Phone LGI 6 characteristics. LG G6 - Specifications

In 2018, the LG G6 looks like an extremely interesting option in terms of price and quality. A year ago, it was a top-end smartphone that could do almost everything. Today, although the G6 lost its lead to the Galaxy S8, it still looks profitable. It's powerful, stylish and knows a few tricks, and its price tag has almost dropped into the mid-price segment.

Vibrant and borderless display

The design of the front panel of the LG G6 is built around a large 5.7-inch IPS display (resolution 2880 by 1440 pixels), which occupies almost the entire front panel of the smartphone. And this is not an exaggeration, the frames around the LG G6 screen are really tiny, which is why sometimes it seems like you are holding just a large screen in your hand. The screen quality is excellent. A nice feature of the screen is that it supports HDR 10 technology, which makes the picture more saturated. True, this thing works in a few applications like Netflix.

Still a flagship filling

The LG G6 is powered by the most powerful processor of the last generation - the 8-core Snapdragon 821 processor. Today it no longer sets records in synthetic tests, but in reality its power will be enough for tasks of any complexity for at least a couple of years. A separate plus is that the processor is cold, so the smartphone practically does not heat up even under heavy load.

Aces up your sleeve

The G6 still has a lot of tricks up its sleeve that the next generation of smartphones don't have. For example, damage protection according to the MIL-STD 810G standard, which is why the G6 is approved by the guys in the US Department of Defense and NATO. In addition, there is standard water and dust protection (class IP68), thanks to which the G6 can be lowered to a depth of one and a half meters for 30 minutes. Another interesting feature of the G6 is the presence of a Hi-Fi Quad audio converter, which allows the smartphone to produce sound at the level of expensive Hi-Fi players. There is also Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging and a USB C port.

The device turned out to be quite compact for its diagonal, but very elongated in height.

The dimensions of the LG G6 are 148.9 × 71.9 × 7.9 mm, the smartphone weighs 163 grams. The manufacturer claims that these dimensions will be most convenient for everyday use. For comparison, the dimensions of the 5.2-inch are only slightly smaller - 142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9 mm and weighing 152 grams.

Body materials: aluminum and glass. Interestingly, the front panel is covered with Gorilla Glass 3, the protective glass of the cameras is made of Gorilla Glass 4, and the back panel protects from scratches with Gorilla Glass 5. An oleophobic coating is declared, but glass is glass - fingerprints and other dirt are clearly visible, especially on black smartphone versions.

The volume keys are located on the left side of the device, on the right side there is a SIM card slot combined with a memory card slot. On the back panel there is a dual camera with flash and a fingerprint sensor. On the top edge of the case there is a 3.5 mm jack and an additional microphone. The bottom edge is occupied by a USB Type-C connector and a polyphonic speaker.

The LG G6 will be available in three colors: Mystic White, Ice Platinum and Astro Black.

Screen

The LG G6 screen is the main feature of the smartphone. It was called FullVision and had an unusual resolution of 2880x1440 pixels.

With a diagonal of 5.7 inches, the pixel density is 565 ppi. The aspect ratio is 18:9, or 2:1, which greatly distinguishes the smartphone from its competitors. This ratio is considered optimal for watching widescreen films. Support for the latest Dolby Vision and HDR10 technologies is also announced, designed to improve color reproduction when playing video of the corresponding format. True, there is still not enough such content. Maximum brightness in direct sunlight is 600 nits, a high value, almost like that of.

Cameras

Like the company's previous flagship, the device uses a dual camera. We should expect her to shoot at a decent level.

It consists of two identical IMX258 modules manufactured by Sony with a maximum resolution of 13 MP. The modules differ in their set of lenses. The first module has an f/1.8 aperture, optical stabilization, phase detection autofocus and a viewing angle of 71 degrees. The second one lacks stabilization and autofocus, but is equipped with an f/2.4 aperture and a viewing angle of 125 degrees. There is the ability to shoot 4K video.

The front camera has a resolution of 5 MP and a viewing angle of 100 degrees.

Communications

The communications set of the LG G6 could be called typical for 2017, if not for the presence of aptX HD, which allows you to transmit audio in high quality.

