LG’s announces, the LG G7 ThinQ
Today in New York, LG finally unveils its latest flagship, the LG G7 ThinQ (pronounced, Thin-Q) smartphone. While much has been rumored about this device, we finally have the answers to many of the burning questions.
Design:
Taking a few nods from the LG V30, the frame is a polished metal rim with Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and the back. The LG G7 ThinQ has an edge to edge display with a very familiar ‘notch’ where the front-facing camera and call speaker are located. A glass back allows wireless charging and one of the things changes I noticed right away is the center placement of the back cameras. For those wondering, the phone does have expandable memory option in the form of an sd slot as well as equipped with protection from water and dirt with an IP (Ingress Protection) of 68. One of the new additions includes an AI Hot Key button on the left of the phone, with opens up Google Assistant with LG Integration. At the moment the AI button cannot be remapped for another feature, but don’t be surprised if a software update down the road changes that. This generation of LG mobiles, are looking to be powered more by Artificial Intelligence. The first G series phone with meaningful AI. Continuous software upgrades expanding the features and options of the device.
The Display:
The LG G7 has a 6.1-inch QHD+Fullvision (3120 x 1440 / 564ppi) display with a peak brightness of 1,000 nits (Outdoor), the brightest ever for a smartphone. This means the phone’s display can be comfortably seen in any lighting conditions, sunlight included. If that’s not impressive on its own, the G7 ThinQ manages the feat while consuming 30 percent less power than its previous flagship. By reducing the size of the bottom bezel they were able to squeeze in a 19.5:9 aspect ratio.
The LG G7 ThinQ display features six different viewing modes: Auto, Eco, Cinema, Sports, Game, and Expert. In Auto mode, the phone analyzes the content before optimizing the display and power consumption accordingly. If you so choose, you can also fine-tune the image more by adjusting the screen temperature and RGB levels individually. If you find the notch a bit obstructive, there is good news. LG refers to it as the New Second Screen, you can customize it, minimize the bezels, change the notification bar to a different color, or black it out completely for a less intrusive view. The display is also capable of playing back HDR content.
The AI Cam:
The LG G7 ThinQ gets a massive bump up from previous LG phones. The AI cam lets the user take the best shot every time. The front camera is 8-megapixel, while the back cameras sport dual 16-megapixel, the wide-angle camera will feature a 107-degree field-of-view, while the standard camera has a f/1.6 aperture. The phone’s AI camera app identifies the subject using machine learning, it features four enhanced filters that optimize the contrast, saturation, and color depending on whatever you’re shooting. This AI is capable of auto-detecting the subject if it’s a person, pet, food, city, landscape, sunset, group of people or a document. One of the new features includes the camera’s low light mode or “Bright Mode,” if it detects the lighting is not ideal, it will combine pixels to form a “superpixel.” with the ability to shoot images up to four times brighter than the LG G6. Of course, for those curious about portrait mode, you can toggle the option on after taking a photo to blur the background and bring the subject into focus, this option is available to both rear-facing photos and selfies. Not to be outdone the video camera is capable of shooting HDR10 content, which you’ll then be able to view in full HDR glory on the HDR10-compatible screen.
Speakers and Sound:
Utilizing the inner space of the smartphone as a resonance chamber the audio engineers at LG came up with a new way to amplify sound more than ten-fold. With “Boombox Speaker”, when placed on a solid surface or box, the LG G7 ThinQ uses its resonance chamber as a woofer to amplify the bass effect even more.
The LG G7 ThinQ is the first smartphone to offer DTS:X 3D Surround Sound, for up to 7.1 channel performance without the need for premium headphones. Unlike other stereophonic technologies that only deliver high-end audio with specific music, DTS:X supports any type of content to create a sense of space to make the listening experience even more immersive.
New features include a Hi-Fi Quad DAC that can drive high-impedance, high-end headphones for true audiophile-quality sound. The Hi-Fi Quad DAC packs four digital to analog converters onto a single sound chip, lowering the total harmonic distortion (THD) rate to 0.0002 percent for highly accurate sound reproduction. The LG G7 ThinQ also supports the Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) audio format, which delivers hi-res sound quality in a small file size.
Hardware Specs:
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform
Display: 6.1-inch QHD+ 19.5:9 FullVision Super Bright Display (3120 x 1440 / 564ppi)
Memory: 4GB LPDDR4x RAM and 64GB UFS 2.1 ROM for G7, 6GB LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB UFS 2.1 ROM for G7+, microSD (up to 2TB) for both
Rear cameras: 16MP Super Wide Angle (F1.9 / 107°) / 16MP Standard Angle (F1.6 / 71°)
Front camera: 8MP Wide Angle (F1.9 / 80°)
Battery: 3000mAh
OS: Android 8.0 Oreo
Size: 153.2 x 71.9 x 7.9mm
Weight: 162g
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac / Bluetooth 5.0 BLE / NFC / USB Type-C 2.0 (3.1 compatible)
The LG G7 ThinQ was seen in four colors: New Aurora Black, New Platinum Gray, New Moroccan Blue, and Raspberry Rose.
At the time of this writing, neither the carrier information nor the pricing of the device has been revealed. Be sure to check back here for an update on the official release date.
