However, nothing new: the usual color rendering is not only for LG, but in general for any modern flagships. The only exceptions are Samsung and Motorola.
New - in sound! By and large, the flagship LG got its 32-bit Quad DAC DAC back in 2015, with the announcement of the V10. Then the sound migrated to the G6 and V20, but de facto had almost no effect on the sound quality of the smartphone. In the G6, everything is completely different! The smartphone itself sounds good - not overly detailed, but the volume is already "grown-up", the low frequencies are a little narrowed, the high frequencies are muffled, the “middle” sings in the ears. With the activation of Quad DAC (LG is silent about which model is inside. There is a possibility that the same ESS ES9218, borrowed from LG V20), the volume ceiling rises sharply, the detail increases so that you begin to notice defects in MP3 files, the scene becomes wider, the lower classes “inflate”, but in moderation they do not hammer on the ears. A very good configuration for high impedance monitor headphones.
But with vacuum "plugs" very soon it starts ringing in the ears from excessive clear percussion and hissing sounds in the vocals. It makes sense to get into the equalizer and make the sound a little softer. But in detailing the sound it is better to overdo it than to miss it: if LG had a bad sound path with distortions and background noise, the "twists" would certainly not have helped it.
I would hesitate to compare the LG G6 with the ZTE Axon 7 and its AKM AK4961, but with the Quad DAC activated, the hero of our test sounds much better than the Xiaomi Mi5s, OnePlus 3 or LeEco Le Pro 3. The superiority over the Galaxy S7 edge is not very great, but in high-quality files it will be noticeable that Samsung is a little short.
The speaker is of high quality, about the same as in the Galaxy S7 or iPhone 7. The volume level is slightly above average, low frequencies are not felt, no "meat" or drama. That's not bad, but it's a little annoying that in the LG G5 with the same dimensions, the speaker sounds louder, clearer, and deeper.
Iron
The performance of LG's flagships is a three-year tragedy. In 2013 2014, LG was ahead of the rest with its Quad HD display in the G3, but only the Snapdragon 801 with so many dots was pushing its limits. Therefore, the speed of the smartphone did not shine, but everyone understood that innovative technologies require sacrifices. In 2015, Qualcomm, to put it mildly, went wild with the overheating of its Snapdragon 810, so the LG G4 was forced to get a six-core “stump” with an 808 index.
Outside
To be fair, I would like to note: LG has implemented the idea of "stretching" the screen in length in a smartphone. Nevertheless, it was the LG G6 that became the first mass-produced device on a global scale with a non-standard (so far) 18: 9 display, beating the Galaxy S8 by a week or two in most markets.
Except for this feature, the smartphone does not stand out much against the background of dozens of other current models: a metal frame, in two places "crossed" by antenna inserts, a glass back panel, slightly curved at the edges, a dual camera and a round fingerprint scanner in the middle of the back panel.
The scanner (small, flush with the rear panel, and therefore difficult to find) is aligned with the power button. Its atypical performance is perhaps the biggest flaw in the LG G6's ergonomics. That is, after two weeks of use, I got used to this method of control, but I did not begin to experience the joy of it.
But the screen here is just magical. Not in terms of picture quality, although it is at a level worthy of a flagship, but in terms of how comfortable a smartphone allows you to create a display of 18: 9 proportions (2: 1, 2880 by 1440 pixels) compared to the usual 16: 9. The 5.7-inch diagonal at these proportions does not turn the device into a clumsy phablet. It retains the familiar "grip" width and one-handed typing capabilities of the 5.2-inch models. The display can show the clock and notifications in white on black even when the unit is locked.
At the same time, for example, the text on each page fits no less than the 5.5-inch screen of the massive iPhone 7 Plus. The only "but": a standard 16: 9 video will be played with black stripes at the ends of the smartphone, or, when scaling to the edge, a little picture will be lost from above and below.
LG G6 correctly displays high dynamic range video in HDR 10 and Dolby Vision formats. In such videos, you can see the slightest shade transitions both in the darkest and lightest areas of the image. The picture on the screen is easy to read even in direct sunlight, the display without an air gap almost does not glare.
Unlike most flagship models on the market, the front-facing glass (Gorilla Glass 3) is completely flat with no sloping "2.5D" edges. It seems to me that this was done for the sake of greater resistance to cracking when dropped. There is also Gorilla Glass on the back, but the fifth version: it is somewhat softer, tactile in general resembles plastic, because of this, small scratches are collected faster, but it is more difficult to break it. LG is talking about the certification of the smartphone according to the American military standard MIL-STD 810G ().
To prove its outstanding impact resistance, the G6 was repeatedly dropped at the Russian presentation from a height of about 1.5 meters onto a hard porcelain stoneware floor. Except for small dents in the metal frame and scratches on the back, there was no damage. The device is resistant to the penetration of water or dust - the LG G6 can "swim" for up to half an hour at a depth of up to one and a half meters (IP68 certification). If LG kept the modular design of the G5 in the new generation of the flagship, this would be impossible.
