Review: LQ G7 ThinQ – Simply practical

The LG G7 ThinQ is a beefy, functional and feature heavy smartphone that promises to handle anything you throw at it. You’ll note that it’s no flagship, but definitely still sits in the high-tier of the smartphone market, retailing for $1,099.

The good

• Great camera with built-in wide lens and Google lens.
• Incredibly loud and high-quality audio with quad dac and boombox speaker.
• Well priced for the hardware you get.

The bad

• A lot of applications don’t match screen size.
• Top-notch isn’t properly utilized.

The verdict

This phone is hardware heavy and while it might not be the belle of the ball, it sure is very efficient. At $1,099 it’s the type of phone for the no-nonsense user that just wants something practical. The LG G7 ThinQ comes highly recommended.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE & DISPLAY

I don’t need to say it for a 4th time but I will, the G7 ThinQ isn’t visually amazing. It’s no OPPO Find X, it’s no Huawei Nova 3i, but it sure does blow them out of the water from a technical standpoint. The all-glass look that is increasingly common in phones these days means that the phone is constantly covered in fingerprints and smudges, but otherwise the G7 pushes a relatively plain aesthetic.

With a screen size of 6.1” and boasting LG’s ‘Super Bright Display’, this phone has a really nice display. Physically it’s very sharp, crisp and as they claim – bright. However the G7 does have a top-notch that I don’t believe they’ve utilized well at all. For the most part it feels blocky and almost outdated in 2018. Linked to this is the fact some applications can’t seem to utilize screen space effectively but more on this later.

CAMERA

The G7 ThinQ has an incredibly functional camera. I typically use words like “beautiful”, “crisp” or “stunning” when describing really nice smartphone cameras but none of those properly encapsulated the G7… it’s simply practical.

Both the front and back cameras are 16MP, so you’re getting a nice solid shot. With a built-in wide angle lens and in-app Google lens, the G7 is set.  Pictured below is how effective you’ll find that wide angle;

And for those that aren’t in the loop on Google lens, it’s an app developed by Google that uses artificial intelligence to identify ‘things’ through your camera lens. What’s a thing? Point the camera at a restaurant or shop front and it’ll bring up the Google page on said store. Point the camera at a book and you can copy the text straight from the camera app. The app will even go so far as to identify furniture, clothing, animals and plants. This brilliant piece of software is built-in to the camera app on the G7.

INSANE(LY LOUD) AUDIO

The G7 is sporting some real big audio. It’s rocking a ‘boombox’ speaker which essentially resonates the sound inside the phone to phenomenally amplify it. It’s loud. I’m using short sentences to emphasize, it’s loud.

Beyond the boombox speaker, the aux port on the G7 is also Quad DAC! Despite working with audio for the last four years I had no idea what Quad DAC was, but let me tell you it’s cool. DAC stands for digital-to-analog converter, you’ll find one if every device that makes noise and without it you wouldn’t have any audio. The Quad DAC is special as it allows for a significantly higher quality of audio – the type that audiophiles can really get behind.

Naturally this requires a high-quality, compatible set of earphones/headphones but if you’re buying this phone for the sound quality that’s the least of your concerns.

GOOGLE ASSIST BUTTON

A neat little feature on the G7 is the Google Assist button located beneath the volume controls. While nothing groundbreaking, it is a nice little feature for those of us that regularly use Google assistant and are well integrated in the Google sphere.

MISC

One (relatively) small thing to note is that the notification management on this phone is sub-par. On the surface it seems as though you have a lot of customization but it proved less than effective. A few other quick features to note about the G7 ThinQ include;

• Wireless charging capability.
• A 3000mAh battery.
• 6GB Snapdragon RAM.
• 128GB internal memory.

You can pick up this wonderfully functional phone for $1,099 online or in-store at JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman.