Thin-cue, New Second Screen, Super Bright, and Boombox. Names used by LG in the new G7 ThinQ that are silly, refer to features that are not as useful as they sound, and one that is used twice for two completely different purposes.

It makes sense for artificial intelligence (AI) on electronic products to have a brand like "Think", but in a bizarre naming strategy at LG it is actually pronounced "Thin-cue." It is tough to say and the first response someone offers is "You are welcome." Forget this part of the name and let's just call it the LG G7, OK?

Smartphone manufacturers often spend a year and more developing phones before release so it is likely, as LG and Huawei claim, that LG was developing a phone with the "notch" long before the launch of the Apple iPhone X. The Essential Phone launched in May 2017 so if you are just looking at phones when they launch one could say that Apple copied Essential. It doesn't matter who thought of it first, just embrace the notch and move on please.

Oddly though, LG calls this notch the New Second Screen. In the past LG launched devices with an actual second screen that could contain shortcuts, call notifications and actions, speed dial options, and more. These functions have now moved to the floating bar on the G7. The New Second Screen is actually just the two small areas around the front notch where status information resides. You can customize the look of this area and the curvature below it, but it is not really a second screen even if that is what it is called.

The LG G7 has a LCD screen and one downside of LCD is performance in direct sunlight. Thus, you can tap the Super Bright/Boosted toggle on the display status bar and jump to 1000 nits. As you continue to use the LG G7 you may also stumble upon the Super Bright mode in the camera settings that help improve low-light imagery. I have no idea why this same term is used for two different things, but maybe LG didn't think consumers would be confused enough by the massive amount of settings on the phone.

One feature we discuss in the hardware section is the Boombox speaker. However, if it truly cannot be used for subscription music service (we have asked LG for clarification on this functionality) then it is likely a feature that will be used by very few people.

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With this introduction, you may think I hate the LG G7. However, I actually enjoy using it and it may be my favorite Android phone you can buy in the US. My current favorite Android is the Huawei P20 Pro, but that won't be available for US customers.

This is not a full review because I have only been using a pre-production model for five days so the software may get tweaked before launch, some apps may get updated, and there will surely be at least one update before it launches to consumers. For example, Google Pay does not currently work due to the software stack installed on the phone, but I am sure it will work fine when the LG G7 is released.

My daughter asked why my Apple iPhone X looked a bit longer yesterday and I told her it was the LG G7. With the large screen with hidden bottom buttons and the top notch it looks like an iPhone X. However, it also has a microSD card, 3.5mm headset jack, integrated Google Assistant, rear fingerprint scanner, and more that I personally find better than the iPhone X.

Specifications

• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
• Display: 6.1 inch 19.5:9 1440 x 3120 pixel resolution FullVision IPS LCD, Gorilla Glass 5
• Operating system: Android 8 Oreo
• RAM: 4GB
• Storage: 64GB internal storage with microSD storage card
• Cameras: 16-megapixel wide angle f/1.9 (107 degrees) and 16-megapixel standard f/1.6 (71 degrees) dual-rear cameras; 8-megapixel front-facing f/1.9 camera
• Wireless technology: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, FM radio
• Audio: 3.5mm headphone jack, Hi-Fi Quad DAC, DTS:X 3D surround sound, Boombox speaker
• Durability ratings: IP68 dust and water resistant rating, MIL-STD-810G drop test compliant
• Battery: 3,000mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 and wireless charging technologies
• Dimensions: 153.2 x 71.9 x 8.2mm and 162 grams
• Colors: Platinum Gray, Aurora Black, Moroccan Blue, and Raspberry Rose

The LG G7 matches up with other Android flagships with the 4GB of RAM and smaller capacity battery looking to be two areas to further evaluate in real-world usage. The drop test certification has been a standard for LG phones that others do not have so the phone should be less susceptible to damage if you don't drop it on the glass front or back.

Hardware

The front of the LG G7 is dominated by the flat 6.1 inch display. It is a LCD display, which personally doesn't bother me as it still looks fantastic and works for me in the environments where I travel. OLED has become the standard for most Android phones and the iPhone X, but all previous Apple iPhone models used LCD without people whining about the display technology.

OLED has blacks that are darker than seen on LCD screens, but the concern I've read online is in regards to visibility in direct sunlight. I was a rare sunny day yesterday in Washington State and when I held the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, it has the best OLED display on any phone right now, at full brightness next to the LG G7 with the Super Bright toggle on then it was clear to me the LG G7 looked better in this condition. To be honest, the LG G7 looked to be the same as the S9 Plus without the Super Bright toggle enabled. This Super Bright toggle bumps the LG G7 up to 1000 nits. I'm not concerned at all about the G7 display being LCD instead of OLED.

