LG has announced its first true flagship smartphone for 2018, and it's called the LG G7 ThinQ. That's a weird name for a smartphone, but that's LG giving us a hint of what its future releases will be called. Basically, the ThinQ moniker refers to AI on this smartphone and any other LG products. The device is now official after being in the leaks for more than a couple of months. The G7 ThinQ packs top-of-the-line specifications and comes with basic features which we have seen on other smartphones, but in some areas such as the display and speaker, the G7 ThinQ kills the competition. Also, LG chose to add an additional hardware button specially for activating the Google Assistant, and the company says the phone comes with 30 custom commands to make full use of the Google Assistant. LG says that it designed the smartphone keeping three things in mind: Meaningful AI, solid fundamentals, continuous upgrades.
Right out of the bat, the LG G7 ThinQ has a 6.1-inch display with QHD+ resolution and 3120 x 1440 pixels. The display has an aspect ratio of 19.5:9 and offers an incredible 1000-nits of brightness levels, which is an industry first from the South Korean company. The display can be set to six different viewing modes: Auto, Eco, Cinema, Sports, Game and Expert. There's a notch on top of the screen, which by now you must have figured it out after reading the aspect ratio.
The next highlight of the G7 ThinQ is the loudspeaker it packs. The smartphone comes with a Boombox speaker which delivers double the bass of conventional smartphones for powerful “boombox” sound without the need for external speakers. When placed on a solid surface or box, the smartphone utilises its resonance chamber as a woofer to amplify the bass effect even more. It is also the first smartphone with DTS:X that's used to deliver virtual 3D sound for all content, up to 7.1 channel audio with earphones. It also packs a Hi-Fi Quad DAC.
Internally, the smartphone is powered by the high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC. The phone comes in a couple of RAM and storage options- one with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage and the other one with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The high-end variant will be launched only in some markets such as South Korea and India. There's a microSD card slot for storage expansion up to 2TB.
The device boots Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box with several new AI features. It measures 7.9mm in thickness and has a weight of 162grams. Another key feature of the G7 ThinQ is the cameras. The phone packs two 16MP sensors at the back with the primary one having a f/1.6 aperture and the secondary sensor having a f/1.9 aperture. The secondary sensor comes with 107° field-of-view. Up front, it has an 8MP wide-angle sensor.
The camera specs are in-line with those of LG V30 smartphone, but the camera app offers various AI features. LG's AI Camera app now offers 19 shooting modes, up from the eight modes we saw on the earlier devices. And this time, there's a Super Bright Mode which tweaks the images captures in low-light. Other features such as the Portrait mode, AR Stickers are also present on the smartphone.
Another change which LG made after years is the power button placement. The power button is now on the right side and it now more acts a fingerprint scanner. The biometric sensor is still on the rear. The smartphone is IP68, and MIL-STD 810G certified, same as previous LG devices.
The LG G7 ThinQ also comes preloaded with Google Lens features, which is the new way to search anything. The Google Lens is bundled inside the Google Assistant and Google Photos. LG says that Google has a lot more to share about the Lens at the upcoming Google I/O event. As mentioned, there's a dedicated button to trigger the Google Assistant which is located on the left side below the volume rockers. A single tap of this button will launch the Google Assistant while two quick taps will launch Google Lens, which is a first on any phone. Users can also hold down the button to start talking to the Google Assistant.
The LG G7 ThinQ will be available in New Platinum Gray, New Aurora Black, New Moroccan Blue and Raspberry Rose colours. The Indian launch of the device is unknown at the moment, but it might happen at the end of this month or early next month.
