LG has announced it’s latest flagship phone the LG G8 Thin-Q a successor to the G7 Thin-Q released last year. No physical design changes were made to the new device. In fact, LG maintains the notch that somewhat looks outdated on today’s flagships. And while other manufactures are adding the in-display fingerprint sensor, LG has stuck with the physical one located at the back similar to the previous G7 Thin-Q. The Google Assistant button was also left in it’s place on the side of the phone.
LG’s focus on the new LG G8 Thin-Q was more to do with new features, some of which are arguably gimmicky as we shall see. The G8 ThinQ has no front speaker for calls, instead, LG utilized the vibrating OLED technology it calls Crystal Sound OLED from their OLED TV’s which essentially use the upper part of the phone screen as a speaker through vibration. The screen can also use bone conduction to transfer sound to the user without necessarily having the phone placed exactly where the ear is but under it on the cheek bone.
The device also makes use of it’s infra-red sensors on the front to map vein pattern and blood flow to create a pattern unique to a single user. This means users can unlock the G8 ThinQ using their palm alone. LG calls this new feature HandID. The sensor on the front were also given a feature call AirMotion that allows a user control specific actions using hand gestures. Such actions may include taking screenshots, controlling volume, and pause or play video. There are also a few custom hand gestures that may be added for purposes of opening user specified applications.
The all implementation is more of a futuristic move if perfected but many hands on reviews show these hand motion gestures come off as a hit and miss which clearly indicates they’re more of a gimmick now and could possibly be improved upon or perhaps perfected in the future.
On the hand hand, the LG G8 ThinQ is by all means a high-end device. It’s expected to fall in the same price bracket as the best from major smartphone manufacturers.
It’s front display comes in at 6.1 inches large. It’s an AMOLED display with a 1440 by 3120 resolution expected to provide high contrasts and sharp colors. The display is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The selfie camera is an 8 mega-pixel f/1.7 sensor accompanied by a 3D depth sensor next to it. On the back the phone features a triple camera unit comprised of a 12 mega-pixel f/1.5 standard sensor with Optical Image Stabilization, a 16 mega-pixel f/1.9 ultrawide sensor and a 12 mega-pixel f/2.4 telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom. Some markets get the model with only two cameras at the back.
The device is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor every high-end flagship phone is carrying today backed by 6GB of RAM and 128GB of on-board storage. Storage expansion is also supported via micro-SD up to 512GB. It’s powered by Android 9.0 Pie as well and packs a 3500mAh battery.
The G8 supports Fast Charging with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0+ via USB Type-C port and also supports wireless charging too. The phone also retains the 3.5mm headphone jack. It is IP68 certified water and dust resistant too.
Many major Android smartphone manufacturers in 2019 have come up, announced and unveiled fresh designs for their new phones which clearly shows innovation and overall progress and have frankly caught the interest of many consumers. In a very competitive smartphone environment as this, it will be interesting to see if LG will win customers by features alone rather than proving they can do more than just having the same design of a phone as they did the year before.
