Review of the LG G6 smartphone: only the screen remains. LG G6 smartphone review: flagship with a huge frameless screen Lg g6 camera comparison
In the near future, sales of a flagship smartphone will begin. For example, in the US, pre-order deliveries began on March 30. Numerous reviews give the device high marks: for example, the Phonearena portal rated it 8.7 out of 10 possible points. The advantages of the device include modern design and camera.
If you use the G6 smartphone for a few weeks, you begin to get to know its interface, functionality, settings and quirks. As a result, readers can get acquainted with fifteen interesting features of this device.
How to enable Always On Display
Like before it, the new smartphone has an Always On Display screen feature, but it is not striking. By default the function is disabled and you need to open Settings > Display > Always On Display and turn it on manually. As a result, part of the screen in standby mode will be highlighted, showing the time, date and battery charge, as well as notifications. The downside of this function is the increased energy consumption, by about 1% per hour.
Quickly open the notification panel
Among the advantages of the LG G6 is its comfortable position in the hand compared to other devices with 5.7-inch screens. Despite this, it is difficult to reach the top of the screen to open notifications. As a solution, you can edit the location of the buttons on the screen. Open Settings > Display > Home screen touch buttons > Key shortcut, here you can drag and release the buttons as you wish. Place the notification button in a location that is convenient for you.
Changing the size of the on-screen keyboard
Most users will be happy with the way the keyboard looks by default, but others may want to scale it down or up. Open Settings > General > Language and Keyboard > LG Keyboard > Keyboard Height and Position > Keyboard Height to change its size. Additionally, you can turn on vibration when you press the buttons so that you can feel with your fingertips that the press has taken place.
Camera settings
The LG G6's camera app has a wide range of settings, but some are disabled by default. For example, the Tracking Focus setting, which focuses even on a moving object. You can also enable a gallery that shows thumbnails of your last five photos. The Grid setting helps you shoot more accurately, aligns the horizon, etc.
Energy Saving Settings
All smartphones have some form of energy saving feature. By default, the LG G6's power saving mode is activated manually in quick settings. You can also make it turn on automatically when the charge level drops below a certain level, such as 15%. This is done at Settings > General > Battery and Power Saving.
Editing the Switch Panel
Like every Android smartphone, the LG G6 has a notification panel that includes a number of switches that can be used to change frequently used settings. This list can be edited by changing the arrangement of tiles. For example, you can place a flashlight in the most visible place, and remove the NFC communication switch that is not being used completely. Clicking the three dots in the top right corner allows you to hide the screen and file sharing buttons when you're not using them.
Enabling LG Health
The LG Health app is located on your home screen in a folder called Essentials. Among other things, it gives advice on how to stay fit or reach your weight goals. The program can also track your daily activity. A smartwatch could collect data more accurately, but if you don’t have one, LG Health will do. The application does not record data unless you open and configure it.
Replacing the weather widget on the home screen
The default weather and clock widget does its job fine, but if you go to the widgets screen by swiping down the empty space of the home screen and selecting Widgets, you'll find a larger, more informative weather widget at the bottom of the list. It shows the three-day forecast, current time and weather. You can also look for third-party weather apps. Although LG's program has beautiful animations, it does not provide hourly forecasts.
Volume control works as shortcut buttons
A smartphone cannot be called complete without various tricks to speed up working with the camera. In the LG G6, the volume control is responsible for this, or rather the part of it that reduces the sound. Double tapping during standby launches the camera app. Pressing the up button twice launches the LG QuickMemo Plus note-taking app. While this seems convenient, these actions can interfere with other functions and can sometimes be triggered accidentally when the sound volume changes. If desired, this functionality can be disabled at Settings > General > Shortcut Keys.
Changing the shape and background of application icons
LG's modern user interface adds backgrounds to some app icons, creating a more unified home screen. If you are used to the previous appearance of application icons, you can undo these changes in the section Settings > Display > Home Screen > Icon Shape.
Downloading new themes
Continuing the theme of user interface changes, LG gives you a choice of graphic themes for download. To access suggested themes, swipe down on the home screen and select Themes from the Themes menu that appears. You will see a number of pre-installed themes, and to download new ones, go to the Featured section or click on the arrow in the upper right corner. You may have to create a new account.
Returning the list of applications
LG's user interface does not include an app list. All applications are located on the home screen, which suits many users. If you are not one of them, open Settings > Display > Home screen > Home screen and app list.
Denying access to photos and videos
We all have materials on our smartphones that should not be seen by prying eyes. If these materials are in the form of photos and videos, you can block them from LG Gallery. Open your files folder, click on the three buttons in the upper right corner and select Block in the menu that appears. Next, users will be asked to set a password to protect their files. Once the password is set, the files will disappear from the gallery. You can access them through the team "Show blocked files" in the same menu with three dots. In this case, the files are displayed if the folder is opened using a file management application, but they cannot be opened.
New gestures will allow you to search in applications
On any home screen, if you swipe down, the search bar will appear. It allows you to conduct deep searches within the software, including third-party applications like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can find Chrome bookmarks, Spotify singers, Twitter hashtags, and more. One drawback: the function is noticeably slow and does not display a complete list of results.
