LG G6 Full Review – too late or too early?

LG G6 Full Review – too late or too early?

LG has either been a touch too early to release their phone or a tad late into the race similar to the story of the HTC where the technology placed into their flagship line always seem to have last year’s tech included.

The Korean company is no stranger to wanting to stand out, almost all the time, with design cues starting from the curved LG G4 and the slightly scandalous LG G5 with its pseudo-modular design.

What we have for 2017, instead, is a more modest approach to getting attention with performance in tow. Are they too late to the flagship race?

This is our full review of the LG G6.

Design

There’s no denying that LG went ahead and hired new people to design the latest iteration of their G line starting with a glass panel for the backing on top of brushed looking material.

What’s noticeable is the flushed dual rear camera placement sitting squarely in the middle above the wake lock button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner similar to the experience of the LG V20.

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The rear build tapers off to the sides to meet the metal band acting as a frame with antenna lines in places where you typically won’t hold the phone if you’re right handed.

It’s a sim tray where the power button used to be with options for either two SIM cards or swap the second one for extra memory.

The volume rocker is situated on the left side.

Other cutouts include a 3.5mm headphone jack at the right side of the top frame by the noise canceling microphone.

Everything else can be seen at the bottom with the USB type-C port flanked by the speaker grille and the main microphone.

It’s a flat front panel with respectable bezels all around and a generous screen housing the usual cutouts for the front facing camera, sensors, and earpiece up top and just the LG moniker below.

Considering its screen size, the phone sits and fits comfortably in one hand thanks to the really thin bezels and overall ergonomics of the device. It feels cools and solid to the touch with just the right amount of heft.

Display

5.7 inches of IPS LCD set at 1440p or QHD with the unique 18:9 aspect ratio will be responsible for displaying your content.

As per standard IPS LCD experience, viewing angles are great even under direct sunlight.

What’s new are the corners, rather, lack thereof, with rounded edges to give, well, a rounder feel.

The experience is both awkward and familiar with just the right amount of content in your face together with space for the on-screen navigation keys.

Colors are not super saturated like that of another Korean brand which is very relaxing to the eyes.

Camera

Similar to the headliner of the LG G5, the G6 continues the trend of dual camera set-up with the 13MP primary right beside 13MP wide-angle secondary camera for scenic shots amongst other uses.

The primary camera set at f1.8 does well with daylight assisted shots. The wide-angled twin works just as well especially in taking in more of the shot.

Indoor shots with natural lighting are just as good with a touch of overexposure, I find. Same story goes for the wide-angled version seen here.

Lowlight shots tend to underexpose, seen here with the focusing taking longer than expected to hone in on the selected image.

Videos maxes out at UHD or 4K resolution at 30fps but don’t expect the steadiest of shots even with optical image stabilization.

The 1080p version at 30fps works well thanks to a steady recording feature – which will only work from this point and below. higher fps and quality will automatically turn this off –  even while walking, seen here, but it’s not the smoothest of renditions. A gimbal will work wonders in improving the overall experience.

Selfies are on the ok side with the 5MP included front facing camera that auto adjusts upon detecting more faces in the image. The “auto-adjust” feature zooms out from the cropped standard photo in case more heads want to be included in the frame. A manual wide angle option is also included.

Performance

The question begs itself again as LG has historically been either too early to release a flagship phone or too late, for that matter, as the included chipset of a Snapdragon 821 comes from the 2016 lineup from Qualcomm paired with 4GB of RAM.

Don’t get me wrong. The LG G6 is, by no means, a slouch in the performance category as it can and will perform under duress thanks to a still powerful engine under the hood. It’s just that, for its price, we’d half be expecting the 835 series running a flagship phone for 2017.

As per usual high-tier device, the G6 performs with much of what is expected from running your daily tasks and apps, as well as games from titles like Real Racing 3 and NBA 2K17 at the highest graphic settings.

The device will warm up after extended usage but not too hot to the touch nor levels that are too alarming.

LG’s Optimus UI on top of Android Nougat 7.0 is much the same experience as that of 4 years ago with the familiar skinning, Knock Sense, as well as all the usual flair of the settings menu clutter like that of the quick settings menu.

It’s not as intuitive as expected especially with the absence of an app drawer but LG included a ‘hide apps’ option in case there are things you don’t want anyone seeing.

Bloatware aside, the LG experience has been refined from that of the G4, for example, with better overall improvements, comparing.

I wished LG went the way of Motorola and the Z series, with a near-stock experience rather than forcing more apps and in-your-face features only the niche of the niche use.

Battery

Some loyal fans would have wanted a re-swappable or removable capability in the battery department but since LG’s decision to go full glass cum metal design meant that the 3,300mAh battery will not be user replaceable.

We got a decent 4.5 to 5 hours of screen-on-time with varied usage ranging from casual to average daily usage at about 28 hours of stand-by time.

Heavy usage will close off battery life at about 4 hours of screen on time at about 20 hours of standby time.

The QuickCharge 3.0 package filled up the phone at almost 2 hours or 1 hour and 56 minutes to be exact. Sure it’s not dash charge nor is it Fast Adaptive Charging, but it will get the work done faster than other phones which should be a good thing.

Audio

Most manufacturers try to separate themselves by improving either the battery or the camera performance of the devices. As for LG G6, it picks out itself by including the quad-DAC audio system.

Found first on the LG V20, the LG G6 proved to play better in bass, dynamic range, and pretty much everything else when plugged via the audio jack.

The result for the loudspeaker on the other end is pretty much average where it’s better than Google Pixel‘s tinny output.

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Pricing and Verdict

The LG G6 will retail for Php37,990 or $765USD – a bit too much for the pocket as most of us thinks.

LG basically delivered a sleek looking designed flagship smartphone that also offers a bit of innovation and features that you can mostly find under its tier. However, it’s hard to justify the asking price of the G6 especially when it’s a little bit behind the hardware department.

What do you think of the LG G6? Let us know in the comments section below.

LG G6 Full Specs, Official PH Price, Release Date in the Philippines