Last month, we made a specs comparison between the LG G7 ThinQ and the Huawei P20 Pro. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to fully write an in-depth comparison of the two smartphones. Both devices are known flagship phones of their respective companies that were released this year.
- LG G7 ThinQ Review: Worthy PHP 43,000 Flagship phone?
- Huawei P20 vs P20 Pro vs Asus Zenfone 5 – AI Cameras Comparison
The LG G7 ThinQ officially launched here in the Philippines on June 14, 2018. The smartphone is known for is its Boombox Speaker feature. As for the Huawei P20 Pro, it launched in the country this April 28. The Huawei smartphone’s main highlight is its triple Leica optics infused with AI technology.
The price of the two devices are relatively close but which of the two smartphones should you purchase? Let’s find out here.
| SPECS | LG G7 ThinQ | Huawei P20 Pro |
| Display | 6.1″ QHD+ display, 3120 x 1440 pixels, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, FullVision Super Bright Display, 564pi, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | 6.1″ AMOLED display, 1080 x 2240 pixels, 18.7:9 aspect ratio, 408 PPI |
| Dimensions | 153.2 x 71.9 x 7.9 mm, 162g | 155 x 73.9 x 7.8 mm, 180g |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 | Hisilicon Kirin 970 |
| OS | Android 8.0 (Oreo) | Android 8.1 (Oreo) |
| GPU | Adreno 630 | Mali-G72 MP12 |
| Memory | 4GB RAM + 64GB internal storage (expandable via microSD card) | 6GB RAM + 128GB internal storage |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot, Bluetooth 5.0, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, NFC, 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB On-The-Go | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot, B.T. 4.2, A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, NFC, USB 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector |
| Battery | Non-removable Li-Po 3000 mAh battery, Fast battery charging (Quick Charge 3.0) | Non-removable Li-Po 4000 mAh battery, Fast battery charging 4.5V/5A |
| Official Price (Philippines) | PHP 42,990 | PHP 44,990 |
Table of Contents
Design
The LG G7 ThinQ sports a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 front and back along with a metal frame. It measures 153.2 x 71.9 x 7.9 mm and weighs 162g. On the other hand, the slightly larger Huawei P20 Pro’s back and front are covered with Gorilla Glass with a filling of metal at the sides. The device measures 155 x 73.9 x 7.8 mm and weighs 180g. Similar to other recently released flagships, both smartphones have thin bezels as well as the infamous notch. The LG G7 ThinQ has no physical or capacitive buttons since they made use of on-screen buttons whereas the Huawei P20 Pro’s fingerprint scanner that doubles as a home button can be seen at the front of the phone.
Moving on to the rear part of the devices, both of their vertically aligned rear cameras are located at the back albeit the LG G7 ThinQ’s dual main cameras are positioned at the center whereas the Huawei P20 Pro’s triple rear cameras are seen at the top-left corner. The LG G7 ThinQ then has its fingerprint scanner under its cameras along with the device’s name. Its brand logo is stated at the bottom of the smartphone as well. As for the P20 Pro, the word “LEICA” is written under the LED Flash and its logo is seen at the bottom left of the phone.
The usual power button can be found on the right side of the smartphones. The difference would be the positioning of their volume rockers. In the Huawei P20 Pro, the volume control is also located on the right side. Meanwhile, the volume control in the LG G7 ThinQ is seen on the left side of the phone along with a button designated for the Google Assistant. In addition, the SIM tray of the P20 Pro is found on the left side of the phone while the SIM tray on the LG G7 ThinQ can be seen on the top part. still on the left side of the smartphone.
At the bottom of the smartphones, you’ll find speaker grilles and a USB Type-C port. Although unlike the Huawei P20 Pro, the LG smartphone also has a 3.5mm audio jack and a microphone underneath the phone.
The design of the two smartphones are really modern and both feature a glass back. Because of this, they are easily smudged with fingerprints so it is highly recommended that the user uses the provided case that came with the P20 Pro. For protection, the LG G7 ThinQ contains the Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The P20 Pro seems to have a layer made of glass although it was specified anywhere if it sports Gorilla Glass.
Display
The LG G7 ThinQ features a 6.1″ IPS LCD notched display with a resolution of 1440 x 3120 pixels and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. On the other hand, the Huawei P20 Pro sports a 6.1″ AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2240 and an aspect ratio of 18.7:9.