The smartphone received the following set of wireless communications:

• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA
• Bluetooth 4.2 LE, A2DP, aptX HD
• GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou
• USB v3.1 Type-C, USB On-The-Go
• FM radio
• Accelerometer
• Gyroscope
• Barometer.

Battery

The smartphone is equipped with a non-removable battery with a capacity of 3300 mAh. According to the manufacturer, it can provide up to two days of work under intense load. But how the battery will perform in practice will only be shown.

As before, QuickCharge 3.0 fast charging is supported, and the US version supports PMA and Qi wireless charging.

Performance

Contrary to expectations, LG did not equip its flagship with the latest processor. However, the performance of the smartphone is expected to be good.

The LG G6 uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 with a built-in Adreno 530 graphics core. The decision may be controversial, but it is sufficient - smartphones based on this chipset still occupy the first places in performance ratings (for example,). The RAM capacity is 4 GB, it allows you to run several “heavy” applications simultaneously.

It is expected that despite the increased load on the graphics core, the smartphone’s performance will be sufficient for modern games and applications.

Memory

The device uses a combined memory card slot - that is, either a SIM card and microSD, or two SIM cards. The solution is common, although it may seem like a disadvantage to some. Depending on the region, two versions of the LG G6 will be available for sale: 32 GB or 64 GB of internal memory. It is not yet clear which modification will reach Russia.

Peculiarities

The smartphone case is protected from dust and moisture according to the IP68 standard - the device can be immersed to a depth of one meter for about half an hour.

Also, the Google Assistant application, previously available only on smartphones, will be available on the LG G6, with the ability to be activated by voice even when the screen is off.

The smartphone runs . An interesting functionality is integrated into the proprietary interface UX 6.0 - the device screen is divided into two parts, either for the simultaneous operation of two applications, or different functions of one program.

New Korean flagship with Full Vision display

At the end of February, during an exhibition in Barcelona, ​​LG Electronics presented its new top-end smartphone LG G6 with a new Full Vision display format with an aspect ratio of 18:9, unusual for a smartphone. But in addition to the unusual screen, the new product has something to brag about: the G6 received the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 hardware platform, uses heat-pipe heat dissipation technology, and has IP68 protection from dust and moisture. In addition, the LG G6 supports Dolby Vision and HDR 10 standards, and also received a new user interface UX 6.0 and an advanced audio system based on a 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC. At the same time, the device lost the controversial modular design of the LG G5.

Key Features of LG G6 (Model LG-H870DS)

• SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, 4 Kryo cores @2.0/2.34 GHz
• GPU Adreno 530 @652 MHz
• Operating system Android 7.0 Nougat, UX 6.0
• Touch display IPS 5.7″, 2880×1440, 564 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 4 GB, internal memory 32/64 GB
• Nano-SIM support (2 pcs.)
• MicroSD support up to 2 TB
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• WCDMA/HSPA+ networks (900/2100 MHz)
• LTE FDD networks (B3/7/20); TDD (B38/40)
• Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 and 5 GHz)
• Bluetooth 4.2 A2DP, LE, apt-X
• GPS, A-GPS, Glonass, BDS
• USB Type-C, USB OTG
• Main camera 13 MP (f/1.8) + 13 MP (f/2.4), autofocus, 4K video
• Front camera 5 MP, f/2.2, fixed. focus
• 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC
• Proximity, lighting, magnetic field, fingerprint, accelerometer, gyroscope, pressure, step detector
• Battery 3300 mAh, Quick Charge 3.0
• Dimensions 149×72×7.9 mm
• Weight 163 g

Appearance and ease of use

The body of the LG G6 is made of metal and glass, there is no plastic here. A massive metal almost flat frame connects two glass panels - front and back. Moreover, the display glass here is Gorilla Glass 3, and Gorilla Glass 5 is used as a coating for the back cover.

The front panel of the smartphone is absolutely flat, without sloping edges, but the back has small bevels on the sides, making it easy to lift the smartphone from flat surfaces. There is a colored substrate under the glass; in the case of the silver version of the case, its texture and color resembles real metal, so from a distance the back of such a smartphone looks as if it is not made of glass, but of polished shiny metal.

