The LG G7: A Love-Hate Relationship with Innovation

As I stood at the media event, holding the newly announced LG G7, I couldn't help but think about my past experiences with LG's phones. The first Android phone I ever purchased was the G4, which I absolutely loved until it started boot looping. Even the refurb unit that replaced it also had issues with the G5, and while the G6 was a great phone, this new device was rumored to have been discontinued at the beginning of the year.

Reports had circulated that LG had axed the G7 from their lineup, but here we are in mid-2018, and it's finally available. This phone is going to be divisive, mainly due to one feature: the notch. I'd even call it a physical characteristic, as some people hate it, while others are tolerant of it or even like it. The fact remains that it's a notch, and aesthetically speaking, I much prefer devices that don't have notches.

There's a lot of phone companies out there that take advantage of the notch, requiring it due to the lack of bezels around the bottom and top of their screens. However, on this phone, the G7 has both a bottom bezel and a bit of a top bezel, making me wonder if the notch was truly necessary. I feel like LG might have added it just for aesthetics, trying to make it look good with a notch.

I understand why some Chinese phone manufacturers might do this, as they often don't have design teams that can come up with innovative ideas on their own. They kind of go with whatever they think is working out there, but not for LG. I believe they're strong with innovation and didn't need to resort to something like a notch. It bugs me why they decided to do it.

Fortunately, the good thing about this phone is that you can kind of hide the notch with their software. They have a feature in settings where you can turn the top of the screen black, essentially masking the notch. The blacks on the screen are really good and look super inky, and the colors are vibrant as well.

The screen itself is incredibly good, a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut with a thousand nits, which makes it look like an OLED panel. However, it's actually an LCD screen, so you don't have issues like OLED burn-in. I think it's one of the best LCD screens on the market, and I really like it.

The speaker is loud, really loud, according to LG's claims, 10 times louder than some competitors. They've designed it with a resonance chamber to amp up the bass levels, using their quad DAC for improved audio quality coming from the headphone jack. The phone also has an assistant button on the side, which launches the Google assistant.

I've said before that I love phones with wide-angle camera lenses as the secondary lens. It's just much preferred over a zoom, and the LG G7 follows this philosophy. The camera uses two lenses, one of them being a wide-angle lens, which I think is great for capturing more scenes at once. They also have an AI feature that analyzes the scene you're looking at and adjusts the camera settings to optimize the shot.

Now, while it's early stages of the software, and I haven't spent enough time with this camera to give detailed opinions on it, the idea behind the AI is pretty neat. The hardware on this phone is great, as expected from an LG flagship. They've got some unique features like a really good LCD screen and high-quality audio from the DAC.

However, one feature that I feel could have been done without is the notch. It doesn't add much to this phone in my opinion, but it's what it is. The G7 has a notch now.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey, how's it going, Dave 2D here. So the LG G7 was just announced and I was able to use this phone at a mediaevent so I thought i'd give some just kind of early impressions on this phoneBut before I get into that I want to talk about the whole phone line as a wholeI Have this love/hate relationship with LG's phones the very first Android phone I ever purchased was the G4 I absolutelyloved that phone until it started boot looping andEven the refurb unit that I got to replace it also boot looped the G5 didn't love very much the G6 was also a great phoneBut this G7 was rumored or even reported to have been discontinued at the beginning of the year there were likeReports of this thing just being straight-up axed from LG's lineup, but hereWe are in mid 2018 and it's finally here now. This phone is gonna. Be really divisive because of one main featureIt's the notch and I would even call it a featureIt's like a physical characteristic some people hate itSome people are tolerant of it and maybe a small percentage of people like it, but the fact remainsIt's a notch and aesthetically speaking I much prefer devices that don't have notchesThere's a lot of phone companies out there that actually take advantage of the notch like the iPhone 10 itRequires a notch because there's just no bezel around the bottom and the topBut on this phone the G7 does have a bottom bezel, and there's a bit of a top bezelSo I feel like the notch wasn't entirely necessary it almost feels like they put this in just for aesthetics like they somehow thought thatThis would look good with a notch,Which I personally don't find that it does.So here's the thing there's a lot of Chinese phone manufacturers out there that put a notch on their 2018 phonesJust so it could look like the iPhone 10And I kind of get it for them because they don't have like design teams really and they just kind of go with whatever theyThink is working out there, but not for LG. I don't think they needed to do it like LG's good with innovationThey're really strong with innovationWhy they like why are they doing this it bugs me that leads there, so yeah right off the bat?I don't like this notch, but the good thing is you can kind of hide it with their softwareSo they have this feature in settings where you can basically turn the whole top of the screen blackAnd it essentially masks the notch now in order for this to workThat black has to look really black and fortunately it does because the screen is incredibly goodIt's a hundred percent DCI-P3 color gamutA thousand nitsIt's a very nice imagethe blacks lookSuper inky and the colors are really vibrant as well to the point where I thought it was an OLED panelBut it is an LCD screen, so you don't have issues like OLED burn inIt's definitely a nicer looking screen than the LG G6 I'd say it's very similar in appearance to the S9 screenIt's really nice, and it's also a 1440p panel the speaker is loud like really loudThey claimed 10 times louder than some of the competitors, and I don't know where they're coming with that number, but it is loudIt's using some resonance chamber designs, so it's supposed to amp up the bass levels and because it's an LG flagshipThey're sticking their quad DAC in here so if you're an audiophile you're gonnaLove the headphone jack and that improved audio quality coming from that jackSo they also have an assistant button on the side, and this actually launches the Google assistantYou can't remap it, but you can turn it offIt's kind of like how Samsung has their Bixby buttonBut this launches a Google assistant. The camera uses two lenses again with one of them being a wide-angle lensAnd I've said this before in my previous videosBut I absolutely love phones with wide-angle camera lenses as the secondary lens they're just much prefer a wide-angleOver a zoomNow I haven't spent enough time with this camera to give detailed opinions on itbut it does have this AI feature where the camera tries to analyze the scene that you're looking at and then it will adjust theCamera settings to best optimize a shot. Now, It's very early stages of the softwareI wasn't able to test this camera thoroughlyBut the idea of it is pretty neat the other features in this phone like Snapdragon 845 IP68 waterproofingIt's all gonna be very2018 flagship feeling with your fingerprint sensor on the back and an iris scanner the batteries at 3000 milliamp hours is not particularly bigBut because the screen uses I think like 30% less energy than the previous version. I think that's pretty coolThe battery life should be goodBut just don't expect it to be amazing or anything like that so early impressions of this phone the hardware is greatIt is an LG flagship, but they're always like pretty good with hardware. It's got some unique featuresI've really liked the LCD screen on it. It's probably the best LCD screen on the marketIt's got the wide-angle lens and really good audio quality from the DACThese are features that are relatively unique to the LG flagships now the notch is something that I feel like they could have done withoutI don't feel like it adds a lot to this phoneBut it is what it is the G7 has a notch now the most important thing about this phoneIs this price tag and right now at the time of this video and at the media event they didn't reveal its final priceSo I can't really like give recommendations, but I will say this: the technology is good on this phoneThe hardware is good, and if it's priced well, I think it's a good option. Okay. Hope you guys enjoyed this video thumbs if you liked it,Subs if you loved it. See you guys next time\n"