Inside
Qualcomm's 2017 flagship system-on-a-chip - the Snapdragon 835 - did not get the LG G6. Business laws are harsh:. Instead, the smartphone is built on. The same chip is used, for example, in Google Pixel smartphones. LG has thus become the last major manufacturer to launch a flagship smartphone with the Snapdragon 821.
The rest of the characteristics are uniquely flagship: 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of internal memory, installation of two SIM cards or one SIM and microSD. Even the most demanding games will not have performance problems, let alone regular applications. Of the advanced features of the Snapdragon 835, which LG G6 owners will not get, only Fr.
Below you can see the LG G6 benchmark results in popular synthetic benchmarks. The smartphone is not "king of the hill", but it is located quite close to its top. It is impossible to notice the difference with the leaders of the AnTuTu rating without tests - the device works quickly and without freezes, while even in demanding games it heats up very moderately.
The battery capacity of the LG G6 (now non-removable) is 3300 mAh. This was enough for me with a good margin for a day of full use - by nightfall the indicator never fell below the 20 percent mark. In HD video playback mode at 50 percent brightness, the smartphone lasted 9 hours and 10 minutes. A full charge from scratch with a standard adapter supporting Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Camera, sound
The LG G6 has two 13-megapixel sensors, one of the lenses being standard and the other ultra-wide (a 125-degree field of view is no joke). The first is a relatively standard smartphone lens with an f / 1.8 aperture, complemented by phase detection autofocus and an optical stabilization system. The second (f / 2.4 aperture) is perfect for shooting landscapes and architecture (an ensemble of some medieval square in Spain has a chance to fit into the frame as a whole), but it has neither optical stabilization nor autofocus. Yes, on other phones the same "wide-angle" is achieved by using panoramic shooting, but not in all situations it is possible to apply it. You can switch between lenses using the on-screen buttons, or you can smoothly zoom in and out of the picture by spreading and pinching your fingers on the screen. Unlike the iPhone 7 Plus, the moment of switching between the two modules is clearly visible, including when shooting a video.
Here's how the LG G6 shoots:
This and the next photo were taken from the same point with the regular and wide-angle lenses of the LG G6, respectively.
By clicking in a new tab, the original photo will open - note how the photo with the sky reflected in the river lacks sharpness
But for the opportunity to take such interesting shots, the blur of a wide-angle lens would be forgiven
Night shots are impressive, only often you have to manually reduce the exposure - by default, the smartphone tends to "overexpose" such scenes
When shooting against the sun, the device turns on the HDR mode, but the bright sky inevitably comes out
Payback for the ability to fit something large into the frame from a short distance is geometric distortion
We managed to take this picture only in manual mode - automatically, the smartphone stubbornly refused to focus on the object in the middle, preferring the background. Open the photo in full size to see how detailed the fibers of the expanding kidney are. Since the shooting was carried out in manual mode, underexposure here is entirely on the photographer's conscience.
In my opinion, the LG G6 camera is not perfect and not perfect, but it is capable of producing quite "flagship" results, especially in a special manual mode; "automatic" occasionally misses the mark with exposure and color rendition. I was very impressed with the results of night shooting in the city. A wide-angle lens is indispensable in a number of situations, the main problem with it is the lack of clarity in many images. And it's not a lack of stabilization: even photos taken in sunny weather at exposures of the order of 1/500 s look unclear on the monitor screen. But for viewing on a smartphone screen or posting to Instagram, clarity is acceptable. All photos taken during testing on the LG G6 can be seen at this link (Google Photos).
In Russia, LG sells a "premium" version of the LG G6: while America and Europe got the phone with a 32 GB built-in storage, Russia received not only 64 GB of memory, but also ESS 32-bit audio chip... This advanced digital-to-analog converter (even 4 DACs in one at once) with an excellent amplifier noticeably improves the sound of music - it becomes more space, "air", it is easier to distinguish between individual instruments and sounds. Note that the chip only works when transmitting sound through a cable.
Having tried the phone with the Plantronics Backbeat Pro 2 over-ear headphones, I can say that wired music sounds more detailed and generally more enjoyable than on the iPhone 7 Plus, noisy compositions "put pressure on the brain" less, the sound picture is more clearly drawn. There is no bias in the direction of any frequency range: both the bass and the high and medium ones were measured to our ears just right. And this is me about the sound of ordinary streaming mp3 from Google Play Music; well done 24-bit FLAC files sound amazing in general. There is nothing special to say about the built-in speaker, it is quite loud, but if the volume is turned to the maximum, distortions are inevitable. Perhaps today this is the best smartphone for audiophiles with high-quality headphones who do not want to bother with external DACs and amplifiers. Just keep in mind - when you turn on the "Hi-Fi" -chip, the battery starts to run down one and a half times faster.
