LG G6 Review

Display

The display on the G6 has a lot more going on than your typical smartphone. First, let’s get the basics out of the way. The display is 5.7-inches with 2880 x 1440 resolution. It’s an LCD panel that gets really bright, but it’s not great in direct sunlight. The display has sort of a blue-ish tint to it, but you can make it warmer with the ComfortView feature.

This display is taller than your typical smartphone display. The G6 display has an 18:9 aspect ratio. Most displays are 16:9. You can see the difference when comparing screen resolution. The G6 has 2880 vertical pixels, whereas a 16:9 display would have 2560. The result is a bigger display without making the phone wider.

A common complaint with phones that have virtual nav buttons is the nav bar takes up screen real estate. They have a 16:9 display, but since the nav bar takes up some of that space, apps can’t use the full screen. The G6 is more like a phone with hardware buttons. You get a full 16:9 area above the nav bar. Altogether, it equals 18:9.

By default, apps are displayed in 16.7:9, but you can adjust that to 16:9 for misbehaving apps. Only full-screen apps can take advantage of the entire 18:9 display. I haven’t found any apps that don’t play nice with the aspect ratio. Sometimes information will be cut off on the sides if you force an app to be in 18:9, but the default setting works great.

I really like this display. The colors look great, viewing angles are excellent, and I’m sold on the 18:9 aspect ratio. I prefer the absolute black on AMOLED displays, but I can’t complain about LG’s LCD panels. They knocked it out of the park.

Camera

If there’s one area where the G6 tries to be a little different it’s the camera. Just like the G5 and LG V20, the G6 has dual cameras on the back. However, the G6 has an important improvement. On previous devices, the wide-angle camera had fewer megapixels than the regular camera. This time both cameras are 13MP. One has a 70-degree view, the other is 125-degrees.

The camera quality is right on par with other flagship phones, but it does lack the “wow” factor that you might find with the Pixel or the latest Samsung Galaxy. LG does a lot of processing on the photos. You’ll notice they lose considerable detail when you zoom in or crop. HDR Auto is enabled by default. It works pretty well, but it can be a bit aggressive sometimes.

See More: LG G6 Camera Sample Gallery

Wide-angle photos do look better than they did on previous models. There is still distortion around the edges, but that’s natural with a wide-angle lens. The front camera also has a wide-angle lens. It’s only 5MP, but having the wide-angle lens on the front is arguably more useful. Taking group selfies has never been easier.

One new feature of the camera is a “Square” mode. This feature takes advantage of the 18:9 aspect ratio by putting a square viewfinder on the top and a review area at the bottom. It’s kinda fun to take photos in this mode, but I never used it for more than messing around.

Video quality is very good. By default, the camera captures video in 18:9 aspect ratio to match the display. These videos look great on the phone, but you’ll see black bars on the top and bottom when viewing on a 16:9 device. To shoot in 4K, you have to switch to 16:9. I was especially impressed with the audio quality from the videos, as you can hear in the sample video.

All in all, the camera is good. It lacks some of the pizzazz of other smartphones, but most people will be perfectly happy with this camera.

Software

The best thing I can say about LG’s software is it’s not annoying. I mean that in the nicest way possible. It’s not the prettiest UI, but it can be easily improved and, most importantly, it doesn’t get in the way. The worst thing LG did is get rid of the app drawer in the default launcher, but that can be fixed. Basically, Android works like Android should. That seems obvious, but it’s not always the case. *cough* Huawei *cough* LeEco *cough*

The G6 comes with Android 7.0 (not 7.1) Nougat and most of the Nougat features you’ve come to expect. Quick Settings that can be customized, bundled notifications, multi-window, etc. There are a couple of small things that make me scratch my head. ComfortView, which makes the display easier on your eyes at night, can’t be set up to be automatically enabled at certain times. System UI Tuner has been removed for no apparent reason.

As I mentioned, LG’s UI can be easily improved. You can download themes from the Play Store (this Pixel theme is nice) and customize the navigation bar. Once you install a 3rd party launcher and keyboard, LG’s UI is pretty much gone.

One software feature to note is Google Assistant. The G6 is the first non-Pixel phone to launch with Google’s new virtual assistant. Just like the Pixel, Assistant is launched by long-pressing the home button. Every time you press the home button you’ll see the 4 colored dots spring to life. Check out our articles about Google Assistant to see what it can do.

Battery & Performance

Battery life on the G6 has been a mixed bag. It’s packing a 3300 mAh battery, which is an improvement over the V20 and G5. Battery life is pretty average compared to other devices in the same size range. I can make it about 15 hours with around 4 hours of screen-on time. Usually, Battery Saver kicks in at 15% right around the time I go to bed. If I have plans to stay out late I need to charge up a bit before going out.

Quick Charge 3.0 allows you to get some extra juice quickly. If you live in the U.S. you can also take advantage of wireless charging. The truth is battery life isn’t that impressive, but the sad truth is it’s not that impressive on most phones. This is the current state of battery life. Unless you get a phablet with a beefy battery, you’re going to be wishing for more.

Read More: LG G6 Battery Life (first 24 hours)

The LG G6 is powered by the Snapdragon 821 and 4GB of RAM. No, that is not the newest processor on the block. The Samsung Galaxy S8 has the Snapdragon 835. I’m here to tell you that those numbers don’t matter. The Pixel is powered by the same Snapdragon 821 and no one has ever called that phone “slow.” The G6 is a speedy device despite having a processor from last year. Technology, right?

This may sound like a Sprint commercial, but it’s 2017 and all processors are good now. Okay, maybe not all. We’ve been very impressed with the Snapdragon 675 in budget devices. If the Snapdragon 821 was good enough for the best phones just a couple of months ago, it’s still good enough today. Performance on the G6 has been very good. I haven’t noticed any considerable lag or jitteriness. I don’t expect it to deteriorate over time like some devices.

Conclusion

At first glance, this review may seem a little short, but that’s the story of the G6. It’s easy to add a million features to a phone and hope one sticks. It’s harder to show restraint. Sometimes a short story is better than a novel. LG pulled back a lot of gimmicky stuff and built a simple phone.

Instead of trying to do things that nobody wants, LG nailed the things that a smartphone in 2017 needs to have. Big display in a compact body, attractive design, premium build quality, good cameras, waterproofing, respectable battery life, and top notch performance. It even has a few useful extras, such as dual cameras and wireless charging.

What would I improve to make the phone even better? I’d like a slightly bigger battery and I would also prefer AMOLED over LCD, but that’s just a personal preference. Other than that, there’s really not much I would change. The G6 is a solid phone. In a world of fancy marketing names and over-hyped features that no one will use, the G6 takes a stand on being bland. And that’s fine by me. In short, yes, the G6 is fly like a G6. I know you were asking.