Enable Comfort View at night
The blue light emitted from screens allegedly causes the brain to produce a hormone that interferes with sleep. That's why smartphones increasingly feature a blue filter that automatically turns on after sunset. In the LG G6, the filter is called Comfort View and is available in quick settings, after which the screen turns yellowish. It is especially useful when you work with your smartphone before bed.
The LG G6 is extremely interesting precisely because of its camera. After all, this is a completely different look at using two lenses. We have already seen examples of the Apple iPhone 7 Plus and ASUS Zenfone 3 Zoom using a second lens for optical zoom without loss of quality. There is also the example of Huawei, which in the P10/P10 Plus, Mate 9 and even smartphones produced under the Honor brand installs a monochrome sensor under the second lens.
LG took a different route, and, in our opinion, it is the most interesting from the point of view of mobile photography. “Zoom with your feet” has not yet been canceled, and the ability to get a spectacular shot using an ultra-wide-angle lens makes the smartphone useful when traveling, and when shooting architectural ensembles, and if you want to shoot interiors. And, of course, it’s fun to photograph people and animals using a wide angle. The shots will be, at a minimum, spectacular!
As is tradition, we started filming in good lighting conditions outside. It is interesting to note that our testing took place in various weather conditions. We were able to capture both a blooming and bright May, as well as a rainy and snowy May in the historic (!) 2017. By the way, the latter did not pose any problems for the LG G6 - the device is protected from dust and moisture and can withstand immersion under water to a depth of more than a meter. In this state, the smartphone can work for 30 minutes.
Let's get back to filming. In daylight conditions outdoors, the LG G6 performs well, pleasing with natural colors and high detail. Let us note some “oversharpening” in the photographs, which is clearly visible in 100% crop and can affect the overall perception of the photo. Overall, shots taken with the main 29mm (equiv.) lens look very good.
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F1.8, 1/800 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F1.8, 1/200 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F1.8, 1/3394 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F1.8, 1/923 sec
By pressing one button in the interface, you can quickly switch from the main lens to the ultra-wide-angle lens. Needless to say, the image obtained with an ultra-wide-angle lens is very different from the image of the main one: the space is collapsed, and many more objects enter the frame. However, do not forget about the lack of autofocus and the lower aperture of the second lens.
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F2.4, 1/222 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F2.4, 1/621 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F2.4, 1/1250 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F2.4, 1/1250 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F2.4, 1/500 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F2.4, 1/547 sec
Just for fun, you can look at two photographs taken from the same shooting point to see the difference between the two focal lengths.
The LG smartphone doesn't have many shooting modes; Quite a lot of attention is paid to the manual mode, which resembles the interface of a DSLR camera. Additional scene scenes are available in basic shooting mode. Among them are three video modes - “Clips”, “Slow Motion” and “Time-Lapse”. There is an opportunity to shoot panoramas (regular and 360-degree) and make collages combined from the results of the work of two cameras. There is also a special mode “Shooting food”, because, as you know: “If you don’t take a picture, you don’t eat.”
Among the presented plot scenes, the most popular, in our opinion, will be “Panorama”. However, if you have a wide-angle lens, this mode may be needed much less often.
Interestingly, panoramic shooting can only be done with the smartphone in a vertical position, and here you need to choose between lenses. The results are equally good, but we liked the panorama shot with the wide-angle lens better.
The LG G6's main camera performs well when shooting indoors. Here, a fast lens, optical image stabilization and accurate autofocus come to the fore. If you switch to a wide-angle lens, you can quickly notice the lower aperture and the lack of autofocus with stabilization. In this case, the smartphone’s automation is forced to slightly increase the shutter speed and aperture in order to get a high-quality result, but blurring can easily appear and detail can “float.”
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F1.8, 1/40 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 100, F1.8, 1/33 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 200, F2.4, 1/33 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 100, F2.4, 1/33 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F1.8, 1/50 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F1.8, 1/679 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F2.4, 1/214 sec
We especially enjoyed shooting with a wide-angle lens in the Moscow metro. This is not to say that the photos turned out perfect: at ISO above 200 a lot of noise appears. To take a high-quality image, you will have to accurately use a tripod and increase the shutter speed on manual settings. But you need to understand that no modern smartphone except the LG G6 can take a picture with such a wide angle.
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F2.4, 1/50 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 100, F1.8, 1/50 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 400, F2.4, 1/50 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 200, F2.4, 1/50 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 200, F2.4, 1/50 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 200, F2.4, 1/50 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F2.4, 1/3 sec
When shooting in the dark, manual settings come to the fore. The ability to choose ISO and shutter speed is key here. When you shoot in the dark and in low light conditions, the main, faster lens copes well with the task: accurate focus and white balance selection. If you switch to a wide-angle lens, problems arise: the shutter speed must be higher, because, as we noted above, at ISO values greater than 200 the image begins to become very noisy. Finding the exact balance of settings and having a tripod with an adapter for a smartphone can save the photo.
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 200, F1.8, 1/25 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F1.8, 1/33 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 50, F1.8, 1/131 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 400, F1.8, 1/50 sec
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 400, F1.8, 1/50 sec
The LG G6 has a two-color LED flash that illuminates the subject in the dark. Unfortunately, it doesn't work in the Lantern mode that we often see on other devices. The flash does its job perfectly, without overexposing the subject and working correctly with white balance. Note that this is true for both the main and wide-angle lenses.