Interface and software features
LG G6 goes on sale with Android 7.0- despite the fact that the most current version of the Google mobile platform, already available for Pixel and Nexus smartphones, is 7.1.2. Not that users risk missing out on important features. Rather, the question is, how long will it take between the release of a new numbered version of Android and its appearance on the LG G6. You can focus on the experience of the previous flagship: LG G5 in Europe and the US began receiving Android 7.0 in December 2016, four months after the "nexus" with a clean version of the operating system, and the update ended only by February 2017. Last year's flagship G4 at LG at first refused to update to Android 7.0 at all, and only when the owners of the devices were outraged, they promised to do it ... in the third quarter of 2017 - that is, about a year after the release of this OS version.
The interface shell of the LG G6 cannot be called "clean" - a lot of things were painted on top of the classic Android... And the reason for this, apparently, is the same: the management of the Korean company is still confident that without "its" interface the device will lose to competitors. In fact, the non-standard interface only creates additional problems for users who, when switching from other smartphones, have to master many actions in a new way. However, most of LG's competitors have the same problems with the inability to ditch their own skins or keep modifications to stock Android to a minimum.
Some of LG's proprietary apps are really interesting: for example, "Square Camera" or "HD Voice Recorder" with a bunch of settings, able to record sound "high resolution" in FLAC format, with the function of adjusting the sensitivity for high-quality recording of loud concerts.
conclusions
The LG G6 is a great device. Yes, outwardly, this is an ordinary glass-metal block without design frills, but the "long" screen definitely refers it to a new generation of smartphones that remain comfortable and compact when the display diagonal grows to 5.7 inches or more. The LG G6 has one of the best cameras, only slightly inferior to the market leaders in automatic mode, but at the same time it can take interesting wide-angle photos. Finally, it is the perfect smartphone for those looking for the ultimate in portable sound quality. However, if 52,000 rubles does not burn your pocket, and you do not need a smart watch LG Watch Style without a heart rate monitor, you should wait a couple of months with the purchase - the price will certainly become more acceptable. At its current level, most buyers will find it very difficult not to be seduced by the futuristic streamlined shapes of the main competitor, which is now only about 6% more expensive.
Let's sum up the LG G6 review.
Pros:
Large "tall" screen with HDR content in a convenient body
Resistant to water and drops
Additional shooting options with a wide-angle camera
Owners of expensive headphones will appreciate the excellent sound thanks to the 32-bit DAC
Minuses:
Unobtrusive case design
Modifications in the interface shell that are not necessary for most users, the very existence of which makes it difficult to perform operational system updates
High price at the start of sales
How long will the LG G6 battery last for talking, watching videos and surfing the net? The answers are known to the minute, thanks to the LG G6 battery life tests carried out by GSMArena experts. The sixth Korean supernova has performed well. The results cannot be called champion, but for such a diagonal of the display it keeps the battery charge confidently.
LG G6: battery
A 3300 mAh battery is responsible for the autonomy of the LG G6. We see a decisive step forward compared to last year's LG G5, which got only 2800 mAh. While the G6's larger display cannot be discounted, it's worth noting that the battery capacity has grown by 18%, while the screen area has increased by 8%.
In terms of battery capacity, the LG G6 even surpasses its direct predecessor - the LG V20 (3000 mAh), whose display area with a diagonal of 5.7 and an aspect ratio of 16: 9 is clearly larger than that of the Sixth G with 5.7 at 18: 9. Well, how can you not remember that the V20 also has an additional screen, albeit not too gluttonous.
The only downside is that the LG G6's battery is tightly sealed in the case, which was not the case with either the G5 or the V20. Be that as it may, the moral of the long introduction is that we expect more energy independence from the LG G6 in comparison with its predecessors, which, frankly, did not have enough of the stars from the sky in terms of autonomy.
LG G6: battery life rating
Talk time on a single charge, the LG G6 lasts 22 hours and 30 minutes - five hours longer than the G5, and 3 hours longer than the V20. In both cases, we see a more noticeable increase in autonomy than could be expected with such an increase in battery capacity. This is a good sign.
LG G6 battery life: calls on 3G networks
The LG G6 surpasses its siblings when browsing the internet. The 2017 flagship lets you surf the web for 8 hours and 31 minutes, while the G5 and V20 refuse to continue after 7 hours and 35 minutes. Progress is evident, although battery life is not up to the Pixel XL, which will allow you to explore the world wide web for an hour longer.
In general, the Galaxy S7 edge is by far the leader here with 10 hours and 35 minutes (for obvious reasons, we cannot yet compare the LG G6 with the S8). The OnePlus 3T couldn't get far ahead of the G6 in this battery test. His result is 8 hours 43 minutes.