We tried setting the two phones in their brightest setting. The LG G7 ThinQ produced a brighter display than the other device which was a bit expected since it features FullVision Super Bright Display. On the other hand, the P20 Pro’s brightest setting seems warmer in comparison to the LG device’s display when we placed it side by side.
Watching movies on these devices were enjoyable since both are vibrant enough and the colors are accurate. Furthermore, the color and details don’t change even if you view the phones from different angles.
LG G7 ThinQ
Huawei P20 Pro
As mentioned, both phones feature the infamous notch. In order to cater to those who aren’t a fan of this feature, the two companies included an option to hide a notch in their devices. Furthermore, the users may also control which apps they want to have a full-screen display.
Camera
| Phone | Rear Camera | Front Camera |
| LG G7 ThinQ | Dual: 16 MP (f/1.6, 1/3.1″, 1.0µm, OIS) + 16 MP (f/1.9, 1/3.1″, 1.0µm), laser & PDAF, LED flash | 8 MP (f/1.9), 1080p@60fps |
| Huawei P20 Pro | Triple: 40 MP (f/1.8, 1/1.7″, OIS) + 20 MP (f/1.6) + 8 MP (f/2.4), Leica optics, 3x optical zoom, phase detection and laser autofocus, dual-LED dual-tone flash | 24 MP, autofocus, f/2.0, 1080p |
The LG G7 ThinQ sports a dual rear camera whereas the P20 Pro has a triple one. In terms of specs, the Huawei P20 Pro has a better camera since it has 40MP + 20MP + 8MP triple main cameras whereas the LG G7 ThinQ only has 16MP + 16MP dual rear cameras. Moreover, the P20 Pro also contains Leica optics as well as AI.
To fully determine the quality of the two smartphone’s camera, we took some shots in various scenarios.
This picture was taken during a gloomy weather. As you can see, it is a bit dark although the shot did well in taking a detailed photo of the building and the sky. The colors are also fairly accurate.
As for the Huawei P20 Pro shot, it is a lot brighter than the previous one although it was taken at the same time. This may be due to the camera’s AI. As you can see, since the photo is brighter, more details can also be seen. ON the other hand, the greenery in this photo looked a bit dull as it lost some of its colors.
As you can see, the Huawei P20 Pro produced the more vibrant image although the LG G7 ThinQ had the shot that was closest to real life. The LG image has a warmer tone to it while the Huawei photo contained a yellowish tint. This is because the P20 Pro’s AI detected the greenery in the shot and automatically adjusted its colors to best suit it.
At first glance, the colors between the two seem similar but as you look closer, you’ll notice that the Huawei P20 Pro produced the brighter output based on the building’s wall color. Unfortunately, both photos had some over-exposed parts in it. In terms of details, both are sharp and clear.
As you can see, the colors of these photos are really different. The one on the left was taken normally whereas the one on the right was taken with LG G7 ThinQ’s AI Cam. When I pressed the AI Cam, it was able to detect the greenery and the sky which is why it adjusted its colors to make the green color stand out more.
This time, we took a photo of the same subject but with the P20 Pro. There was no need to manually activate its AI Camera since its automatic. The camera was also able to detect the greenery. If I had to choose between the two phone’s AI mode in these shots, I would pick the Huawei P20 Pro since it looked more natural.
Both of the smartphones’ camera has some zoom options. The LG G7 ThinQ contains the Super wide-angle mode and the Huawei P20 Pro has a 3x zoom feature.
These are more sample indoor shots of the LG G7 ThinQ and the Huawei P20 Pro.
Let’s talk more about the smartphones’ AI camera capabilities. The Huawei P20 Pro had the advantage since its AI camera activates automatically unlike the LG G7 ThinQ where you have to manually turn it on. This makes it easier to take pictures with the P20 Pro. In these shots, the P20 Pro was able to detect the flower which is why it had different colors.
The portrait mode was used in these shots. As you can see, the LG G7 ThinQ had the more natural-looking bokeh effect. In the P20 Pro, the subject’s edges looked blurry and it wasn’t clear where the bokeh effect started. Between the two, the LG G7 ThinQ won in this one.
Here are some more sample shots of the two smartphones that focus on subjects.
As we’ve mentioned in the LG G7 ThinQ’s review, the portrait mode can only activate when the subject is within a certain amount of distance from the camera. This makes it a bit difficult to use the mode. In these shots, the one with the more natural-looking bokeh effect was the P20 Pro although the bokeh effect in the LG G7 ThinQ also looks good.
