LG G7 - CNET Editors react

LG's G7 Phone Review: A Strong Start for the Company

One of the standout features of the LG G7 is its design, which is described as "really nice". The phone's aesthetic is sleek and modern, with a 5.8-inch OLED display that is both vibrant and energy-efficient. The device also features a durable glass back and a metal frame, making it resistant to scratches and drops. Additionally, the phone's IP68 rating means that it can withstand being submerged in water for short periods of time.

A notable feature of the G7 is its removal of the headphone jack, which was a common complaint among many users. While some phones have abandoned this feature altogether, LG has decided to retain it on the G7, which is a welcome change for those who still use headphones regularly. The phone also features wireless charging, which is becoming increasingly common in modern smartphones.

Another notable feature of the G7 is its button, which launches Google Assistant when double-tapped. This feature is similar to that found on Samsung's phones, but LG has worked closely with Google to make it faster and more intuitive. The button can be customized to perform a variety of tasks, including taking a photo with a wide-angle lens or launching Google Lens for image search. However, users are limited in their ability to reprogram the button to open a specific app.

One trend that LG has followed is the adoption of notches on Android phones, starting with the Huawei P20 and Essential Phone. On the G7, this feature is optional, allowing users to choose whether they want the notch or not. The phone's design is more flexible than its competitors, offering both a standard display configuration and a "knotch" version that removes the bottom bezel.

As for pricing and availability, LG has confirmed that the G7 will be priced around $700-$800 in the US, depending on the carrier and whether it is unlocked or locked to a specific provider. The phone's release date is also expected to be about a month after its official launch, which is typical for LG's rollout strategy.

For LG, the G7 is an important phone that marks a shift towards more strategic planning. Earlier this year, the company announced that it would no longer release phones alongside its competitors in the same timeframe, and instead take a more deliberate approach to innovation. The G7's design and features are both a result of this new strategy and a sign of the company's commitment to quality and innovation.

