highest possible setting, and noticed that device had no issues handling games.
The LG G7 ThinQ sports 16MP dual-lens cameras which is impressive just on paper. We clicked some pictures and found photos to be sharp and detailed. The camera does a great job in colour reproduction with most photos appearing natural. The device also supports 4K video recording and with the inclusion of both OIS+ (Optical image stabilizer) and EIS (Electronic image stabilizer), videos are quite stable.
The camera also sports an AI mode which identifies the scene and optimises settings accordingly. We tried a couple of different scenes and the AI mode did a decent job in identifying them, however most of the times it can oversaturate the picture. The laser auto-focus on the camera works fine with the portrait modes but it failed to impress while focusing on nearby objects. It take more time to focus and we had to tap on the screen constantly to get focus on the object.
We were quite sceptical about the performance of the 3000 mAh battery on the G7+ ThinQ as most phones in this range have larger capacity batteries. Even after running different tests and games, the G7+ still retained a battery life of more than 40 percent. If you are a casual user, this device surely has enough performance to keep the phone powered for a day.
Verdict
The LG G7+ ThinQ has a great build quality which gives you some sort of assurance. The display quality of the device is one of the best you can find in any other smartphone right now, which accompanied with its high-quality audio output makes it a complete entertainment package. If you are someone who is looking for a solid phone with a thin profile, uncompromised audio output and a decent performing camera, then the LG G7+ ThinQ is the device that can make your Life Good.