As mentioned above, we used manual settings quite often. Firstly, historically (since the G4) LG has developed such a situation that the interface in this mode is very close to DSLR cameras. Secondly, images taken using automatic settings don't look as cool as photos taken with manual settings. This is, of course, subjective, but that’s how it seemed to us. Thirdly, in this mode it is possible to shoot files in RAW format and engage in their subsequent processing. However, it should be noted that images in DNG are still poorly supported by Adobe Lightroom: there are failures in determining the white balance and shades. The files are not very flexible and sometimes have trouble choosing the default color temperature. However, JPG files do not have such problems.
In manual settings, the histogram and level are visible, you can select white balance and manual focus, adjust ISO and shutter speed. At the top you can switch between regular and wide-angle lenses.
LG-H870DS SETTINGS: ISO 200, F2.4, 1/50 sec
However, nothing new: the usual color rendition is not only for LG, but for any modern flagships in general. The only exceptions are Samsung and Motorola.
New - in sound! By and large, the flagship LG received a 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 G6 everything is completely different! The smartphone itself sounds not bad - not super detailed, but the volume is already “adult”, the low frequencies are slightly compressed, the high frequencies are muffled, the “middle” sings in the ears. With the activation of the Quad DAC (LG is keeping quiet about which model is inside. There is a possibility that it is the same ESS ES9218, borrowed from the LG V20) the volume ceiling increases sharply, the detail increases so much that you begin to notice defects in MP3 files, the scene becomes wider, the lower parts “inflate”, but in moderation and do not hit the ears. A very good configuration for high-impedance monitor headphones.
But with vacuum “plugs”, your ears very soon begin to ring from excessive clear percussion and hissing sounds in vocals. It makes sense to get into the equalizer and make the sound a little softer. But when it comes to sound detail, it’s better to be “over-safe than under-safe”: if LG had a bad sound path with distortions and background noise, the “crankers” would definitely not have helped it out.
I would be careful 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 no longer very great, but in high-quality files it will be noticeable that Samsung falls short a little.
The speaker is of high quality, about the same as in the Galaxy S7 or iPhone 7. The volume level is slightly above average, the low frequencies are not felt, there is 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 bassier.
Iron
The performance of LG flagships is a three-year tragedy. In 2013 2014, LG was ahead of the curve with its Quad HD display in the G3, but only the Snapdragon 801 with so many points worked at its limit. Therefore, the smartphone did not shine with speed, but everyone understood that innovative technologies require sacrifices. In 2015, Qualcomm, to put it mildly, messed up with the overheating of its Snapdragon 810, so the LG G4 was forced to get a six-core “stump” with the index 808. It’s a sin to blame the Koreans for this - the MediaTek Helio X10 was even worse, and there were no other options.
Almost all current flagships shoot decently in all conditions, but it’s too early to talk about total parity. Yes, photos from a particular top-end gadget can be cool and delight the public, but when compared directly, it turns out that it is not as good as its competitors. So, in this article we will pit LG G6, Samsung Galaxy S8+ and Xiaomi Mi6. The main scenario for using the camera is shooting from the main module, so here we did not use additional functions like the G6 wide angle and the Mi6 portrait mode (such modes are cool and interesting, but they are secondary and insignificant), but concentrated on the automatic mode of the main sensor.
The LG G6 has a dual 13-megapixel module (13 megapixel, f/1.8, OIS, autofocus, 71 degrees + 13 megapixels, f/2.4, 125 degrees). The Samsung Galaxy S8+ uses a single module with a resolution of 12 megapixels (f/1.7, phase detection autofocus, OIS). Xiaomi Mi6 has a dual 12-megapixel module (12 megapixel, f/1.8, autofocus, OIS + 12 megapixel, f/2.6). Let's look at each trio of photographs separately (archive for convenience).
LG G6 – Samsung Galaxy S8+ – Xiaomi Mi6
These are the only pictures obtained with the intervention of the user, that is, me. The G6 and S8+ models activated HDR automatically, while the Mi6 had it enabled manually (it does not have an Auto HDR mode). Next, I touched my finger to the brightest area of the frame - the sunset - thereby lowering the exposure. The most “live” frame was produced by the S8+, but it was also the most distant from reality in terms of colors. But he got voluminous clouds, whereas in G6 they seemed to be appliquéd. Mi6 produced a juicy photo, but it was let down by noise and a mess of trees in the background (note the tops on the right).
Shooting a friend in a cafe is a very popular scenario. The outsider immediately catches your eye - this is Xiaomi Mi6. The photo from it seems to be covered with haze, the texture of the jacket is blurred, there is a lot of noise, and it is not possible to read the watch dial. The S8+ again has the most “lively” frame, with raised contrast and saturation. However, against the backdrop of the slightly soapy LG G6, which turned out to be more accurate in colors, the photo from Samsung, in general, is perceived better.
The most delicious slice of pizza has arrived on the Galaxy S8+. In such a scenario, the phone's tendency to make everything brighter and more colorful definitely works to its advantage. Closer to reality - LG G6. But I don’t want to eat food with Mi6.