In general, the LG G6 body looks quite unusual and attractive, and due to the unusual combination of display sides (not 16:9, but 18:9), it turned out to be more elongated in height. At the same time, the thin frame on the sides made it possible to make the body so narrow that it is quite comfortable to hold in the hand even with such a large screen diagonal (5.7 inches). True, the device is quite slippery due to the matte metal sides. The back cover will not peel off so quickly; the Gorilla Glass 5 coating is generally resistant to fingerprints.

The cover of the removable slide on which the cards are placed has a rubberized gasket, since the smartphone meets the IP68 protection category. The case is fully protected from dust and can be submerged in water to a depth of 1.5 m for 30 minutes. The developers claim that the LG G6 is designed to withstand harsh operating conditions and that the device has even received a MIL-STD-810G (Military Standard) certification.

The connector itself is hybrid, that is, you can install either two Nano-SIM cards, or one SIM card and one microSD memory card. The sled is made of flexible plastic, which is quite unusual since they are usually made of metal. At the same time, it is convenient: the cards are secured in the slots and held on the slide without the need to hold them with your fingers during installation. The device itself reports the need to tightly close the connector cover, and it itself reboots the system after installing the SIM cards.

It is curious that the card slot is installed on the right, and the volume buttons are moved to the left side. The keys are metal, quite large, quite comfortable to use, and easy to feel blindly.

The power key, as usual for LG, is located on the back side. It is combined with the fingerprint sensor platform. It was a rather dubious step on the part of the developers to place such a functional element flush with the surface; the button is almost impossible to find by touch.

Here on the rear panel there is a dual camera with two 13-megapixel modules, and a bright flash of two LEDs is embedded between the lenses. None of the elements protrude beyond the surface; all of them are flush with the lid and covered with glass. It is noteworthy that the camera lenses are covered with Gorilla Glass 3, and the rest of the glass on the back surface is Gorilla Glass 5.

The entire front panel is covered with Gorilla Glass 3. The glass is absolutely flat and has no sloping edges or sides. Despite the very thin frame around the screen, the developers did not forget to install a full set of elements above the screen, including the LED event indicator. There are no touch buttons under the screen; all the buttons are on the screen.

The bottom end contains a USB Type-C connector, a single grille covering the main speaker, and a small hole for a conversational microphone.

The top end is given over to a 3.5 mm headphone output jack. Here you can also find the hole for the second, auxiliary microphone for the noise reduction system.

The LG G6 comes in three colors: gray (Icy Platinum), black (Cosmic Black) and white (Mystic White). In each of the options, the front panel under the glass is painted in the same color as the body.

Screen

The LG G6 features an IPS display with flat Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection without sloping edges. The physical dimensions of the screen are 65x130 mm with a diagonal of 5.7 inches, aspect ratio 18:9 (Full Vision display). The screen resolution is 2880x1440, the pixel density is about 564 ppi.

Not only the display itself has unusual proportions, but also the frame around it: on the sides its width is 3 mm, at the bottom - 10 mm, and at the top - only 8 mm. That is, the margins at the top and bottom compared to conventional smartphones can be called record small. Coupled with the rounded corners of the screen, it all looks unusual and quite fresh.

The display brightness can be adjusted manually or set to automatic settings based on the ambient light sensor. The AnTuTu test diagnoses support for 10 simultaneous multi-touch touches. There is a vision protection mode (preventing eye fatigue). It is possible to activate the display by double tapping. There is an Always-on mode, in which the switched-off screen contains information about the current time and date, as well as about missed events in a monochrome display.

The developers also claim that the LG G6 is the world's first smartphone to support Dolby Vision technology. However, it supports not only the Dolby Vision standard, but also HDR 10. Both of these standards allow you to work with images that have an extended dynamic range (High Dynamic Range, HDR).

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the sample under study.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is scratch-resistant. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are better than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) screen (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the switched off screens (on the left - Nexus 7, on the right - LG G6, then they can be distinguished by size):

The screen of the LG G6 is noticeably darker (brightness according to photographs is 100 versus 114 for the Nexus 7). The ghosting of reflected objects in the LG G6 screen is very weak, this indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen (more specifically, between the outer glass and the surface of the LCD matrix) (OGS - One Glass Solution type screen). Due to the smaller number of boundaries (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of intense external illumination, but their repair in the case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be replaced. The outer surface of the screen has a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (effective, even slightly better than that of the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much more easily and appear at a lower speed than with regular glass.

With manual brightness control and when the white field was displayed in full screen, the maximum brightness value was 510 cd/m², the minimum was 3.9 cd/m². The maximum brightness is very high, which means, given the excellent anti-glare properties of the screen, readability even on a sunny day outdoors should be at a good level. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. There is automatic brightness adjustment based on the light sensor (it is located to the left of the front speaker slot). In automatic mode, when external lighting conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. The operation of this function depends on the position of the brightness adjustment slider, with which the user can try to set the desired brightness level in the current conditions. If you do not interfere, then in complete darkness the automatic brightness adjustment function reduces the brightness to 8.5 cd/m² (maybe a little dark), in an office illuminated by artificial light (about 550 lux) it sets it to 210 cd/m² (normal), in very in a bright environment (corresponding to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or slightly more) increases to 610 cd/m² (which is even higher than with manual adjustment). For conditions of complete darkness, we adjusted the brightness to a comfortable level, and obtained the following values ​​for the three lighting conditions indicated above: 17, 250 and 610 cd/m². It turns out that the auto-brightness function works adequately and to some extent allows the user to customize their work to individual requirements. Only at the lowest brightness level does significant backlight modulation appear, but its frequency is high, approximately 2.3 kHz, so there is no visible screen flickering under any conditions.

This smartphone uses an IPS matrix. The microphotographs (if you look closely) show a typical IPS subpixel structure:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

The screen has good viewing angles without significant color shift even with large viewing deviations from perpendicular to the screen and without inverting shades. For comparison, here are photographs in which identical images are displayed on the screens of the LG G6 and Nexus 7, while the screen brightness is initially set to approximately 200 cd/m², and the color balance on the camera is forced to switch to 6500 K.

There is a white field perpendicular to the screens:

We note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field (although it did not cover the entire screen). And a test picture:

Saturation in the case of LG G6 is clearly overestimated. As additional tests have shown, this overestimation is achieved both due to wide coverage and due to a slight increase in color contrast. We also note that the red color has a slightly unnatural tint (visually this is noticeably better than in the photograph).

Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen:

It can be seen that the colors did not change much on both screens; the contrast on the LG G6 screen remained at a good level.

And a white field:

The brightness at an angle of the screens decreased (at least five times, based on the difference in shutter speed), but in the case of the LG G6 the brightness decreased less. When deviated diagonally, the black field is lightened weakly and acquires a slight bluish tint. The photographs below demonstrate this (the brightness of the white areas in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the screens is approximately the same for the screens!):

And from another angle:

When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field is excellent (in the photo below we further increased the backlight brightness of the LG G6):

The contrast (approximately in the center of the screen) is high - about 1390:1. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 18 ms (9 ms on + 9 ms off). The transition between halftones of gray 25% and 75% (based on the numerical value of the color) and back takes a total of 32 ms. The gamma curve, constructed using 32 points with equal intervals based on the numerical value of the shade of gray, did not reveal any blockage in either the highlights or the shadows. The exponent of the approximating power function is 2.38, which is slightly higher than the standard value of 2.2. In this case, the real gamma curve deviates slightly from the power-law dependence:

This smartphone has a non-switchable dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness in accordance with the nature of the displayed image. Therefore, we carried out a number of tests - determining contrast and response time, comparing black illumination at angles - when displaying special templates with a constant average brightness, and not monochromatic fields in the entire screen. Let us show the dependence of brightness (vertical axis) on time when switching from a black field to a white field in half of the screen alternately, while the average brightness does not change and dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness does not work (graph 50%/50% ). And the same dependence, but with alternate display of fields in full screen (graph 100% ), while the average brightness is already changing and dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness does its job:

In general, such non-switchable brightness correction does nothing but harm, since constantly changing the screen brightness can at least cause some discomfort, reduce the visibility of gradations in shadows in the case of dark images, and impair screen readability in bright light.

