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After a few months’ delay (the reasons of which are not entirely clear) LG is the last of the big mobile manufacturers to finally unveil its new 2018 top-end smartphone. The new model is called the G7 ThinQ, and comes with most of the photography features and characteristics you would expect from a current flagship device.
An almost bezel-less 6.1-inch LCD display with a resolution of 1440 x 3120 pixels is combined with Qualcomm’s latest top-end Snapdragon 845 chipset, and embedded into an IP68 dust- and water-resistant body. There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack with a quad DAC and a microSD slot for memory expansion. The device is available with 6GB RAM and 128GB of storage or 4GB RAM and 64GB storage.
In the camera department, LG is sticking to its strategy of differentiating itself from most competitors by offering a super-wide-angle lens in the dual-camera setup. Both sensors now offer a higher 16MP pixel count, compared to the G6’s 13MP, with the main camera boasting a 71-degree field of view, fast F1.6 lens, optical image stabilization, and an autofocus system that uses both phase detection and laser.
The super-wide-angle has to make do with a slower F1.9 aperture and without OIS. It also only comes with a fixed focus. Like on the V30S, camera operation is enhanced by LG’s artificial intelligence technology that can detect objects and scenes and auto-adjust camera settings accordingly. Additionally, there is a “smart pixel-binning” mode for lower noise and better exposure in low-light shots.
Finally, we also get a “fake-bokeh” portrait mode on an LG flagship, which can artificially blur the background in portrait shots taken with both main camera and super-wide-angle.
LG is late to the game for 2018, and we’ll have to see if consumers are interested in the brand’s super-wide-angle camera concept when most other manufacturers bet on telephoto lenses in their dual-cam setups. In any case, it’s good to have one more option in the high-end bracket of the Android smartphone market.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)