The wide aperture and optical stabilizer don't help the Mi6 in low light conditions. The camera loses sharpness, produces noise and blurs the texture. The G6 and S8+ performed very closely, but the photo from the Samsung turned out to be sharper, with emphasized brickwork (by the way, the shutter speed is 1/10 s for the S8+ versus 1/24 s for the G6).
Bright red, contrasting objects are very difficult for even the most top-end camera phones. So only G6 coped with the red flower. What’s interesting is that he not only got the color right, but also drew the pistils and stamens better than anyone else.
These shots are very similar and worked well on all devices. Notice how the G6's grip angle is narrower than the opponents'.
The S8+ again turned on the “Photoshop wizard” and improved the picture according to Samsung standards - bright and beautiful, but the G6 and Mi6 show what the real lighting was like. Mi6's inattention to detail is clearly visible at the end of the house - the facing tiles have turned into vertical dotted lines. My vote is for the G6 in this trio.
Here the Mi6 again showed itself poorly - the blinds are cloudy, the bowls on the wall are devoid of irregularities... the photo just looks ugly. The G6 is again on the natural side, and the S8+ is on the embellished, but beneficial side (it also captured more light).
New Korean flagship with Full Vision display
At the end of February, during an exhibition in Barcelona, LG Electronics presented its new top-end smartphone LG G6 with a new Full Vision display format with an aspect ratio of 18:9, unusual for a smartphone. But in addition to the unusual screen, the new product has something to brag about: the G6 received the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 hardware platform, uses heat-pipe heat dissipation technology, and has IP68 protection from dust and moisture. In addition, the LG G6 supports Dolby Vision and HDR 10 standards, and also received a new user interface UX 6.0 and an advanced audio system based on a 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC. At the same time, the device lost the controversial modular design of the LG G5.
Key Features of LG G6 (Model LG-H870DS)
- SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, 4 Kryo cores @2.0/2.34 GHz
- GPU Adreno 530 @652 MHz
- Operating system Android 7.0 Nougat, UX 6.0
- Touch display IPS 5.7″, 2880×1440, 564 ppi
- Random access memory (RAM) 4 GB, internal memory 32/64 GB
- Nano-SIM support (2 pcs.)
- MicroSD support up to 2 TB
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
- WCDMA/HSPA+ networks (900/2100 MHz)
- LTE FDD networks (B3/7/20); TDD (B38/40)
- Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 and 5 GHz)
- Bluetooth 4.2 A2DP, LE, apt-X
- GPS, A-GPS, Glonass, BDS
- USB Type-C, USB OTG
- Main camera 13 MP (f/1.8) + 13 MP (f/2.4), autofocus, 4K video
- Front camera 5 MP, f/2.2, fixed. focus
- 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC
- Proximity sensor, lighting sensor, magnetic field sensor, fingerprint sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, pressure sensor, step detector
- Battery 3300 mAh, Quick Charge 3.0
- Dimensions 149×72×7.9 mm
- Weight 163 g
Appearance and ease of use
The body of the LG G6 is made of metal and glass, there is no plastic here. A massive metal almost flat frame connects two glass panels - front and back. Moreover, the display glass here is Gorilla Glass 3, and Gorilla Glass 5 is used as a coating for the back cover.
The front panel of the smartphone is absolutely flat, without sloping edges, but the back has small bevels on the sides, making it easy to lift the smartphone from flat surfaces. There is a colored substrate under the glass; in the case of the silver version of the case, its texture and color resembles real metal, so from a distance the back of such a smartphone looks as if it is not made of glass, but of polished shiny metal.
In general, the LG G6 body looks quite unusual and attractive, and due to the unusual combination of display sides (not 16:9, but 18:9), it turned out to be more elongated in height. At the same time, the thin frame on the sides made it possible to make the body so narrow that it is quite comfortable to hold in the hand even with such a large screen diagonal (5.7 inches). True, the device is quite slippery due to the matte metal sides. The back cover will not peel off so quickly; the Gorilla Glass 5 coating is generally resistant to fingerprints.
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The cover of the removable slide on which the cards are placed has a rubberized gasket, since the smartphone meets the IP68 protection category. The case is fully protected from dust and can be submerged in water to a depth of 1.5 m for 30 minutes. The developers claim that the LG G6 is designed to withstand harsh operating conditions and that the device has even received a MIL-STD-810G (Military Standard) certification.
The connector itself is hybrid, that is, you can install either two Nano-SIM cards, or one SIM card and one microSD memory card. The sled is made of flexible plastic, which is quite unusual since they are usually made of metal. At the same time, it is convenient: the cards are secured in the slots and held on the slide without the need to hold them with your fingers during installation. The device itself reports the need to tightly close the connector cover, and it reboots the system after installing the SIM cards.
It is curious that the card slot is installed on the right, and the volume buttons are moved to the left side. The keys are metal, quite large, quite comfortable to use, and easy to feel blindly.
The power key, as usual for LG, is located on the back side. It is combined with the fingerprint sensor platform. It was a rather dubious step on the part of the developers to place such a functional element flush with the surface; the button is almost impossible to find by touch.
