LG G6 looks like a winner – MWC 2017

While I was knee-deep in everything Hi-Fi at The Bristol Show (keep ’em peeled for the show special e-zine from our porcine partners over at Hifi Pig and my round-up), the LG G6 landed in Barcelona.

Now that the LG G6, aka H870, is official we can now see how close those whispers were to the truth. From what I can see, the leaks have been pretty spot on.

Construction

The G6 certainly sounds like it should have the fit and finish of a premium handset. It is kitted out with a metal and gorilla glass front and rear.

It comes clothed in a choice of three colours – astro black, mystic white and ice platinum. The white option is not shown on the LG website so might be a provider exclusive or just not coming to the UK.

Chips

Under the hood you’ll find a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 (2.35Ghz Quad Core). This pushes along Android 7.0 Nougat with the assistance of 4GB of RAM.

Screen

LG made no secret of the fact that their new flagship phone would sport a new aspect ratio of 18:9. This makes the phone tall and thin. The good news here is that it should be nice and easy to use your thumb to reach across it.

The only possible downside I can see with this aspect ratio is that some apps might not be too happy about the shape it has to squeeze in to.

What I can’t wait to see in real life is the G6’s quad HD+ resolution display. This IPS (In-plane switching) LCD pumps out 2880×1440 to your peepers. Not even my home monitor does that!

It strikes me as a little odd that LG, renowned OLED panel makers, went IPS LCD. Granted, it does have quantum dot technology too. LG use this same gadgetry in their televisions, so should be pretty good.

It’s even High Dynamic Range (HDR) capable. In a nutshell, this means that you’ll get a wider and richer range of colours, much brighter whites, and much deeper, darker blacks.

Thanks to LG and Dolby being buddies, the phone will also support both Dolby Vision and the open standard HDR10.

If you want to wow your mates with HDR you will have to bounce over to YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Video – just remember to enabling the feature on those mobile apps.

Cameras

Stills

The dual cameras on the LG G6 take a different tack to other twin-snappers out there. Here you get a standard camera and a wide-angle option.

Both are 13-megapixels, one has a 71 degree angle and the other is 125 degrees. To put that in to context, that’s wider than a 14mm lens on a full-frame camera.

Fans of group selfies will be happy with the front camera too. The front facing snapper has wide 100 degree angle so you can rely less on your long-armed friends.

Video

Budding filmmakers will get a kick out of the G6 too!

It really does seem that LG is bringing a bunch of pro video tech to the smartphone world.

Let’s kick off with recording video at 4K, fair enough. How about adding 60fps support too though? That is extremely nice. This means you’ll be able to shoot silky-smooth video. Some people don’t like this look, but if you’re recording sports or just your dogs running around.

OK, that might not be your bag but having the option of shooting 4K at 60fps is that you can halve it to 30fps when editing and get a 50% slow motion – still at 4K.

Focus peaking is something else that you only generally see on proper vid kit. This shows what is in focus by overlaying a colour on the most focused bits. It’s pretty much a staple of shooting pro video, and you can use it on the G6 in both video and still mode. It is handy, if you know how it works and can aid geeing the correct focus, especially in conditions where autofocus struggles. Although, I have had camera users tell that it can lead you in to a false sense of security.

More useful to the masses, however, is the hybrid image stabilisation system. Both optical and electronic methods are used to keep your image stable. The electric system uses the phone’s motion sensors to detect involuntary movements and correct them.

Adding the two high AOP mics and the promise of high-fidelity audio recording for both video and just audio is a very nice touch.

I’ve not been able to see anything official about the DAC though.

Battery

Where there’s powerful tech, there’s drained batteries.

LG has boosted the cell from the G5’s 2500mAh to 3300mAh in the G6.

That’s the good news. The not so good news for power-users and those looking to take loads of snaps and vid is that the battery is not removeable. Battery packs ahoy! Just remember that you need a USB Type-C at one end of the charging cable.

Having a sealed unit does mean that the G6 has IP68 water resistance. I reckon that almost balances things out.

Storage

The battery may be fixed but the storage is removable and upgradable. In fact, you can use memory up to 2TB when it becomes available. You get 32GB on-board.

More good news for snappers as well as us with large music libraries who don’t always want/are able to stream.

Google Assistant

Who doesn’t just love an “… and finally”?

Well, in the case of the LG G6, this one is the fact that it becomes the first non-Google phone to launch with Google Assistant.

The service, which was only on Google’s Pixel, allows for a full AI service that learns about you and customises itself to you.

The G6 then promises to be one of the most exciting phones of the year. Can it win some of the iPhone and Galaxy S loyalists?

First impression

The LG G6 definitely sounds like an awesome proposition. Has it got the looks and the chops to entice the iPhone and Galaxy S faithful away from their default options? That is yet to be seen.

I am confident that the G6 will do well though. What about you?

LG G6 pricing and availability

Pricing and availability have not been confirmed, however it might be best to have around £529 ready if you’re planning to buy SIM free.

My friends at Vodafone have confirmed that they will be stocking it. I am also on the list for a sample handset so stay tuned for my hands-on review.