The color gamut is noticeably wider than sRGB:

Let's look at the spectra:

We've seen these since Sony Xperia Z2. The manufacturer presents the expansion of the color gamut as an undeniable advantage, but this is a marketing ploy designed for the average person who believes that bigger is always better. In fact, it’s not better, since as a result, the colors of images - drawings, photographs and films - oriented to the sRGB space (and the vast majority of them) have an unnatural saturation. This is especially noticeable on recognizable shades, such as skin tones. The result is shown in the photo above. The situation could be corrected by the ability to select a mode with sRGB coverage or support for color profiles, but this device has neither one nor the other.

The balance of shades on the gray scale is average, since the color temperature is noticeably higher than 6500 K, but at least the deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) is less than 10, which is considered an acceptable indicator for a consumer device. At the same time, the color temperature changes little from shade to shade - this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of color balance. (The darkest areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since color balance there is not very important, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

To summarize: the screen has a very high maximum brightness and has excellent anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors without any problems, even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable level. The automatic brightness adjustment function works adequately and allows the user to adjust its operation, while in very bright light the screen brightness increases to a very high value, which ensures good readability even in such conditions. The advantages of the screen include the presence of an effective oleophobic coating, high contrast, the absence of an air gap in the layers of the screen and flicker, as well as high black stability to deviation of the gaze from perpendicular to the screen plane and excellent uniformity of the black field. Among the significant shortcomings we consider the average color rendering quality, as well as the non-switchable dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness. Nevertheless, taking into account the importance of characteristics for this particular class of devices, the quality of the screen can be considered very high.

Camera

The front 5-megapixel camera has a lens with a viewing angle of 100°, f/2.2 aperture, fixed focus and without its own flash. As a front flash, traditionally for LG smartphones, a bright fill-in backlight of the screen around the virtual viewfinder window is used. There is a portrait decoration mode, it is possible to control shooting using voice commands and gestures, and automatic face recognition. There is a stabilization function, you can add a signature to photos, make a mirror image, and add geotags.

The front camera takes good selfie-level photos: there are no complaints about detail, sharpness across the entire field of the frame, or color rendition. The dynamic range is a little lacking even in auto-HDR mode; in harsh backlighting, details can be lost in overexposed areas, but for a selfie camera this is forgivable. In the brightest light, the automation sets the light sensitivity to a minimum value of ISO 50. The focal length of the lens is 1.6 mm, the maximum photo resolution is 5 megapixels.

The main camera uses, according to the official description, two modules with 13-megapixel matrices. One of them is a 13-megapixel standard camera with OIS 2.0 optical stabilizer (f/1.8, 71°), and the other is also 13-megapixel, but wide-angle (f/2.4, 125°). True, in the case of the test sample sent to us, all three modules, including the front one, had the same fixed aperture of f/2.0. There is also fast phase detection autofocus, an optical stabilization system and a not very bright flash of two LEDs. It is curious that in the case of a wide-angle lens, the maximum image resolution is only 8 megapixels, and not 13 megapixels, as when shooting with a regular module. Here are examples of photographs taken from one position with a regular lens and then with a wide-angle lens:

The LG G6's dual camera also allows you to take impressive 360° panoramic shots. The size of such a photo is 92 megapixels, weight - 32 MB.

Here, too, the developers have found use for a more elongated display with an unusual aspect ratio. The LG G6 has added a special “square camera” mode, when activated, the display is divided into two parts. In one of the parts you can view pictures already taken, and in the second, the viewfinder is displayed at this time to search for a new subject. Or you can put together collages of two (or even four) photographs.

As usual, the settings have automatic and professional shooting modes, both for photo and video shooting. If you turn on the professional mode, sliders will appear with variable values ​​for shutter speed, ISO (up to 3200), metering method, focusing options, white balance and exposure compensation scale. Using the Camera2 API, you can transfer camera control to third-party applications, and it is also possible to save pictures in RAW.

The camera can shoot video in 4K resolution (3840x2160), as well as at 60 fps, but the latter is only in Full HD (1920x1080). There is also a shooting mode of 720p at 120 fps. There is an optical stabilization function. In any resolution, the camera copes well with video shooting: sharpness, color rendition and detail are normal, there is also enough brightness, the video is smooth thanks to optical stabilization, you can even shoot handheld on the go. There are practically no complaints about sound recording: the sound is clear, loud, and the noise reduction system adequately copes with wind noise.