Here on the rear panel there is a dual camera with two 13-megapixel modules, and a bright flash of two LEDs is embedded between the lenses. None of the elements protrude beyond the surface; all of them are flush with the lid and covered with glass. It is noteworthy that the camera lenses are covered with Gorilla Glass 3, and the rest of the glass on the back surface is Gorilla Glass 5.
The entire front panel is covered with Gorilla Glass 3. The glass is absolutely flat and has no sloping edges or sides. Despite the very thin frame around the screen, the developers did not forget to install a full set of elements above the screen, including the LED event indicator. There are no touch buttons under the screen; all the buttons are on the screen.
The bottom end contains a USB Type-C connector, a single grille covering the main speaker, and a small hole for a conversational microphone.
The top end is given over to a 3.5 mm headphone output jack. Here you can also find the hole for the second, auxiliary microphone for the noise reduction system.
The LG G6 comes in three colors: gray (Icy Platinum), black (Cosmic Black) and white (Mystic White). In each of the options, the front panel under the glass is painted in the same color as the body.
Screen
The LG G6 features an IPS display with flat Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection without sloping edges. The physical dimensions of the screen are 65x130 mm with a diagonal of 5.7 inches, aspect ratio 18:9 (Full Vision display). The screen resolution is 2880x1440, the pixel density is about 564 ppi.
Not only the display itself has unusual proportions, but also the frame around it: on the sides its width is 3 mm, at the bottom - 10 mm, and at the top - only 8 mm. That is, the margins at the top and bottom compared to conventional smartphones can be called record small. Coupled with the rounded corners of the screen, it all looks unusual and quite fresh.
You can manually adjust the display brightness or set automatic settings based on the ambient light sensor. The AnTuTu test diagnoses support for 10 simultaneous multi-touch touches. There is a vision protection mode (preventing eye fatigue). It is possible to activate the display by double tapping. There is an Always-on mode, in which the switched-off screen contains information about the current time and date, as well as about missed events in a monochrome display.
The developers also claim that the LG G6 is the world's first smartphone to support Dolby Vision technology. However, it supports not only the Dolby Vision standard, but also HDR 10. Both of these standards allow you to work with images that have an extended dynamic range (High Dynamic Range, HDR).
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A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the sample under study.
The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is scratch-resistant. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are better than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) screen (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the switched off screens (on the left - Nexus 7, on the right - LG G6, then they can be distinguished by size):
The screen of the LG G6 is noticeably darker (brightness according to photographs is 100 versus 114 for the Nexus 7). The ghosting of reflected objects in the LG G6 screen is very weak, this indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen (more specifically, between the outer glass and the surface of the LCD matrix) (OGS - One Glass Solution type screen). Due to the smaller number of boundaries (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of intense external illumination, but their repair in the case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be replaced. The outer surface of the screen has a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (effective, even slightly better than that of the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much more easily and appear at a lower speed than with regular glass.
With manual brightness control and when the white field was displayed in full screen, the maximum brightness value was 510 cd/m², the minimum was 3.9 cd/m². The maximum brightness is very high, which means, given the excellent anti-glare properties of the screen, readability even on a sunny day outdoors should be at a good level. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. There is automatic brightness adjustment based on the light sensor (it is located to the left of the front speaker slot). In automatic mode, as external lighting conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. The operation of this function depends on the position of the brightness adjustment slider, with which the user can try to set the desired brightness level in the current conditions. If you do not interfere, then in complete darkness the automatic brightness adjustment function reduces the brightness to 8.5 cd/m² (maybe a little dark), in an office illuminated by artificial light (about 550 lux) it sets it to 210 cd/m² (normal), in very in a bright environment (corresponding to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or slightly more) increases to 610 cd/m² (which is even higher than with manual adjustment). For conditions of complete darkness, we adjusted the brightness to a comfortable level, and obtained the following values for the three lighting conditions indicated above: 17, 250 and 610 cd/m². It turns out that the auto-brightness function works adequately and to some extent allows the user to customize their work to individual requirements. Only at the lowest brightness level does significant backlight modulation appear, but its frequency is high, approximately 2.3 kHz, so there is no visible screen flickering under any conditions.
This smartphone uses an IPS matrix. The microphotographs (if you look closely) show a typical IPS subpixel structure:
For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.
The screen has good viewing angles without significant color shift even with large viewing deviations from perpendicular to the screen and without inverting shades. For comparison, here are photographs in which the same images are displayed on the LG G6 and Nexus 7 screens, while the screen brightness is initially set to approximately 200 cd/m², and the color balance on the camera is forcibly switched to 6500 K.
There is a white field perpendicular to the screens:
We note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field (although it did not cover the entire screen). And a test picture:
Saturation in the case of LG G6 is clearly overestimated. As additional tests have shown, this overestimation is achieved both due to wide coverage and due to a slight increase in color contrast. We also note that the red color has a slightly unnatural tint (visually this is noticeably better than in the photograph).
Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen:
It can be seen that the colors did not change much on both screens; the contrast on the LG G6 screen remained at a good level.
And a white field:
The brightness at an angle of the screens decreased (at least five times, based on the difference in shutter speed), but in the case of the LG G6 the brightness decreased less. When deviated diagonally, the black field is lightened weakly and acquires a slight bluish tint. The photographs below demonstrate this (the brightness of the white areas in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the screens is approximately the same for the screens!):
And from another angle:
When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field is excellent (in the photo below we further increased the backlight brightness of the LG G6):
The contrast (approximately in the center of the screen) is high - about 1390:1. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 18 ms (9 ms on + 9 ms off). The transition between halftones of gray 25% and 75% (based on the numerical value of the color) and back takes a total of 32 ms. The gamma curve, constructed using 32 points with equal intervals based on the numerical value of the shade of gray, did not reveal any blockage in either the highlights or the shadows. The exponent of the approximating power function is 2.38, which is slightly higher than the standard value of 2.2. In this case, the real gamma curve deviates slightly from the power-law dependence:
This smartphone has a non-switchable dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness in accordance with the nature of the displayed image. Therefore, we carried out a number of tests - determining contrast and response time, comparing black illumination at angles - when displaying special templates with a constant average brightness, and not monochromatic fields in the entire screen. Let us show the dependence of brightness (vertical axis) on time when switching from a black field to a white field in half of the screen alternately, while the average brightness does not change and dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness does not work (graph 50%/50% ). And the same dependence, but with alternate display of fields in full screen (graph 100% ), while the average brightness is already changing and dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness does its job:
In general, such non-switchable brightness correction does nothing but harm, since constantly changing the screen brightness can at least cause some discomfort, reduce the visibility of gradations in shadows in the case of dark images, and impair screen readability in bright light.
The color gamut is noticeably wider than sRGB:
Let's look at the spectra:
We've seen these since Sony Xperia Z2. The manufacturer presents the expansion of the color gamut as an undeniable advantage, but this is a marketing ploy designed for the average person who believes that bigger is always better. In fact, it’s not better, since as a result, the colors of images - drawings, photographs and films - oriented to the sRGB space (and the vast majority of them) have an unnatural saturation. This is especially noticeable on recognizable shades, such as skin tones. The result is shown in the photo above. The situation could be corrected by the ability to select a mode with sRGB coverage or support for color profiles, but this device has neither one nor the other.
The balance of shades on the gray scale is average, since the color temperature is noticeably higher than 6500 K, but at least the deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) is less than 10, which is considered an acceptable indicator for a consumer device. At the same time, the color temperature changes little from shade to shade - this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of color balance. (The darkest areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since color balance there is not very important, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)
To summarize: the screen has a very high maximum brightness and has excellent anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors without any problems, even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable level. The automatic brightness adjustment function works adequately and allows the user to adjust its operation, while in very bright light the screen brightness increases to a very high value, which ensures good readability even in such conditions. The advantages of the screen include the presence of an effective oleophobic coating, high contrast, the absence of an air gap in the layers of the screen and flicker, as well as high black stability to deviation of the gaze from perpendicular to the screen plane and excellent uniformity of the black field. Among the significant shortcomings we consider the average color rendering quality, as well as the non-switchable dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness. Nevertheless, taking into account the importance of characteristics for this particular class of devices, the quality of the screen can be considered very high.
Camera
The front 5-megapixel camera has a lens with a viewing angle of 100°, f/2.2 aperture, fixed focus and without its own flash. As a front flash, traditionally for LG smartphones, a bright fill-in illumination of the screen around the virtual viewfinder window is used. There is a portrait decoration mode, it is possible to control shooting using voice commands and gestures, and automatic face recognition. There is a stabilization function, you can add a signature to photos, make a mirror image, and add geotags.
The front camera takes good selfie-level photos: there are no complaints about detail, sharpness across the entire field of the frame, or color rendition. The dynamic range is a little lacking even in auto-HDR mode; in harsh backlighting, details can be lost in overexposed areas, but for a selfie camera this is forgivable. In the brightest lighting, the automation sets the light sensitivity to a minimum value of ISO 50. The focal length of the lens is 1.6 mm, the maximum photo resolution is 5 megapixels.
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The main camera uses, according to the official description, two modules with 13-megapixel matrices. One of them is a 13-megapixel standard camera with OIS 2.0 optical stabilizer (f/1.8, 71°), and the other is also 13-megapixel, but wide-angle (f/2.4, 125°). True, in the case of the test sample sent to us, all three modules, including the front one, had the same fixed aperture of f/2.0. There is also fast phase detection autofocus, an optical stabilization system and a not very bright flash of two LEDs. It is curious that in the case of a wide-angle lens, the maximum image resolution is only 8 megapixels, and not 13 megapixels, as when shooting with a regular module. Here are examples of photographs taken from one position with a regular lens and then with a wide-angle lens:
The LG G6's dual camera also allows you to take impressive 360° panoramic photos. The size of such a photo is 92 megapixels, weight - 32 MB.
Here, too, the developers have found use for a more elongated display with an unusual aspect ratio. The LG G6 has added a special “square camera” mode, when activated, the display is divided into two parts. In one of the parts you can view already taken pictures, and in the second, the viewfinder is displayed at this time to search for a new subject. Or you can put together collages of two (or even four) photographs.