LG G6 battery life: internet
When playing videos, the LG G6 lasts a full 6 minutes longer than the G5! But seriously, 10 and a half hours is a very good figure, especially when compared to the eight hours of the LG V20.
The Pixel XL is still ahead - the strength of its battery when watching a video is limited to 11 hours and 9 minutes. In practice, this is tantamount to watching another episode of your favorite TV series. Good, but not so much considering that the OnePlus 3T allows you to watch videos for 13 hours and 23 minutes without interruption. True, it also falls short of the grandmaster's indicators of the Galaxy S7, which reached the 15 o'clock bar!
LG G6 battery life: watching video
Combining these numbers, we get a battery life rating of 72 hours with the Always on display turned off. This means that if you talk on the phone for 1 hour every day, watch a video for 1 hour and work on the Internet for another hour, the LG G6 will last about three days on a single charge.
| Autonomy rating | 72 hours |
| Always on display | 55 hours |
| Calls | 22:30 |
| Internet | 08:31 |
| Video | 10:27 |
With the AOD always on, the figure drops to 55 hours as standby power consumption increases. Calculations are performed even if nothing is displayed.
The influence of AOD on the battery life rating depends on the mode of use of the smartphone. If the phone is in your pocket (the screen turns off), the battery life will increase. But if you put the LG G6 in front of you on your desktop, and even with good lighting in your room or office, the display will not only work - it will burn brighter, consuming more power.
In 2017, LG took a step that was not standard for the industry - it did not delay the release of the flagship in order to use the latest processor (as competitors did), but settled on the Snapdragon 821, for which it was criticized by both geeks and a number of expert publications. Nevertheless, LG G6 turned out to be an extremely interesting device, and the importance of a more powerful processor turned out to be exaggerated.
LG G6 specifications:
- screen: IPS, 5.7 inches (2: 1), resolution 2880x1440 pixels
- platform: 4-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821
- RAM: 4 GB ROM: 64 GB (+ microSD)
- main camera: 13 MP (f / 1.8) 13 MP (f / 2.4), front camera: 5 MP
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, Bluetooth 4.2, USB Type-C, GPS
- battery: 3300 mAh
- accelerometer, light sensor, proximity sensor, fingerprint scanner
- dimensions: 148.9x71.9x7.9 mm, weight: 163 g
- OS: Android 7.0
Appearance
LG's current flagship has moved away from the emphasis on metal and leather - as it was in the past and the generations before last, respectively - in favor of a glass surface on the back, curved closer to the ends, and a metal frame around the perimeter. The bezel also surrounds the glass at the screen, which makes the surface more resistant to drops than competitors with a bulging 2.5D-glass, albeit less spectacular in appearance.
The LG G6 looks restrained in black and white, but the platinum version seems to be the most interesting. It has a clearly visible relief similar to that of polished metal, and a glass overlay on top gives the effect of gloss. Custom colors are the best way to stand out in the world of similar devices and not sacrifice the convenience of the simplest form.
The device received protection against dust and moisture according to the IP68 standard, and also confirmed 14 parameters according to the more stringent MIL-STD 810G (including resistance to drops, temperature extremes and solar radiation, for more details on the official website). Achievement is great, given the glass body.
The layout of the controls is standard for LG, the connectors are also installed in their usual places, the ergonomics have not suffered: the buttons are tight enough so that there are no accidental operations, your fingers rest exactly on them when you take the LG G6 in your hand. The build is perfect, as you'd expect from a top-end device.
The smartphone is comfortable to use, including with one hand, which was facilitated by the narrow body and adequate height. The engineers were able to make the LG G6 just like that due to the small bezels around the screen and a new aspect ratio.
LG G6 and iPhone 7 Plus:
Display
The LG G6 offers a 5.7-inch display with an 18: 9 2: 1 aspect ratio, which is more elongated than the vast majority of smartphones and close to. The new ratio gave a higher resolution - 2880x1440 pixels. Pixel density is enough for everything, especially when you consider that the actual screen area is comparable to 5.2- and 5.3-inch screens with a 16: 9 ratio.
New ratio
The new aspect ratio presented an additional menu where the user chooses between three modes: 16: 9 (the application is magnetised to the top edge or is placed in the center if the navigation bar is not displayed by default, for example, in games), 16.7: 9 (stretching to touch buttons) and 18: 9 (full screen mode).
The software selects the 16.7: 9 mode by default, this is the optimal solution for any application. Changing the aspect ratio does not affect the text, which is critical for e-book readers and social media clients.
2:1
Video in most places is displayed with black bars on the left and right, the stock video player offers several picture settings, including filling the entire area:
Some applications allow you to redirect the stream to another player (for example, pre-installed in LG G6), so you can get rid of black bars in the same MEGOGO. It's a shame YouTube doesn't offer this option.
