Review of the LG G8

There is a good phone under the LG G8 under my undulating hand palm. This is another stupid trick – this time a new way to unlock the smartphone – that diverts from the potential greatness of LG.

Its main function is the ability to read blood in the veins of your palm to unlock the phone, then trigger gestures to control music, take calls and trigger alarms, all without touching the screen.

The "Hand ID" on the LG G8 is designed to be a futuristic way to authenticate and control your phone. We do not know if it works as suggested by his idea of ​​Minority Report, or if it makes sense.

However, this should not distract your attention from LG's other flagship flagship phone technologies for 2019, such as the video portrait mode and vibrant Crystal Sound OLED for a hole-free display.

That's where the real innovation lies. The LG G8 has no hole in the speaker and its vibrations provide a wider audio source through the transparent screen. This is an innovative idea found in LG's high-end OLED TVs, and a technology that the Samsung Galaxy S10 without bezel does not have, but needs.

LG is also the first to use the video portrait mode by exploiting the Snapdragon 855 chipset. It takes what you like in portrait mode for photos and applies the same effect of background blur for a less annoying video. It really worked in our tests.

There is only one simple configuration for the LG G8: 128GB of internal storage with 6GB RAM, expandable with a microSD card slot. This represents 64 GB of storage on the LG G7. The 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC also makes it a good value if you're an audiophile.

The LG V40's triple-ended rear-view camera and the improved front-facing camera require more testing in our comprehensive LG G8 test. The same goes for the 3500 mAh battery and QuickCharge 3.0, which can last longer and charge faster than the S10 battery.

The LG G8 does not change phones. It does not bend, it does not have a sophisticated perforated camera to enlarge the display from top to bottom, or built-in fingerprint sensor on the screen. What he has are new audio and camera tricks, and a "Hand ID" feature that you should probably ignore.

LG G8 ThinQ price and release date

The price of the LG G8 has not been announced yet, but the LG G7 cost $ 749, £ 599 and $ 1,099 AU when it was launched a year ago in April. Not long has passed, but phones have become more expensive since and LG incorporates many new technologies into its handset. It will not be cheap.

It will be cheaper and later than the LG V50 announced at the same time, which looks like the LG V40 on 5G steroids. But we do not have an exact release date for these phones. LG likes to get started in South Korea first, so expect other countries to get it back in April.

Display and design

The LG G8 features a 6.1-inch OLED screen with a notch, matching the size and cut of the top of the G7, but not the display type. Last year, the phone had an LCD screen touting the Super Bright mode.

We found that the LG G8 was very bright in our first tests and offered better contrast, making the super bright LCD another alternative LG experience you did not need at the end. No big surprise.

What will probably remain is LG's OLED Crystal Sound technology. It eliminates the upper speaker in favor of sounding via the same micro-vibrations as LG's high-end OLED TVs.

His vibrations were not strong enough to distract us, but enough to produce a clear sound in a wider area. At the top you can hear the best interlocutor, but we can still distinguish the conversation further down the screen.

Crystal Sound OLED is more than an interesting technology. It offers a solution that could lead us to a screen / body ratio of 100% a day, without counting on a selfie camera pop-up ready to break. We expect this idea will be used again by LG and even copied by others.

LG also claims that his phone is more waterproof that way. We experimented with waterproof phones in which water was installed in the speakers, then the calls choked until the situation was dry. This will not be a problem with this vibrating speaker without flaws.

The LG G8 will be available in three colors: Carmine Red, New Aurora Black and New Platinum Gray, and includes a 3.5mm headphone jack. Samsung is not the only one to keep it.

All the rest of the G8 design you've seen before: it has a rear-end camera without a hump, a fingerprint sensor exactly where you expect and a metal frame sandwiched between the mighty Gorilla Glass 5 at the front and Gorilla Glass 6 on return. In 2019, it is remarkable.