Overall, the LG G7 is a strong start for the company, offering a compelling package of features and design that is sure to appeal to fans of modern smartphones.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right LG has just officially launched the LG G 7 think here we have it here in two colors blue and raspberry rose okay so Glyn tell us about this bonus it's going to wipe out the iPhone 10 is this going to take down the galaxy offline plus what can we expect well the important thing to remember is that the g7 is not part of LG's super premium line that goes into its B cereus line this is a g7 it's still a high-end phone but it's not necessarily going to be competing with the iPhone 10 or the Galaxy Note series it's actually more in line with the galaxy s 9 and the iPhone 8 and 8 plus right but there's still some pretty robust features on here right so starting with the camera for example right it actually has two 16 megapixel cameras on the back and LG loaded it with AI smarts so what that means is that the camera can recognize more than a thousand images and depending on where you are like if you're taking a picture of a person of Quetta sunset that it will kind of automatically adjust the photo settings and optimize it so you can take a more perfect photo so it sounds a lot like what Huawei put in the tooth of ki 20 and the p20 Pro except one thing I like about what this phone does is instead of just heavy handedly applying those settings and you can either accept them or you don't this bonus gives you the option to choose from four different settings different color schemes and tones so you really have a lot more choice over the process right and another new feature and it goes with a front-facing camera and the rear cameras is that it's easier to take portrait photos and that's the kind of ones with a bouquet like photos with a blurred background it's really trending right now and on the g6 it wasn't so straightforward to take pictures like that on the g7 you just tap a setting and then it will take those kind of photos you can adjust the blurriness to now tell us more about just the phone design I'm holding in my hand it feels pretty good it feels like I can use this one it's narrow it's tall but else and we got going on it's definitely solidly designed on the back you can see it's a little bit of a fingerprint magnet but taking a fingerprints there's also the fingerprint reader so that's still here but this time around it's not a power button like how it was in previous G phones now the power buttons move to the side well I am happy to see one thing here at the bottom it is the headphone jack kind of disappearing a lot of phones don't have it but I'm glad to see that LG retained it and what's also nice is that it's still waterproof it's rated ip68 so you could still dunk it underwater and it will survive and you don't have to go run out and get a new phone house wireless charging as well which is something that you don't always see it's starting to come out and more phones the iPhones have them as the Samsung phones have them and LG has it too so it's really closing that gap that used to exists in some of the features speaking of closing that gap with other phones there's also a button here that launches Google assistant and it's very similar to what Samsung has actually yeah that's right so Samsung has a big speed button on the side and LG put the button exactly in the same place underneath the volume rocker and there is a difference of course because this isn't using proprietary software LG worked with Google really hard on this you don't have to say ok Google the idea is that it's a faster way to launch search there are also a bunch of unique commands that LG put into this that works specifically with the g7 phone right and one of those commands for instances you could tell assistant to take a photo with a wide-angle lens on the g7 another one is that if you double tap on the button google lens will automatically launch so you can maybe do an image search through the camera so I think it is a really interesting thing this is something that LG wants to use to set apart this phone from the other ones in there I wonder if it's gonna start sort of like a side button revolution one thing I don't like about the Google button on this phone and some phones is that you can't reprogram them to open the app of your choice so let's say that you want to double tapping that button to do something else anything else you can't do that you're locked in however else you did tell us that they might reconsider in the future that'll be a good thing because actually that was one of the more annoying things on the pixel - in the pixel 2xl - when you squeeze it sides only assistant launches and you can't program it to do anything else right okay so there is something else that's kind of controversial as a trend and that is be not all right so my phone has no knotch in linz phone has a notch what is this mean so that means that LG is following that trend like Android phones like the Huawei p20 the essential phone and the upcoming one plus six also announced it adds a notch but unlike on the iPhone 10 it's optional so you can actually have it have with the knotch or you can have it blacked out on both sides and it will have your regular alerts bar right here yeah so when we set this up we were immediately given an option not or no not so there's really a lot of choice there and I think that's good so what do we know about pricing and availability well for sure LG said that it's going to be about the same price as the g6 so its initial launch in the US is there around seven hundred eight hundred dollars depending on what carrier you got an if it was unlocked and LG although there's no official pricing has said you could expect around that same yeah this it's not going to be a thousand dollar phone as for availability there's usually about a month between the time that the phone is launched and the time that it goes on sale and this is a phone we should expect it to sell in a lot of different stores right right everywhere that you kind of saw the g6 being sold and what carriers and what retailers you could expect the juice time gonna be sown there - all right so we've talked about the specs we've talked about the design which i think is really nice what does this phone mean for LG well it is an important phone for the company earlier this year LG announced that it was going to shake up its phone timetable so it isn't necessarily releasing phones alongside its competitors and it's not time at the same way so if samsung goes ahead and releases a phone in three months LG may not follow up and do the same exactly this one actually came later in this year than the g6 when it originally launched last year and that's because LG just took its time with it and it's tied actually to LG's line of thin qai devices so it's supposed to work holistically with LG smart home appliances like it smart TVs and smart fridges all right so this is a pretty strong start for LG's g7 thank you we'll come back to you as soon as we can with a full review