Optimizing the aspect ratio for full screen indicates that the application may not be fully displayed, because in this mode the window is stretched (and the edges are cut off along the long sides). For most games, the cropping of the interface does not interfere, but if there are small elements on the screen near the edges, the aesthetics suffers. The difference is clearly seen in the Super Mario Run popup:
The situation will improve, as developers are already optimizing applications for the new ratio. How long it will take for all applications to receive support for narrower screens is not yet clear, but devices with similar display proportions will become more and more, and therefore software manufacturers will be concerned about consumer comfort. The same SimCity BuildIt and Clash of Clans are already showing correctly.
Picture
Screen technology - IPS, users get accurate color reproduction with the caveat of slightly overestimated saturation (a common practice to increase the attractiveness of the image). It's nice that the initial calibration doesn't make you want to tweak anything, although some users might not like the cold tone. The latter can be corrected by activating the reduced eye strain mode.
Other parameters, be it viewing angles, contrast or brightness, also did not fail - any content looks great. In addition, the minimum brightness is very low, which is convenient for using the device at night in bed.
There are no flexible picture settings, as well as preset modes, only the initial configuration, which is unusual, but appropriate given the initially good image. The only deviations from the basic mode are Dolby Vision and HDR10, which are available in some videos, such as the Netflix catalog. However, now this is almost the only place with HDR support on a smartphone.
LG G6 in the locked state is able to display service information, including the time and icons of applications that received notifications. Functionally, it is exactly the same Always On as in.
Camera
The LG G6 continues to exploit the dual camera theme with a wide (71 degrees) and very wide (125 degrees) viewing angles configuration. This design covers most shooting scenarios with a smartphone camera, since much more space can be accommodated in the frame, albeit with distortion:
This mode is often useful: when shooting a large company, on tourist trips, when you want to capture a large space, but there is no way to step back (especially important for concerts and other shows with places assigned to each visitor). There are many scenarios, and they are not far-fetched: users will most likely often switch between different lenses, especially given the instant transition from one camera to another.
The quality of images is excellent in favorable conditions: excellent detail, delicate processing algorithms, fast autofocus, natural colors. On a smartphone screen, images seem overly sharp and slightly overexposed, but on social networks and on a PC monitor or in a photo frame, they look much better. HDR has also proven to be effective and can be used on a consistent basis.
However, the camera cannot be called ideal due to the fact that with a large amount of light and the presence of bright objects in the frame, the automation sometimes overestimates the exposure, in frames this leads not only to a pale veil, but also flares in the brightest areas. Other flagships do better with similar scenes due to more accurate metering. This feature can be corrected with firmware, since it is caused exclusively by the operation of automation.
Photo in original resolution.
The second significant drawback was the failures in the autofocus during macro photography, which forced to take three or four photos in the worst case, and the first time the correct result was achieved only in 60% of attempts. The result is not bad, but competitors are doing better. Again, there is a chance that the software update will tighten this parameter as well.
The result is a good camera with useful dual lens functionality (arguably the most useful implementation available on the market). LG G6 works in some scenarios a little less reliably of the best representatives of the class, but there is no need to talk about a significant lag behind competitors.
Performance
The LG G6 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, which delivers the expected numbers in synthetic benchmarks:
There is enough power to run any games available on Android, albeit with a number of conventions. For example, in Modern Combat 5, you should play with a 30 fps limit, since on average the user gets 40 fps with periodic drawdowns up to 35 fps if the limit is turned off. In addition, the user cannot adjust graphics higher than "Optimal". Asphalt 8 operates at an average of 29 fps, in the most saturated moments the frequency drops to 26 fps.
The result is comfortable, but not impressive, which caused the screen resolution to be used to its full in games, and not in the increased performance mode with a decrease to "near full HD", as some competitors implement. However, the settings hide the mode for switching the resolution and frame rate in games, there are three options available: original resolution, full HD and HD. The description of the menu says that this is necessary to save battery, but in practice it is useful to increase productivity.
The device uses 4 GB of RAM, which is enough for complex multitasking: two or three games and a dozen applications are adjacent to each other and do not slow down the work, switching between them takes place instantly. The work of applications does not raise any questions: high frame rate, quickly open, render correctly. Not an achievement for a flagship, but rather a mandatory indicator, because it is good that it is met.
A distinctive feature of all smartphones with Snapdragon 821 is the minimal heating under heavy loads, and LG G6 has retained this feature. It was possible to achieve an uncomfortable temperature only after half an hour of playing with simultaneous streaming of images via Miracast.
Autonomy
The LG G6 with a 3300 mAh battery provides 6 hours of active screen with 30 hours of standby time. These results were obtained with an active "always-on display", 30 minutes of video on YouTube, three mailboxes, two messengers, where there was a lot of correspondence, three social media clients, a dozen useful programs and a 15-minute photo session.