Hand identification

The LG G8 is pushing new unlocking and gesture control commands with its Time of Flight Z-axis camera, although our demo software is said to be non-final. We had trouble unlocking the phone.

The Hand ID, as LG calls it, works by projecting an invisible infrared laser on your open palm to read the blood pattern in your veins. Neat up here. You hold your palm at a distance of six to eight inches from this special camera from the front and you slowly move your hand back.

This could be an effective way to unlock the LG G8 when sitting on a table and the rear fingerprint sensor is inaccessible. But that never worked for us at a first attempt. The idea seems rather complicated than taking your phone and accessing the rear sensor.

We also asked LG if we could record more than one hand. The answer was a sheepish "no". Which hand do you prefer … or, if you do not like enough, you prefer the least?

LG's Hand ID and Samsung's on-screen fingerprint sensor seem to be a technology torn away from the future. But they also make us miss a lot of more reliable frontal sensors in 2019.

Movement of air

Air Motion also uses your hand in conjunction with the G8's Z-axis camera, this time to perform a variety of hovering motions that do not require touching the screen.

We were able to turn down the volume in Google Play Music, for example, by opening the palm of the hand to trigger Air Motion and performing a "rotary knob" motion in midair. It worked after a few attempts.

The gestures of Air Motion worked a little better, but several attempts were necessary to succeed. You can also receive or reject calls, scan alarms and timers, browse music and videos, and take a screenshot.

When it all worked, Air Motion was rather rewarding. But it may be because we had a hard time making it recognize our floating and constantly agitated hand. We really hope that LG will sort both Hand ID and Air Motion with software updates.

Video portrait mode and cameras

This is where the LG G8 innovation lies. In addition to the Crystal Sound OLED speaker, we liked the video portrait mode. This is something we were waiting for to spice up our images.

Video portrait mode works as expected if you have already used portrait photo mode on a modern smartphone. Your subject is clear and everything in the background becomes blurry.

We will have to continue to test the video portraits taken on the LG G8 to determine the blur efficiency around difficult contours, such as fine hairs. Portrait photos are also struggling.

When we saw the capabilities of the portrait video mode of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset, we were eager to test it. LG, not Samsung, is the first smartphone maker to exploit its power.

The dual-lens rear camera used for portraits consists of a standard 12 MP lens with a 1.5 aperture aperture capturing 1.4 microscopic pixel size and a 16MP wide-field camera with a field wide of 107 degrees. It's much narrower than Samsung's new 123-degree field of view.

The front camera is an 8MP f / 1.7 lens capturing 1.22 small pixels. This time there is no wide camera in front, which leaves you a 80 degree field of view. Of course, there is a Z camera with flight time functions to help you map the depth.

Specifications and battery life

The LG G8 boasts the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset, 128GB of internal storage with support for microSD cards and 6GB of RAM. The RAM of the Samsung is less than 8 GB in the basic model S10. This is the only real major difference.

It is configured to be a powerful daily driver for most people looking for higher level specifications. And this Android 9 Pie phone should last you all day. It has a large battery capacity of 3500 mAh. The S10 has a 3,400mAh battery behind its 6.1-inch screen.

We will of course perform performance tests and battery life tests on the LG G8 during its launch and final software. But the specifications and the battery capacity look good on the paper.

Early verdict

The LG G8 has ambitious ideas that may not succeed when the final software is ready. The identity of the hands and the commands of gestures without contact did not really take us in our demo with this device.

Oh, the identity of the hand seems perfect – it reads the blood in your veins to unlock the phone – but when that does not work, you'll really wonder if you need it. The answer is almost certainly no.

In 2019, you will get good smartphone ideas. The video portrait mode is the next evolution of the camera for phones, and LG has a priority. He also found a way to eliminate the upper speaker with its Crystal Sound OLED audio vibrations. Expect others to copy it as well.

The success of the LG G8 could actually boil down to its price. He does not have a new flashy design like the Galaxy S10, but he can still create trends with his camera and audio tricks.

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