We also find an 8 megapixel front facing camera on the LG G7 that also supports portrait mode functionality. The few test selfies I took looked good and unlike the previous LG V30 there is no wide-angle support for this front-facing camera. The LG V30 front-facing camera turned out questionable results so it looks like LG has improved performance on the LG G7.

The microSD card/SIM card tray is found on the top. The power button is on the right, which is new for LG. The most recent devices had the rear fingerprint scanner also act as the power button, but LG stated that user feedback indicated a desire for a dedicted power button. The wonderful feature of this right side power button is that you can double press it at any time, screen on or off, and launch the camera. Many Android phones let you double press the power button for the camera, but often just when the screen is off.

Two volume buttons are found on the upper right with a dedicated Google Assistant buton on the middle left side. These four buttons are arranged similarly to the Samsung Galaxy S9 devices, but the Google Assistant button is preferred to a Bixby button. Press the button to launch Google Assistant, press and hold to immediately talk to the Assistant, and press twice to launch Google Lens.

The mono speaker, USB-C port, and 3.5mm headset jack are found on the bottom. The LG G7 shines in the audio department and if listening to headphones through a wired connection are your preference then you will not be disappointed with the LG G7. The mono speaker powers the Boombox capability of the LG G7. LG claims it is ten times louder than the competition and initial tests indicate it has high volume and also lots of bass, when placed on a table or other flat object. LG exposes the speaker driver to the internal space within the phone to create a resonance chamber with a dramatic effect. It is interesting and may meet some needs, but check out my thoughts below on some misses that may prevent it from being of practical use.

The 3.5mm headset jack, on the other hand, is extremely functional with 32-bit Quad DAC technology and DTS:X support. There are several advanced audio settings on the phone that appear when you plug in a 3.5mm headset jack and the DTS:X virtual 3D surround sound is crazy good. I've been using wireless headphones lately since most phones have been leaving out the 3.5mm port, but with the LG G7 it is time to pull those wired cans back out of the drawer.

One the back we have the glass back with a fingerprint sensor centered in the top third of the phone. The dual camera system is arranged vertically above the fingerprint scanner. The wide-angle camera is on top with the standard camera lens below it.

LG has a couple of high quality 16 megapixel pixel cameras on the back and initial testing indicates these cameras will compete with the other flagships of today. The wide-angle camera is rather unique in the dual camera space and I look forward to more testing with it. The 107 degree support is reduced from the previous V30 120 degrees and G6 125 degrees as LG stated it works on reducing distortion in wide-angle results.

The Huawei P20 and P20 Pro set the bar for low light shots, taking that crown from Samsung's S9, but the LG G7 has a Super Bright (again with the names, LG) mode that uses pixel binning to boost low-light performance. Initial testing indicates LG may have achieved some greatness here in poorly lit environments.

Software

This pre-production model is currently running Android 8.0.0 with the 1 May 2018 Android security update. Hopefully, LG launches it with 8.1 so it doesn't start out behind the pack.

LG's software is my least favorite and we don't see much improvement here on the LG G7. It is a bunch of little things that add up to annoy the heck out of me. These include the following:

• Use of Smart Bulletin instead of Google Now cards as a home screen panel
• Inability to tap and hold on an app to select to uninstall it from the app launcher. You have to tap on the right three dot menu button, choose to arrange apps, tap on the red X that now appears next to apps you install, and then confirm you want to delete it. This is not a way to encourage users to install apps on their device.
• Inability to have apps sorted automatically. When you install a new app on the LG G7, the app appears on the last page of the launcher. You then have to tap the three dot menu button, choose to sort apps, then choose to sort by name or download date. The problem is that you have to do this manually every single time.
• Auto brightness continues to suck. I don't know why LG can't seem to figure out how to provide a reliable display auto-brightness system, but it is always too low for my liking so I resort to manual control. Other phones provide me with acceptable auto-brightness displays.
• LG's own voice recognition system. Why? Google Assistant works just fine.
• Great pixel density, but could use more grid options for home screen panels. Font sizes and the density of text on the display is great, but there is a massive amount of wasted space between app icons, folders, and widgets on the home screen panels.

I understand that a future update will bring some LG G7 hardware-specific commands to Google Assistant so that using that left side button should improve the capability of the phone.

There are a ton of settings on the LG G7 so you can spend hours in there tweaking the device to your liking. I'm a fan of the floating bar, context aware functions, and fine control over vibration strength and type.

