LG G7 ThinQ Challenges Galaxy S9 With High-Powered Components, Design

LG is taking aim at smartphone market leaders with a new high-end smartphone. The device, called the LG G7 ThinQ, was introduced at a May 2 media briefing. The handset is designed to compete with Samsung’s Galaxy S9. Like Samsung’s handset, it comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 and features a big screen that leaves no room for a physical home button. LG’s smartphone has a dual-lens camera on the back and runs on Android Oreo. And like many other late-model smartphones, it has artificial intelligence features to make it easier to use. But after LG announced the smartphone, the company left everyone guessing how much it’ll cost and when it will actually ship. Read on to learn more about the LG G7 ThinQ’s features.

LG has joined the growing number of smartphone vendors going with a notch design. The G7 ThinQ comes with a notch at the top of its screen, which houses the front-facing camera and earpiece. But unlike Apple’s iPhone X, which makes the unsightly black notch apparent at all times, G7 ThinQ owners have the option of changing the notification bar at the top to black. Upon doing so, the notch matches the bar and isn’t so apparent. The device also comes with a metallic chassis and no physical home button on the front, similar to other high-end handsets.

Since LG wants to compete with market leaders, it’s no surprise the company opted for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 in its upcoming smartphone. G7 ThinQ owners also get a choice of 4GB or 6GB of RAM, which should be sufficient for most resource-intensive apps.

LG made an interesting decision when making the G7 ThinQ’s screen size 6.1 inches, as it bridges the gap between the 5.8-inch Galaxy S9 and 6.2-inch Galaxy S9+. The G7 ThinQ has a 19.5:9 “FullVision Super Bright Display” with a quad-HD resolution of 3,120 by 1,440 pixels. The screen offers 564 pixels per inch, which means it’ll offer one of the best-looking images of any smartphone on the market.

LG’s G7 ThinQ has dual 16-megapixel cameras on the rear, with one being a super-wide-angle lens and the other a standard angle. The smartphone is one of the first to support Google Lens, which uses artificial intelligence and computer vision inside Google Assistant and Google Photos to give users more information about landmarks. Google Lens can also identify contact information on a business card, provide data about animals and more. For picture-taking, LG’s smartphone has 19 shooting modes that optimize the quality of an image.

LG is firmly entrenched with Google in its G7 ThinQ. In addition to bundling Android Oreo in the smartphone, LG has added a button on the device’s side that will activate virtual personal assistant Google Assistant. A variety of Google apps, including Chrome, Google Play and YouTube, also come bundled with the smartphone.

Most smartphone vendors are working feverishly to get a virtual fingerprint sensor to work. But until it does, many Android device makers are offering a physical sensor. Still others offer both a physical sensor and face scanning. For its part, LG has opted for a physical sensor in the LG G7 ThinQ. The sensor sits beneath the rear camera toward the middle of the rear case. In a specification sheet, LG said that its smartphone also comes with face recognition, but it’s unknown at this point how that feature works.

LG has included a 3,000mAh battery pack in the G7 ThinQ. The battery can be wirelessly charged and is capable of quickly regaining its power with help from Qualcomm’s QuickCharge 3.0 technology. LG hasn’t yet revealed how long its battery will last on a single charge.

The G7 ThinQ has been outfitted with a Boombox Speaker, which uses a resonance chamber inside the smartphone to double its bass performance and create a quasi-sub-woofer. It is the first handset to have DTS:X sound to create virtual 3D sound and 7.1-channel surround with earphones. A Super Far Field Voice Recognition feature allows Google Assistant to be heard clearly from distances up to 5 meters.

The LG G7 ThinQ is designed to survive a short fall or a bout with the elements. The device’s screen is hardened by Gorilla Glass 5, and the smartphone has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. LG said the handset should be able to handle “harsh environments,” as it meets military MIL-STD 810G requirements.

On paper, the LG G7 ThinQ looks to be awfully similar to some of the market’s top competitors, including Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and Apple’s iPhone X. But there are some details LG still hasn’t revealed. While LG said it will be rolling out the G7 ThinQ to South Korea “in the coming days,” it is only saying that it will then make the handset available at some point soon in North America and elsewhere. LG also balked at sharing how much the smartphone will cost and on which carriers it will be available. LG promised to share that information “closer to the time of availability.”