• Video No. 1 (87 MB, 3840×2160@30 fps, H.264, AAC)
• Video No. 2 (43 MB, 3840×2160@30 fps, H.264, AAC)
• Video No. 3 (37 MB, 1920×1080@60 fps, H.264, AAC)
• Video No. 4 (88 MB, 1280×720@120 fps, H.264, AAC)

	Good sharpness across the field and plans.
	In wide-angle mode, detail drops noticeably, but this is quite natural, especially at lower resolutions.
	Good sharpness across the field and plans.
	The camera does excellent macro photography.
	Another example of good macro.
	The text is well done.
	The car number is clearly visible.
	Even in such compositions, the camera somehow manages to work out the long shot.
	The car numbers are barely visible. Sharpness drops a little in the corners.
	Sharpness drops noticeably towards the edges of the frame.

The camera turned out to be good and even flagship. You can notice areas of slight blur at the edges of the frame, but they occur quite rarely. In ultra-wide-angle mode, sharpness drops a little, but this is a completely natural price to pay for such a focal length. Detailing in distant plans is not bad, and in medium ones it is even very good. From time to time you can notice some artifacts of the program, but it is likely that they will be corrected. As a result, the camera copes well with many scenarios - both documentary and fiction, and the ultra-wide angle, which was implemented quite well, looks like a rather interesting feature.

Telephone and communications

The communication capabilities of the LG G6 include support for advanced LTE Advanced technology, all three LTE FDD frequency bands of interest to us are supported (Band 3, 7, 20), and there is also support for two TDD LTE bands (Band 38 and 40). In the urban area of ​​the Moscow region, the device behaves confidently, and the quality of signal reception does not cause any complaints. It supports two Wi-Fi bands (2.4 and 5 GHz), has Bluetooth 4.2, and you can organize a wireless access point via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels. The device has an NFC module; it supports working with electronic travel cards. The USB Type-C connector supports connecting external devices in USB OTG mode. The data transfer speed between a computer and a smartphone using a cable via USB 3.1 Type-C ports is about 24 MB/s.

The navigation module works with GPS (with A-GPS), with the domestic Glonass and the Chinese Beidou. During a cold start, the first satellites are detected within the first seconds, and the positioning clarity is satisfactory. There is a magnetic compass.

In conversational dynamics, the voice of a familiar interlocutor is clearly recognizable, there is no extraneous noise, the sound is natural, clear, and there is enough volume reserve. There are separately switchable noise reduction and speech intelligibility systems. VoLTE (voice over LTE) is supported, but both phones must be connected to LTE networks to ensure high-quality calls. There is a voice recorder with changeable settings and adjustable microphone sensitivity, and there is also an FM radio with the ability to record broadcasts. The vibration alert is above average in power; its intensity can be changed according to three parameters.

LG G6 supports active standby of both SIM cards in 3G/4G simultaneously. That is, the second card can be actively waiting on the network not only in 2G, but also in 3G, even if a different slot is assigned for data transmission in 3G/4G.

The choice between two SIM cards for making calls, sending SMS, etc. is traditionally carried out for LG devices using a separate button for quickly switching the priority card, located in a row of virtual control buttons. The smartphone supports two SIM cards using the Dual SIM Dual Standby standard.

Software and multimedia

As a software platform, the LG G6 uses Android OS version 7.0 Nougat with its own proprietary shell UX 6.0 with the ability to update over the air.

First of all, it should be noted that the enlarged Full Vision display with an aspect ratio of 18:9 (2:1) and Quad HD Plus resolution provides more space for any information, text or graphic, and the developers decided to make full use of this. In addition to the specific “square mode” of the camera, they added the ability to change the display scale on the screen of literally any of the applications, including third-party ones downloaded from the Google Play store.

By default, the interface of applications and videos in the player is displayed with black stripes at the ends, but by scaling the image can be stretched to the very edges of the screen, and the black stripes and the strip with virtual buttons will disappear. You can also use multi-window mode, in which some applications (not all) can be displayed in square halves on the screen in two windows simultaneously. This was possible before, it’s just that now more information fits into each of the two windows.