The result is slightly better than that of the LG G6, which puts the LG G6 in the position of "long-liver" among the flagships
The device heats up at high loads, but the temperature remains within comfortable limits, and the discharge occurs evenly both with lazy scrolling through the social media feed, and with constant switching between the browser, messenger and mail with parallel copying, editing and sending images. In games, obviously, the battery runs out faster - on average, it was enough for 3-3.5 hours of playing GTA: Vice City (with a standard saturated stream of notifications).
The device supports Quick Charge 3.0 and USB-PD, which is becoming a mandatory requirement for Android smartphones with USB Type-C, which means that 18W smartphone chargers will soon become the norm in the market.
The test copy came without a complete charger, therefore, it is impossible to draw unambiguous conclusions about the speed of power recovery, but with Quick Charge 2.0 the process took almost two hours.
Communication and sound
There is only one external speaker of the device, it is louder than most current flagships, but the maximum level breaks down to a slight wheeze and crushes the audio range, it is uncomfortable to listen not only to songs, but also to the voice in conversational videos. The optimal level is about 80%, however, even so the LG G6 is louder than the iPhone 7 Plus and Galaxy S8. At the same time, quality does not win anything.
Where the LG G6 beats all the competition is in headphone sound. The smartphone took over from the autumn collection of flagships (V-series) a 32-bit Quad DAC DAC, capable of working out frequencies in more detail, adding volume and increasing the range. You won't notice the difference on cheap "drops" and MP3-tracks with a 128-bit stream, but good headphones reveal the advantage of a DAC, especially when paired with more or less high-quality recordings.
It is unlikely that all LG G6 users will buy good headphones, so they will not appreciate the advantage, but a keen audience will be delighted. The company seems to understand this too, because the LG G6 + kit includes advanced earbuds from B&O Play
The radio modules correspond to the flagship positioning, there are no complaints about the work either. During testing, once the phone stopped receiving packets from Wi-Fi 802.11ac, but disabling-activating the module solved the problem, and it was not possible to repeat the failure, therefore it did not work out exactly whether the smartphone was to blame.
Additional features and features
The smartphone runs Android 7.0, the stock functionality lacks only support for a few local profiles, but this is true for most smartphones in general. The proprietary features of the shell - an extended clipboard, its own "zero" screen, quick notes and more - remained in their usual places. Special thanks for the extended dock (up to seven apps!), Which is lacking on many smartphones.
The fingerprint scanner works perfectly, it is combined with the "Home" button, which is built into the back under the camera. The location is good: when you take the smartphone in your hand, your finger rests exactly on the scanner.
The elongated screen presented another additional function for the camera - a separate application with four shooting options. You can immediately make a collage of two or four photos, use a snapshot or picture as a mask (for example, to correctly observe the perspective on the same type of frames), use the preview and the viewfinder at the same time. It's a pity that photos in these modes will only be square.
The LG G6 is the first non-Google smartphone to feature the new Google Assistant. This product is more sociable than Google Now, and even smarter, but it is not yet familiar with Russian and Ukrainian languages, which is why it will have to speak with it in English (and use the English interface of the smartphone).
Most of the services work in Ukraine, including searching for cafes nearby or managing content in applications (for example, searching for emails in Gmail), but also in English only, which makes it impossible to ask what time Blockbuster is open, since the Assistant will not understand that we are talking about a specific cinema, and recognizes the name as the word Blockbuster. If you use Russian or Ukrainian interface language, the familiar Google Now will work.
Competitors
LG G6 is available on the Ukrainian market in three colors: platinum, white and black. There is only one modification: 64 GB of permanent memory. A variation of the device for the American market received inductive charging, but smartphones are sold in Ukraine without it, but with an advanced DAC. The retail price tag is UAH 21,999.
Offers a luscious AMOLED display (also elongated), the best camera on the market and a futuristic look due to the curved edges of the screen. Its performance is higher, but in everyday use it is not felt, at least now, but the autonomy is a little worse, and the price is higher - 24,999 UAH in official retail.
It occupies the position of an economical flagship, which by the current generation is expressed only in the price and intricacies of the firmware. The device does not boast of a new aspect ratio, but it keeps the bar for a cool appearance and flaunts the most powerful Snapdragon 835. The Chinese flagship takes lower quality photos and is not so well protected from external influences, it also lacks a headphone jack, but it costs only 12,500 - 14,500 UAH ...
A smartphone that is more traditional in terms of appearance in most other parameters competes on an equal footing with the LG G6, if you omit all the same protection and a separate Hi-Fi chip, and the configuration of the dual camera is not so interesting from the point of view of use cases - here the second module is monochrome, for getting more details. A good option for 20 thousand UAH, if you do not want to mess with a non-standard aspect ratio of the screen.
conclusions
LG G6 pleases: compact body, cool screen, useful implementation of a dual camera, advanced DAC. Nice appearance and glass panels on the front and back did not prevent the introduction of support for the IP68 standard and even confirm a number of points for compliance with the military standard MIL-810G - this is the most secure top-end smartphone on the market.
