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There are certain phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the latest iPhone, that get a lot of attention throughout their lifespan. However, most phones get a lot of excitement up front and then they slowly fade into the background. The LG G6 is one of those phones.
The G6 was hyped up a lot when it launched back in early April. Some even said it was better than the Galaxy S8 (that was me). We re-reviewed the G6 after one month and now we’re back to revisit the phone again. How has it aged since our original review in April? Do I still stand by my high score and praise? Let’s find out.
What I Like
There are a lot of things that I really like about the G6. Mostly everything I said in my One Month Review still holds true today. The 18:9 display and small bezels have become the new normal for me. Every time I pick up a phone like the HTC 10 or LG V20, I’m reminded of how much wasted space most phones have on the front.
The size of the phone is one of my favorite “features.” I have a few bigger devices at my disposal, including the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, but the G6 just feels better. One of the most basic things to consider about a phone is how it feels in your hand. It doesn’t matter if it has a million bells and whistles. If it’s not comfortable you won’t want to carry it every day.
I wasn’t super in love with the camera in my original review, but I warmed up to it more in my follow-up. The camera continues to impress me. When I went on a beautiful vacation out west I decided to use the G6 as my primary camera. My photos turned out great and the wide-angle camera came in handy quite a few times.
Performance is still pretty good considering it’s running the Snapdragon 821. There are a few instances of sluggishness (which I’ll get into below), but in general, it’s still snappy. I don’t feel like I’m using a slow phone and that’s not because I haven’t used anything better. The 821 is still perfectly capable, but it’s starting to show signs of old age.
The honest truth is there’s not much I don’t like about this phone. One of the biggest compliments I can give the G6 is that I’ve been using it as my daily driver since I unboxed it four months ago. I have phones like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the iPhone 7 on my desk, but the G6 is the phone I choose to use. It’s solid as a rock and hits all the right spots.
I should mention that my G6 has never once bootlooped or randomly rebooted. A lot of people talk about LG phones having those problems, but I’ve never experienced it firsthand.
What I Don’t Like
The camera is very good, as I mentioned above, but there’s one thing about it that I don’t like. Sometimes it can be very sluggish. I notice this when I want to get a quick photo of something or I accidentally open the camera. Sometimes the shutter button won’t register my tap right away. I’ll think I got the photo, but then later realize it was never taken. When I open the camera by accident it takes a while for the back button to take me out.
Lack of updates is something I just recently noticed. I booted up my HTC 10 for the first time in several months and was greeted with a bevy of updates. After it was all said and done, my HTC 10 is a couple of months ahead of my AT&T G6 for security updates. That’s unacceptable for a phone that’s nearly a year newer. There was news about a big update in June, but I haven’t seen it yet.
Battery life seems to be getting worse. In my One Month Review, I said the 15% warning would pop up around 11 PM on a normal day of use. Nowadays, I’m getting the warning around 9 PM. I have to plug in again to make it through the day. Battery life in phones usually gets worse over time, but it hasn’t even been six months yet.
Let’s talk about durability. Here’s a direct quote from my One Month Review:
LG is using Gorilla Glass 3 on the G6, while some phones have the newer Gorilla Glass 5. I’ve dropped the phone several times, without a case, where I thought for sure it was going to get cracked. But so far it has held up without a scratch.
Welp. That comment didn’t age well. I recently dropped the phone without a case and the glass finally cracked. The damage isn’t too bad. It’s mainly in the corner and the display still works perfectly fine, but my pristine phone is no more. I love this phone, but it’s going to be hard to continue using it with such a big blemish.
Conclusion
Four months ago I gave the G6 a 4.8/5 in my full review. Would I still give it such a high score today? The LG G6 is not a perfect phone (it never was). The more you use a device the more flaws you will find. If I had to give the G6 a new score, I would drop it down to a very respectable 4.5/5. The sluggish camera and bad battery life are my biggest issues today.
I still think the LG G6 is an underrated phone. The Galaxy S8, HTC U11, and OnePlus 5 have stolen a lot of the spotlight this year. LG phones have a bad habit of being easily forgotten. With new phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and LG’s own LG V30, the G6 is going to get even more buried.
The big question when revisiting a phone is whether or not people should still buy it. That’s a difficult question to answer. For the right price, the G6 is an excellent buy. You get a great display and a great camera. But with newer phones like the OnePlus 5 selling for sub $500, it’s hard to recommend the G6. The Snapdragon 821 was fine a few months ago, but now it’s really getting old.
The G6 is another good Android phone that just got lost in the sea of choices. Four months later it’s still trying to stay afloat.
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