in the meantime make sure you let us know what you like so far what you don't like in the comments belowall right LG has just officially launched the LG G 7 think here we have it here in two colors blue and raspberry rose okay so Glyn tell us about this bonus it's going to wipe out the iPhone 10 is this going to take down the galaxy offline plus what can we expect well the important thing to remember is that the g7 is not part of LG's super premium line that goes into its B cereus line this is a g7 it's still a high-end phone but it's not necessarily going to be competing with the iPhone 10 or the Galaxy Note series it's actually more in line with the galaxy s 9 and the iPhone 8 and 8 plus right but there's still some pretty robust features on here right so starting with the camera for example right it actually has two 16 megapixel cameras on the back and LG loaded it with AI smarts so what that means is that the camera can recognize more than a thousand images and depending on where you are like if you're taking a picture of a person of Quetta sunset that it will kind of automatically adjust the photo settings and optimize it so you can take a more perfect photo so it sounds a lot like what Huawei put in the tooth of ki 20 and the p20 Pro except one thing I like about what this phone does is instead of just heavy handedly applying those settings and you can either accept them or you don't this bonus gives you the option to choose from four different settings different color schemes and tones so you really have a lot more choice over the process right and another new feature and it goes with a front-facing camera and the rear cameras is that it's easier to take portrait photos and that's the kind of ones with a bouquet like photos with a blurred background it's really trending right now and on the g6 it wasn't so straightforward to take pictures like that on the g7 you just tap a setting and then it will take those kind of photos you can adjust the blurriness to now tell us more about just the phone design I'm holding in my hand it feels pretty good it feels like I can use this one it's narrow it's tall but else and we got going on it's definitely solidly designed on the back you can see it's a little bit of a fingerprint magnet but taking a fingerprints there's also the fingerprint reader so that's still here but this time around it's not a power button like how it was in previous G phones now the power buttons move to the side well I am happy to see one thing here at the bottom it is the headphone jack kind of disappearing a lot of phones don't have it but I'm glad to see that LG retained it and what's also nice is that it's still waterproof it's rated ip68 so you could still dunk it underwater and it will survive and you don't have to go run out and get a new phone house wireless charging as well which is something that you don't always see it's starting to come out and more phones the iPhones have them as the Samsung phones have them and LG has it too so it's really closing that gap that used to exists in some of the features speaking of closing that gap with other phones there's also a button here that launches Google assistant and it's very similar to what Samsung has actually yeah that's right so Samsung has a big speed button on the side and LG put the button exactly in the same place underneath the volume rocker and there is a difference of course because this isn't using proprietary software LG worked with Google really hard on this you don't have to say ok Google the idea is that it's a faster way to launch search there are also a bunch of unique commands that LG put into this that works specifically with the g7 phone right and one of those commands for instances you could tell assistant to take a photo with a wide-angle lens on the g7 another one is that if you double tap on the button google lens will automatically launch so you can maybe do an image search through the camera so I think it is a really interesting thing this is something that LG wants to use to set apart this phone from the other ones in there I wonder if it's gonna start sort of like a side button revolution one thing I don't like about the Google button on this phone and some phones is that you can't reprogram them to open the app of your choice so let's say that you want to double tapping that button to do something else anything else you can't do that you're locked in however else you did tell us that they might reconsider in the future that'll be a good thing because actually that was one of the more annoying things on the pixel - in the pixel 2xl - when you squeeze it sides only assistant launches and you can't program it to do anything else right okay so there is something else that's kind of controversial as a trend and that is be not all right so my phone has no knotch in linz phone has a notch what is this mean so that means that LG is following that trend like Android phones like the Huawei p20 the essential phone and the upcoming one plus six also announced it adds a notch but unlike on the iPhone 10 it's optional so you can actually have it have with the knotch or you can have it blacked out on both sides and it will have your regular alerts bar right here yeah so when we set this up we were immediately given an option not or no not so there's really a lot of choice there and I think that's good so what do we know about pricing and availability well for sure LG said that it's going to be about the same price as the g6 so its initial launch in the US is there around seven hundred eight hundred dollars depending on what carrier you got an if it was unlocked and LG although there's no official pricing has said you could expect around that same yeah this it's not going to be a thousand dollar phone as for availability there's usually about a month between the time that the phone is launched and the time that it goes on sale and this is a phone we should expect it to sell in a lot of different stores right right everywhere that you kind of saw the g6 being sold and what carriers and what retailers you could expect the juice time gonna be sown there - all right so we've talked about the specs we've talked about the design which i think is really nice what does this phone mean for LG well it is an important phone for the company earlier this year LG announced that it was going to shake up its phone timetable so it isn't necessarily releasing phones alongside its competitors and it's not time at the same way so if samsung goes ahead and releases a phone in three months LG may not follow up and do the same exactly this one actually came later in this year than the g6 when it originally launched last year and that's because LG just took its time with it and it's tied actually to LG's line of thin qai devices so it's supposed to work holistically with LG smart home appliances like it smart TVs and smart fridges all right so this is a pretty strong start for LG's g7 thank you we'll come back to you as soon as we can with a full review in the meantime make sure you let us know what you like so far what you don't like in the comments below\n"