The new aspect ratio hurts the feeling of beauty when you use unoptimized software, but the software situation improves quickly, and you get used to small distortions quickly. The speed of work, the current version of Android and proprietary software features help to overcome the aesthetic disorder, and the elongated screen attracts enough attention to itself so as not to pay it to the logo under the display.
The smartphone is good in everyday use: you want to twist it in the light once again, check social networks, take a picture of a beautiful building. It is stylish enough to pass for a fashionable accessory, but also reasonably strict - a businessman can put it on the table during negotiations and not collect a grin from his interlocutors. The screen is not as futuristic as the curved or almost frameless variations of competitors, but it is more convenient to use.
The cost of the device is high, but fair when you look at the competitors, most of which do not know how to reproduce high-quality sound in headphones and do not meet military protection standards. The elongated screen also makes you pay extra, but that's okay for any fresh technology. All in all, we get a cool, comfortable, stylish and expensive smartphone, as befits a flagship.
6 reasons to buy LG G6:
- appearance
- good screen
- wide-angle camera
- IP68 dust and water resistant and MIL-810G compliant
- dimensions with display size
- headphone sound
2 reasons not to buy the LG G6:
- the camera is inferior to a number of flagships in quality
- sometimes loses in demanding games to competitors
LG has done a great job on the design of the G6 and made a really beautiful smartphone. Koreans abandoned the idea of modularity, releasing their new flagship in a non-separable glass and metal case. The removable battery also had to be removed, but in return we got protection from water and dust, which is much more important.
The G6 is built around a sturdy metal frame paired with Corning glass. The front panel uses toughened Gorilla Glass 3, which is more resistant to drops and shocks, which is especially important for the display. But the back cover, although it looks like brushed aluminum, is actually made of Gorilla Glass 5: it is scratch-resistant, which is important for the back.
The smartphone is protected from water and dust according to the IP68 standard, and also received certification based on the military standard MIL-STD-810G (tests included drops from different positions, verification of operation in high and low temperatures).
I am glad that manufacturers have begun to massively introduce moisture protection into their gadgets - this is a really useful feature. LG G6 is not afraid of rain, sand, dirt, it can be easily washed under the tap and immersed in water to a depth of one and a half meters for 30 minutes.
LG G6 knows how to draw attention to itself. In public places, I felt people looking with interest at the unusual apparatus in my hands.
Why change everything? The new aspect ratio allowed LG to make its flagship narrow and elongated. With its almost bezel-less and elongated screen, LG has managed to fit such a large display into a body that is no different in size from 5.2-inch smartphones.
By the way, there is no 2.5D rounding on the screen, it is completely flat. This should please those who like to glue protective glasses.
The large screen size of 5.7 inches is not at all what should be intimidating. It is convenient to use the smartphone even with one hand.
Daniil Bazdyrev
review authorRejection of frames is a current trend among gadget manufacturers. The Korean company can be commended for its daring experiment with aspect ratios and minimal bezels. The idea will most likely pay off.
However, when you watch a video in 16: 9 format, black bars appear on the sides of the screen. You will have to get used to them - this is a price for a narrow screen and compact size. It is unlikely that content producers will suddenly want to switch to the new 18: 9 format.
Difficulties can arise with applications, since most of them are not adapted to work on such a display. Fortunately, LG has added the ability to customize the software scaling on the screen. This feature solves the problem.
The display is slightly rounded at the edges, just like the body of the smartphone itself. The company's research and laboratory tests have shown that the new design reduces the risk of breaking the display.
If we talk about the quality of the screen itself, it is fair to call it the best that LG has ever used. Overall, this is one of the best screens on the market.
The screen is made using IPS technology with a resolution of 1440x2880 pixels. It has high brightness and contrast, maximum viewing angles and natural colors. I especially liked the white color - it is perfectly calibrated.
In addition, the LG G6 is the first smartphone to support HDR 10 and Dolby Vision. These technologies come from flagship TVs and support wider dynamic range video.
True, now there is practically no such content, but soon American online cinemas promise to broadcast streaming video with support for these formats.
Another great feature of the LG G6 is the Always-On display feature. When locked, the display can show the time and missed notifications - we have seen this in smartphones from Nokia, Microsoft, Samsung and Motorola.
In the settings, you can select the type of clock and set the shutdown time of the function. On average, the Always-On display uses 1% of the battery per hour.
Balanced "filling"
LG did not pursue the most powerful hardware and released the G6 on last year's Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor - this is exactly what is in many flagships in 2016. The company explains its choice by the long development time of the smartphone, and also cites considerations of energy efficiency.
