Typically when a company announces a new smartphone, anyone who doesn’t follow the rumor mill is surprised by what’s announced. LG does things a bit different, though. The company confirmed its new LG G7 ThinQ long before today’s big event. The company even revealed some details about the new phone’s design and features ahead of its official announcement. But the LG G7 ThinQ is now official and as is always the case, the complete picture is far more compelling than the bits and pieces we had seen from LG before today. In fact, not even the rumor mill was able to paint a complete picture of the phone.
Despite the familiar design that was unquestionably “inspired by” Apple’s iPhone X, the new LG G7 ThinQ features a big, bright display, cutting-edge specs, a camera that could give Samsung a run for its money, and some nifty artificial intelligence features that help improve the overall user experience. It’s a sleek new phone that can go toe-to-toe with any other flagship handset available right now, and LG is finally ready to show it off.
Before we dive into the LG G7 ThinQ’s specs and features, let’s address the elephant in the room: yes, LG’s new flagship phone copies the iPhone X’s notch. And just like all the other Android phones that rip off Apple’s display design, LG did it the cheap, easy way instead of the right way. By that, we mean that LG’s new G7 ThinQ has a big bezel on the bottom under the display, which is often referred to as a “chin.” Apple’s iPhone X doesn’t have a chin — and that’s the whole reason the notch exists.
Instead of having big empty spaces above and below the screen, the iPhone X has a narrow bezel that’s uniform all the way around the display except for where the notch is. Apple was able to ditch the phone’s chin using a brilliant feat of design and engineering. The iPhone X’s flexible OLED display bends behind itself inside the phone, allowing Apple to hide the display controlled at the bottom behind the screen itself. Other phones like the LG G7 ThinQ don’t pull this off, which is why they still have big chins.
With all that out of the way, let’s check out LG’s new flagship Android phone.
The G7 ThinQ has a large 6.1-inch “FullVision” display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and QHD+ resolution. Like the upcoming OnePlus 6 and a few other phones that copy the iPhone X’s notch, LG doesn’t force Android fans to live with a design that many people do not like. Users who aren’t fans of the notch can flip a toggle in the phone’s settings, and the sides of the notch will remain entirely black aside from icons and other status bar info. This way, the LG G7 ThinQ looks like a phone with a more conventional display design, as you can see on the right side of the image above.
A 2.8GHz octa-core Snapdragon 845 processor powers the LG G7 ThinQ, and the model that will be available in the United States features 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. In certain markets, the G7 ThinQ will ship with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Other key specs include LG’s new Boombox Speaker, 7.1 channel surround sound support, dust- and water-resistance, a 3,000 mAh battery, far field voice recognition so you can use Google Assistant hands-free from across the room, and a new dual-lens camera on the back.
LG’s new rear camera on the G7 consists of one 71° 16-megapixel sensor with an f/1.6 aperture and a second 107° 16-megapixel sensor with an f/1.9 aperture. The two lenses combine to pull off some of the same tricks that Apple introduced on the iPhone 7 Plus back in 2015, but the camera also has a few extra artificial intelligence features that LG calls “AI CAM.”
Using AI, the LG’s camera app is able to identify the subject you’re shooting and then help optimize camera settings in an effort to capture the ideal shot. The software uses object recognition, facial recognition, and some other nifty technologies to pull it off. Other neat new camera features include automatic brightness adjustment in low-light environments and a portrait mode just like Apple’s.
The LG G7 ThinQ will be available in four different colors including Aurora Black, Platinum Gray, New Moroccan Blue, and Raspberry Rose. LG hasn’t yet announced pricing or a release date for the US market, but preorders will begin at major carriers on May 24th.