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As usual, the settings have automatic and professional shooting modes, both for photo and video shooting. If you turn on the professional mode, sliders will appear with variable values for shutter speed, ISO (up to 3200), metering method, focusing options, white balance and exposure compensation scale. Using the Camera2 API, you can transfer camera control to third-party applications, and it is also possible to save pictures in RAW.
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The camera can shoot video in 4K resolution (3840x2160), as well as at 60 fps, but the latter is only in Full HD (1920x1080). There is also a shooting mode of 720p at 120 fps. There is an optical stabilization function. In any resolution, the camera copes well with video shooting: sharpness, color rendition and detail are normal, there is also enough brightness, the video is smooth thanks to optical stabilization, you can even shoot handheld on the go. There are practically no complaints about sound recording: the sound is clear, loud, and the noise reduction system adequately copes with wind noise.
- Video No. 1 (87 MB, 3840×2160@30 fps, H.264, AAC)
- Video No. 2 (43 MB, 3840×2160@30 fps, H.264, AAC)
- Video No. 3 (37 MB, 1920×1080@60 fps, H.264, AAC)
- Video No. 4 (88 MB, 1280×720@120 fps, H.264, AAC)
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Good sharpness across the field and plans. |
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In wide-angle mode, detail drops noticeably, but this is quite natural, especially at lower resolutions. |
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Good sharpness across the field and plans. |
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The camera does excellent macro photography. |
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Another example of good macro. |
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The text is well done. |
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The car number is clearly visible. |
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Even in such compositions, the camera somehow manages to work out the long shot. |
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The car numbers are barely visible. Sharpness drops a little in the corners. |
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Sharpness drops noticeably towards the edges of the frame. |
The camera turned out to be good and even flagship. You can notice areas of slight blur at the edges of the frame, but they occur quite rarely. In ultra-wide-angle mode, sharpness drops a little, but this is a completely natural price to pay for such a focal length. Detailing in distant plans is not bad, and in medium ones it is even very good. From time to time you can notice some artifacts of the program, but it is likely that they will be corrected. As a result, the camera copes well with many scenarios - both documentary and fiction, and the ultra-wide angle, which was implemented quite well, looks like a rather interesting feature.
Telephone and communications
The communication capabilities of the LG G6 include support for advanced LTE Advanced technology, all three LTE FDD frequency bands of interest to us are supported (Band 3, 7, 20), and there is also support for two TDD LTE bands (Band 38 and 40). In the city limits of the Moscow region, the device behaves confidently, the quality of signal reception does not cause any complaints. It supports two Wi-Fi bands (2.4 and 5 GHz), has Bluetooth 4.2, and you can organize a wireless access point via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels. The device has an NFC module; it supports working with electronic travel cards. The USB Type-C connector supports connecting external devices in USB OTG mode. The data transfer speed between a computer and a smartphone using a cable via USB 3.1 Type-C ports is about 24 MB/s.
The navigation module works with GPS (with A-GPS), with the domestic Glonass and the Chinese Beidou. During a cold start, the first satellites are detected within the first seconds, and the positioning clarity is satisfactory. There is a magnetic compass.
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In conversational dynamics, the voice of a familiar interlocutor is clearly recognizable, there is no extraneous noise, the sound is natural, clear, and there is enough volume reserve. There are separately switchable noise reduction and speech intelligibility systems. VoLTE (voice over LTE) is supported, but both phones must be connected to LTE networks to ensure high-quality calls. There is a voice recorder with changeable settings and adjustable microphone sensitivity, and there is also an FM radio with the ability to record broadcasts. The vibration alert is above average in power; its intensity can be changed according to three parameters.
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LG G6 supports active standby of both SIM cards in 3G/4G simultaneously. That is, the second card can be actively waiting on the network not only in 2G, but also in 3G, even if a different slot is assigned for data transmission in 3G/4G.
The choice between two SIM cards for making calls, sending SMS, etc. is traditionally carried out for LG devices using a separate button for quickly switching the priority card, located in a row of virtual control buttons. The smartphone supports two SIM cards using the Dual SIM Dual Standby standard.
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Software and multimedia
As a software platform, the LG G6 uses Android OS version 7.0 Nougat with its own proprietary shell UX 6.0 with the ability to update over the air.
First of all, it should be noted that the enlarged Full Vision display with an aspect ratio of 18:9 (2:1) and Quad HD Plus resolution provides more space for any information, text or graphic, and the developers decided to make full use of this. In addition to the specific “square mode” of the camera, they added the ability to change the display scale on the screen of literally any of the applications, including third-party ones downloaded from the Google Play store.
By default, the interface of applications and videos in the player is displayed with black stripes at the ends, but by scaling the image can be stretched to the very edges of the screen, and the black stripes and the strip with virtual buttons will disappear. You can also use multi-window mode, in which some applications (not all) can be displayed in square halves on the screen in two windows simultaneously. This was possible before, it’s just that now more information fits into each of the two windows.
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In the new version of the proprietary shell, even more attention is paid to customizing the appearance and organizing the display of various menus. You can customize anything to your taste, from full-fledged design themes to specific icon shapes, the size of the grid of application icons, not to mention the sorting and search methods. Here we will also mention the possibility of reducing the size of the working area of the virtual keyboard for ease of control with the fingers of one hand (the height of the keyboard can also be adjusted) and the use of proprietary QSlide features with detached windows, which can be placed anywhere on the screen, change their size and transparency, but in no more than two pieces at a time.