In the near future, devices based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 will be released, and the LG G6 will be noticeably inferior to them in performance. Another question - do ordinary buyers need such power? The fact of the matter is that it is unlikely. For most users, having the fastest processor won't be the deciding factor when buying a smartphone.
Needless to say, all mobile games run at the highest settings? Everything we've tested works perfectly. Asphalt Extreme, GTA: San Andreas, Mortal Kombat X, Modern Combat, World of Tanks - everything flies.
Thanks to the powerful Adreno 530 video accelerator and Vulkan API support, you can be sure that games will run at the maximum for more than one year.
Despite being super-fast when playing games, the LG G6 can slow down on the most basic tasks. The problem is clearly not in the processor, but in the optimization of the LG UX 6.0 shell. How else to explain the fact that the flagship gadget with noticeable brakes switches tabs in the phone book? This lag was still in G2, it definitely is in G5 and it has not been fixed until now.
Sometimes the notification curtain is pulled out with jerks, and scrolling in the Play Market and Twitter comes with microlags. Most users are probably not that picky and are unlikely to notice the dullness of the interface. But this does not negate the fact that visually, the LG G6 is noticeably slower than most of the flagships of last year. The Koreans need to do something about optimizing their system - this is the weak side of the smartphone (although, it is likely that this is due to the non-finality of the sample, which we received one of the first).
The amount of RAM is 4 GB, which is enough for all tasks, including the work of two applications at the same time. A version with 64 GB of memory will be on sale in Russia. For those who need more space for data storage, we left a hybrid slot for a memory card.
Dual cameras for wide-angle shooting
The LG G6 has both 13MP main cameras. One module is used for regular shooting with an aperture of f / 1.8, the second for wide-angle shooting with an angle of view of 125 degrees and f / 2.4.
Compared to last year's G5, the second module received more megapixels and began to take noticeably better photos. LG's research showed that 50% of G5 owners used a wide-angle camera in the first place, so the new smartphone continues to focus on this feature.
It's worth noting that wide-angle shooting with the G6 slightly warps straight objects around the edges of the photo, resulting in a fisheye-like effect.
Normal mode
Wide-angle mode
Note the building on the left.At the same time, LG smartphones are the only ones to use wide frame in their cameras. This makes them unique! In addition, we admit that it is much more useful than blurring the background and other "embellishments" of the frame.
LG has put in its new flagship not the most modern camera module - Sony IMX 258. Despite the weak camera module, the Koreans were able to prove that the most important thing in mobile photography is the quality of the camera software.
During the day, the pictures are bright, saturated, with good color reproduction and a wide dynamic range. This is facilitated by the default Auto HDR mode, which does not affect the shooting speed at all, but has a positive effect on the resulting photos.
Photo in the dark. The exposure and white balance are very good, but the buildings in the background lack detail. Night sky with a lot of noise.
True, there are some unpleasant nuances. So, for example, in photographs with a large number of small details, such as wool, grass, leaves, it is noticeable that they turn into a "mess" - they are blurred and poorly detailed.
In low light conditions, the photos are more than decent. An important role in this is played by the optical image stabilizer - even in the dark, blurry frames are rarely obtained.
The only thing to find fault with is the large amount of noise in night shots.
the photo
the photo
the photo
The front camera has a resolution of 5 megapixels, which by modern standards is not enough for good selfies. If you can get good pictures during the day, then it is better not to turn on the front camera on the G6 in the dark - the photos will turn out to be blurry and of poor quality.
By the way, the flagship smartphones of competitors are equipped with higher-resolution front cameras: the Apple iPhone 7 Plus and Huawei P10 have 8-megapixel modules, the Sony Xperia XZ has 13 megapixels, and the Oneplus 3T and Samsung Galaxy A7 2017 even have 16 megapixels.
The smartphone shoots video with a maximum resolution of UltraHD (3840x2160 pixels). The footage we have shot looks good: the G6 has excellent exposure, focuses quickly, and records high-quality sound even in strong winds.
A serious plus was the ability to instantly switch between a regular and wide-angle camera right during shooting. And do not forget about optical stabilization - it perfectly corrects minor hand shake and makes the video smoother.
It is important to note that we tested a pre-production sample with non-final software. We noticed that our test sample is equipped with a slightly different camera - in the properties of the images obtained, information about the f / 2 aperture is displayed, while a full-fledged G6 should have f / 1.8 and f / 2.4.
It is likely that the quality of shooting in a smartphone intended for sale will be radically different for the better.
Day of battery life
The LG G6 has a 3300 mAh non-removable battery. It may seem to you that for a large and bright 5.7-inch screen with a huge resolution, such a battery will not be enough and you will have to charge your smartphone twice a day. You will be almost right - the autonomy is not very high here.
In mixed use, the G6 lives until the evening. If you turn off the Always-On display and turn on the power-saving mode, you can safely use your smartphone even for a day and a half.
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