LG G7 vs Note 9

The LG G7 has arrived on the smartphone scene as the true successor to the LG G6, which was released last year. While this phone is similar to the V30S ThinQ released at MWC in 2018, it’s got some important differences that we’ll be diving into.

We’re going to be stacking it up against the Note 9, the device set to inherit some of the best features of the Galaxy S9+ which we consider one of the best phones available at the moment.

Both of these phones are set to be outstanding devices within a market where the world’s best mobile manufacturers are all fighting for the top spot, which is a compliment in itself.

Price & Availability

The LG G7 will be available on 31 May. Though the company has not announced official pricing, the first pre-orders confirmed our suspicions that it would be under £600 – £594 to be precise, from  Unlocked-Mobiles. It’s more expensive from  Clove, which has listed the G7 for £629.

The Note 9 is on retail for £899 in the UK for the base 128GB version, with the 512GB model selling for £1,099. In the US, pricing will be $999.99 for the standard 128GB and $1,249.99 for the 512GB. Pre-orders came up in the UK on 9 August from Three, EE, Carphone Warehouse and Vodafone.

The official release date for the Note 9 is 24 August, take a look at our Note 9 home article for all the latest deals and news.

Design and Build

The LG G7 has stuck with the design theme seen on the LG G6, but is also making some important refinements.

The device will be protected back and front by Gorilla Glass 5. We’ll be seeing the curved back make a return, as seems to be the staple for 2018 flagship phones, but unlike some competitors we’ll be seeing wireless charging from this too.

Other manufacturers have removed the headphone jack from their phones in favour of IP68 water resistance, but LG have managed to include both to the delight of many people. We’re not entirely sure why the 3.5mm jack ever went away, but LG are keeping it firmly in place next to the USB-C port on the bottom of the phone.

The screen notch makes an appearance here following in the footsteps of Apple, Huawei, OnePlus to name a few. The notch houses an 8Mp selfie camera and the earpiece speaker, plus an ambient light sensor.

The screen space either side of the notch is being referred to as a ‘second screen’, and you’ll be able to find some customisation options to adapt this area of the display to your liking.

The Galaxy Note 9 is going to look a whole lot like the Note 8 as most of the changes coming are going to be feature driven, rather than design.

Regardless, the Note 9 will look like a gorgeous phone thanks to Samsung’s minimalist design philosophy. Be sure to check our Galaxy Note 9 rumours for the latest information.

Specs and Features

Screens

The LG G7 will feature a 6.1in, 19.5:9 screen with a resolution of 3120×1440. The display will be MLCD+ will add a white pixel boost to increase brightness without drawing any more power.

This does mean that the numbers for resolution is a bit of a red herring, as a quarter of the pixels are only there to increase the brightness and not display an image – but the picture is still beautifully sharp regardless.

The screen will default to quad HD out of the box, but you can lower the resolution to prolong battery life should you so wish.

The Note 9 will feature a 6.3in AMOLED screen which will be covering the entire face of the phone.

Processor, memory and storage

As with most new Android flagships in 2018, the G7 will feature a Snapdragon 845 for its processor. The UK model will feature 4GB/64GB for RAM/storage, and will of course come with a MicroSD slot so the storage can be expanded easily. The 3000mAh battery could be considered a little small, but the screen is more power efficient that some rivals so LG think it’s sufficient.

The Note 9 will also feature the Snapdragon 845 (and potentially the latest Exynos chip in certain territories) along with 6GB of RAM. The device has promised a 4,000mAh cell to provide ‘all day battery’ coverage, which is a larger size than seen in most phones. Samsung will be extremely careful of these larger batteries after what happened with the Note 7 battery having a chance to explode.

The standard version will contain 128GB of space with the more expensive version pushing up to 512GB with room for a 512GB card ontop of that still, making this a phone that can have up to a whole terabyte of storage.

Cameras

The G7 is competing in the great camera arms race of 2018 by throwing multiple cameras into the device, this time featuring one standard and one wide angle lens.

The standard camera has a 71 degree field of view, a 16Mp sensor and optical stabilisation. The wide angle camera has a 107 field of view.

The AI mode on the camera will attempt to identify difference scenes, and apply colour filters, brightness and will recommend which camera to use. This is a separate shooting mode, and so it’s enforced when you’re taking photos.

The Super Bright Camera works fantastically in the dark, as is its purpose, but you’ll be getting 4Mp photos rather than 16Mp.

On the video side, the G7 tops out at 30fps in 4k but you are able to record in HDR. There is also a ‘Cine Video’ mode which can apply some nice looking filters to make your footage to look more cinematic.

The phone has the option for slow motion capture too, although it’s only 240fps at 720p which is a little bit lacklustre at this price point.

The Note 9 will inherit a lot of the features from the Galaxy S9+ and we’re making the assumption that the camera will come along with that too.

We do know that the camera will have scene dection modes that can select the best shooting mode for you, which has been seen on Huawei’s P20 and LG’s G7 ThinQ.

Software and Apps

The LG G7 tweaks to Android 8 are pretty thorough, and you’ll be able to find them in the settings app divided into useful categories for easy navigation.

LG’s smart bulletin new features as opposed to Good Now, which shows up when you swipe left. This holds a combination of useful quick links, alters, reminders, music etc.

There are a few pre=loaded apps such as LG Health, LG’s music and gallery apps and a file manager and smart cleaning. These are all useful in their own right, well designed and lightweight.

LG’s new brand for any device featuring AI (and we use the term AI fairly loosely here) is the ThinkQ – pronounced Think-You – phrase. This helps the device become ‘hyper personalised’.

We can also assume the Note 9 will have Samsung’s modified version of Android 8 Oreo loaded, which has gone through several different version of refinement. It’s now in very good shape with several pre-loaded apps from Google and Microsoft. We still wish you could uninstall these apps, not just disable them.

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