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You can change the number of virtual buttons on the panel and even change the layout of the virtual keyboard for typing. It is also possible to use mechanical hardware volume keys for advanced functions. The keyboard supports Swype-style input by default. A useful function has appeared for adjusting the size of all elements on the screen, and not just the font, which can be very useful with a large screen size. And yet, most of the above was transferred here from previous versions of the proprietary interface; to the owner of previous LG mobile devices, all this will seem quite familiar and familiar.
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There are few additional programs: not counting social network clients, these are utilities for diagnostics, optimization, regulation, file organization, search and communication with other devices. A proprietary program for monitoring your own health, LG Health, is in place.
As for the voice assistant, the company decided not to create its own solution like Samsung's Bixby, but noted that "LG has worked closely with Google to make Google Assistant work great without the need for any pre-configuration."
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To listen to music, you use your own player with a familiar interface and familiar settings. You can use preset equalizer values, and you can also play with speed and tone, distorting familiar melodies beyond recognition. The LG G6 sounds excellent: high quality playback is ensured by the Hi-Fi Quad digital-to-analog converter, which makes the sound crisp and clear, bringing it as close as possible to the original. The standard player supports the FLAC format. You can also note the presence of support for aptX HD - using this protocol you can transfer music and other audio files in high quality.
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Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 is the most powerful platform; it is still the flagship of the manufacturer’s entire family of mobile SoCs. This platform delivers the highest numbers in benchmarks and confidently handles any task in real-world scenarios. Thanks to a powerful video accelerator, it performs well in the most demanding games. All the games we tested, including Dead Trigger 2, Modern Combat 5, Real Racing 3, Mortal Kombat X and GTA San Andreas, run without the slightest delay at maximum settings, not to mention less demanding projects like World of Tanks Blitz. The LG G6 is one of the most powerful smartphones available today and has plenty of performance headroom for future upgrades.
Testing in comprehensive tests AnTuTu and GeekBench:
For convenience, we have compiled all the results we obtained when testing the smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks into tables. The table usually adds several other devices from different segments, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry figures). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison it is impossible to present the results from different versions of benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” - due to the fact that they once passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions of test programs.
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Testing the graphics subsystem in gaming tests 3DMark, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:
When testing in 3DMark, the most powerful smartphones now have the ability to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (which can cause the speed to rise above 60 fps).
| LG G6 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 821) |
Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe (Qualcomm Snapdragon 820) |
Huawei Mate 9 (HiSilicon Kirin 960) |
Meizu Pro 6 Plus (Samsung Exynos 8890 Octa) |
Meizu MX6 (MediaTek Helio X20 (MT6797)) |
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| 3DMark Ice Storm Sling Shot ES 3.1 (more is better) |
2409 | 2676 | 2033 | 1869 | 969 |
| GFXBenchmark Manhattan ES 3.1 (Onscreen, fps) | 12 | 31 | 22 | 13 | 10 |
| GFXBenchmark Manhattan ES 3.1 (1080p Offscreen, fps) | 24 | 32 | 20 | 24 | 10 |
| GFXBenchmark T-Rex (Onscreen, fps) | 38 | 59 | 59 | 52 | 34 |
| GFXBenchmark T-Rex (1080p Offscreen, fps) | 61 | 92 | 64 | 71 | — |
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Browser cross-platform tests:
As for benchmarks for assessing the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowance for the fact that their results significantly depend on the browser in which they are launched, so the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this is possible during testing not always. For Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.
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AndroBench memory speed test results:
Thermal photographs
Below is a thermal image of the rear surface taken after 10 minutes of running Epic Citadel in Guided Tour mode:
It can be seen that the heating is more localized in the upper part of the device, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat chamber, the maximum heating was 38 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), this is average heating.
Playing video
To test the omnivorous nature of video playback (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Internet. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern options using processor cores alone. Also, you shouldn’t expect a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a table.
According to the testing results, the test subject, to our delight, was equipped with all the necessary decoders that are needed to fully play most of the most common multimedia formats on the network, both audio (AC3, AAC) and video (H.264, H.265). To successfully play them, you don’t even have to resort to using a third-party player - for example, MX Player. And there will be no need to manually install additional custom codecs, everything works by default.
Further testing of video playback was performed Alexey Kudryavtsev.
The LG G6 does not support SlimPort (or Mobility DisplayPort) adapters, which is indicated by a message when you connect such an adapter. Using a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “Method for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)”), we checked how video is displayed on the smartphone screen. Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped determine the nature of the output of frames of video files with various parameters: the resolution varied: 1280 by 720 (720p), 1920 by 1080 (1080p) and 3840 by 2160 (4K) pixels and frame rates of 24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps. In this test, we used the MX Player video player in Hardware mode. The results of this test are summarized in the table:
| File | Uniformity | Passes |
| 4K/60p (H.265) | Fine | No |
| 4K/50p (H.265) | Fine | No |
| 4K/30p (H.265) | Fine | No |
| 4K/25p (H.265) | Red marks indicate possible problems with playback of the corresponding files.