One of the promoted features of the LG G7 ThinQ is the AI capability. Similar to Huawei's new phones, this is primarily obvious in the camera experience. On the LG G7 there are now two new buttons adjacent to the viewfinder in the camera app. One for portrait and the other labeled AI Cam. You can use the camera with all the traditional modes as you have seen before on other LG phones, but the AI Cam offers some additional functionality.

Tapping on AI Cam and then pointing the camera at objects makes words appear and fade away as the phone attempts to identify the subjects in your viewfinder. I understand that more than 1,100 objects are included in the machine learning algorithms and you will see these words appearing as the phone gets to work. The AI Cam will then identify your subject as one of 19 elements and that word will appear in the lower left of the viewfinder with settings applied to the camera for this object. I was told that the camera will even switch to landscape for appropriate scenes in the viewfinder, but have to continue testing it to experience this myself.

I captured a few photos of the same subject with and without AI Cam and so far I prefer the AI Cam results over the default auto results. Like most people, I spend most of my time taking photos in auto mode even though there is a ton of power available to me in manual and other modes. It seems to me that proper use of AI in the camera can be a benefit to users and having the option to fall back to auto mode is great.

Why is it better than the Samsung Galaxy S9?

I have now returned two Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus devices to T-Mobile and will not be buying another. Questionable cellular performance (that one must have been defective) and limited battery performance convinced me it wasn't the device for me.

There are a few things I prefer on the LG G7 over the Galaxy S9 Plus, including the use of a flat display, the implementation of a wide-angle camera as the second rear camera, Google Assistant rather than Bixby for a dedicated button, and the screen notch. I enjoy the look and feel of a full screen, with a notch, on my iPhone X and like it on the LG G7 too.

LG's misses and potential

There was no pricing information provided by LG, which is expected when phones in the US launch with carriers controlling the pricing story. However, it's been five days and we still do not have a single bit of pricing or availability information from carriers. Now is the time to strike for LG with Chinese-branded phones on the ropes, flat Samsung S9 sales, and months before we see new Google or Apple smartphones. If LG doesn't step up soon, the door may be open for HTC to launch something compelling.

The ThinQ branding is terrible and it may have been better for LG to just call this phone the LG G7 and drop the confusing ThinQ brand.

The Boombox speaker mode is truly very loud, but if it really is only supported in the LG music player for music that people purchased and installed those files on the phone then it is essentially useless to the masses. People have moved to streaming music services like Spotify, Pandora, Google Play Music, and more so they subscribe and download music. Boombox needs to work at the device level and not at the app level to have any use at all.

The 3,000 mAh battery capacity concerns me a bit, but after using a pre-production device for the last five days it has performed about the same as the 3,500 mAh battery on the S9 Plus. This is OK, but not fantastic and LG could have alleviated all concerns if it would have competed with Huawei with a 4,000 mAh capacity battery. I don't understand why Huawei can get it right with battery while so many others continue to string us along with barely enough juice to get through a full day. People use their smartphones today as their main computing device and we need larger capacity batteries until some innovation in battery technology occurs.

LG made some pretty bold claims regarding software updates at its press event and its history with slow or non-existent updates is not a good sign. I'm hopeful that LG realizes it is going to left behind if it doesn't deliver on updates, especially with regular Android security updates so business can trust LG.

Experiences after five days

For the majority of the time I have left the notch, aka New Second Screen, in its default setup configuration and it hasn't bothered me once. I enabled the Smart Bulletin home screen panel, but have yet to see anything appear in Pocket Adviser or Pocket Briefing so that functionality may not yet be working on this pre-production model.

RF performance has been solid with good call quality via VoLTE to my family and friends. The battery life has been fine, but I have been topping it off during the day on wireless chargers just like I did with the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus.

The LG G7 is lighter than I anticipated, which actually makes it a great phone for the summer when you might be throwing it into shorts instead of jeans or a jacket. It feels well built with metal edges and I can't wait to see what the price will be at launch.

I was handed an Aurora Black one to test, but if I end up buying one I may go for Raspberry Rose or Moroccan Blue instead. Color on phones is getting more popular so I am pleased with LG's options on the LG G7.

There isn't anything super special that stands out about the LG G7 ThinQ, but you could say the same for the latest from Samsung, OnePlus, and some others. The device checks nearly all the boxes though, while providing the best audio experience and a very promising imaging experience. LG doesn't get much respect in the mobile space, but once again has a great phone coming soon. It could tighten up the software, think a bit more about the messaging, and focus on where it excels.

We'll continue using it to evaluate the camera, audio, and more so please let me know if there is anything specific you want addressed in the full review.