Let’s move on to selfie shots. The pictures taken on the left were taken with beauty mode. In the LG G7 ThinQ, the beauty mode erased the subject’s beauty marks and made the skin look a lot smoother. As for the Huawei P20 Pro, the beauty mode made the subject’s skin look softer while also smoothening it out. Both of the smartphones’ beauty modes look slightly unnatural although it doesn’t look that bad.
As for the selfies that were taken normally, the Huawei P20 Pro had the brighter output based on the color change in the subject’s hoodie. In addition, the two were able to provide detailed shots.
In these selfies, we used portrait mode. The LG G7 ThinQ had a bokeh effect that looked more natural while the portrait mode of the P20 Pro managed to make the subject stand out more. Color-wise, the P20 Pro shot was brighter since the LG image gives a warmer tone.
Audio
The LG G7 ThinQ is louder compared to the Huawei P20 Pro and it also produced the clearer sound. This wasn’t really a shock since one of the LG device’s main highlight is its audio. The smartphone contains 32-bit/192kHz audio as well as DTS-X sound. Moreover, it also comes with a feature called Boombox Speaker which lets the handset use the inner space as a resonance chamber to make the user’s listening louder. For clarification, the DTS-X can only be used with earphones.
All in all, the two devices have clear and good quality audio. There were no audio problems while playing games and watching movies. Both of them didn’t sound scratchy even on maximum volume as well. Try listening to it by yourselves.
Battery
As for the battery juice of the two smartphones, both can last you through a day. The Huawei P20 Pro is packed with a bigger battery capacity having 4000mAh compared to the LG device with 3000mAh.
The LG G7 ThinQ doesn’t provide the best battery but it’s decent enough that it can last up to 11 hours of light usage. Fortunately, it is supported by Fast Charging and it only took us 1 hour and 39 minutes to charge it from 20% to 100%. As for the Huawei P20 Pro, charging time from 20% to 100% lasted for only 55 minutes. Its battery also lasted for a whole day with more to spare for the next day.
User Experience
LG G7 ThinQ
Huawei P20 Pro
Let’s talk about the smartphones’ security feature first. Both of them sport a fingerprint scanner as well as a face unlock feature. In terms of the fingerprint scanner, the Huawei P20 Pro was slightly faster than the LG G7 ThinQ but their face unlock feature speed is the same. It’s a good thing to note that these two won’t unlock when the owner is asleep as its face unlock doesn’t work when the user’s eyes are closed.
The LG G7 ThinQ is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 along with an Adreno 630 GPU and an octa-core processor clocked up to 2.8 GHz. It arrived with a 4GB RAM and an internal storage of 64GB. The smartphone runs on Android 8.0 Oreo. Meanwhile, the Huawei P20 Pro is powered by the Hisilicon Kirin 970 along with a Mali-G72 MP12 GPU. It has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The device runs on Android 8.1 Oreo.
Its two chipsets both have their own areas where they excel in. The Snapdragon 845 performs better in terms of CPU and GPU. As for the Kirin 970, it does better in AI-related tasks because of its independent built-in NPU.
We tested some benchmark tools and these are the results:
LG G7 ThinQ
Huawei P20 Pro
| Device | AnTuTu | Geekbench(single core; multi-core) | PCMark Work |
| LG G7 ThinQ | 235825 | 2411; 8774 | 7860 |
| Huawei P20 Pro | 206665 | 1921; 6821 | 7143 |
Playing games on both phones was a good experience. The games we played were Asphalt 8 and Cytus. Launching the games was quick and there weren’t any problems during game play as well. No lags occurred and the graphics are really clear and detailed even in games with heavy graphics.
LG G7 ThinQ
Huawei P20 Pro
As for additional features, they both have their own shortcuts that aid the user in launching apps more quickly. In the LG G7 ThinQ, you may use Shortcut keys whereas in the Huawei P20 Pro, it has Motion control.
LG G7 ThinQ
Huawei P20 Pro
You may also adjust or change the navigation settings in the two smartphones according to your preference.
Verdict
The two smartphones offer a good quality phone with great camera capabilities and high-end specifications. Both smartphones are currently available in the country. The LG G7 ThinQ is priced at PHP 42,990 whereas the Huawei P20 Pro is priced at 44,990.
If your priority in a smartphone is having a good camera, then you might want to consider the Huawei P20 Pro due to its AI camera capabilities. On the other hand, if you prefer phones with a good audio quality, then go for the LG G7 ThinQ. Of course, the choice is still up to you. Which of the two do you prefer? Comment your thoughts down below!