In the new version of the proprietary shell, even more attention is paid to customizing the appearance and organizing the display of various menus. You can customize anything to your taste, from full-fledged design themes to specific icon shapes, the size of the grid of application icons, not to mention the sorting and search methods. Here we will also mention the possibility of reducing the size of the working area of ​​the virtual keyboard for ease of control with the fingers of one hand (the height of the keyboard can also be adjusted) and the use of proprietary QSlide capabilities with detached windows, which can be placed anywhere on the screen, change their size and transparency, but in no more than two pieces at a time.

You can change the number of virtual buttons on the panel and even change the layout of the virtual keyboard for typing. It is also possible to use mechanical hardware volume keys for advanced functions. The keyboard supports Swype-style input by default. A useful function has appeared for adjusting the size of all elements on the screen, and not just the font, which can be very useful with a large screen size. And yet, most of the above was transferred here from previous versions of the proprietary interface; to the owner of previous LG mobile devices, all this will seem quite familiar and familiar.

There are few additional programs: not counting social network clients, these are utilities for diagnostics, optimization, regulation, file organization, search and communication with other devices. A proprietary program for monitoring your own health, LG Health, is in place.

As for the voice assistant, the company decided not to create its own solution like Samsung's Bixby, but noted that "LG has worked closely with Google to ensure that Google Assistant works great without the need for any pre-configuration."

To listen to music, you use your own player with a familiar interface and familiar settings. You can use preset equalizer values, and you can also play with speed and tone, distorting familiar melodies beyond recognition. The LG G6 sounds excellent: high quality playback is ensured by the Hi-Fi Quad digital-to-analog converter, which makes the sound crisp and clear, bringing it as close as possible to the original. The standard player supports the FLAC format. You can also note the presence of support for aptX HD - using this protocol you can transfer music and other audio files in high quality.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 is the most powerful platform; it is still the flagship of the manufacturer’s entire family of mobile SoCs. This platform delivers the highest numbers in benchmarks and confidently handles any task in real-world scenarios. Thanks to a powerful video accelerator, it performs well even in the most demanding games. All the games we tested, including Dead Trigger 2, Modern Combat 5, Real Racing 3, Mortal Kombat X and GTA San Andreas, run without the slightest delay at maximum settings, not to mention less demanding projects like World of Tanks Blitz. The LG G6 is one of the most powerful smartphones available today and has plenty of performance headroom for future upgrades.

Testing in comprehensive tests AnTuTu and GeekBench:

For convenience, we have compiled all the results we obtained when testing the smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks into tables. The table usually adds several other devices from different segments, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry figures). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison it is impossible to present the results from different versions of benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” - due to the fact that they once passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions of test programs.

Testing the graphics subsystem in gaming tests 3DMark, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:

When testing in 3DMark, the most powerful smartphones now have the ability to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (which can cause the speed to rise above 60 fps).

Browser cross-platform tests:

As for benchmarks for assessing the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowance for the fact that their results significantly depend on the browser in which they are launched, so the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this is possible during testing not always. For Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

AndroBench memory speed test results:

Thermal photographs

Below is a thermal image of the rear surface taken after 10 minutes of running Epic Citadel in Guided Tour mode:

It can be seen that the heating is more localized in the upper part of the device, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat chamber, the maximum heating was 38 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), this is average heating.

Playing video

To test the omnivorous nature of video playback (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Internet. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern options using processor cores alone. Also, you shouldn’t expect a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a table.

According to the testing results, the test subject, to our delight, was equipped with all the necessary decoders that are needed to fully play most of the most common multimedia formats on the network, both audio (AC3, AAC) and video (H.264, H.265). To successfully play them, you don’t even have to resort to using a third-party player - for example, MX Player. And there will be no need to manually install additional custom codecs, everything works by default.

Further testing of video playback was performed Alexey Kudryavtsev.

The LG G6 does not support SlimPort (or Mobility DisplayPort) adapters, which is indicated by a message when you connect such an adapter. Using a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “Method for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)”), we checked how video is displayed on the smartphone screen. Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped determine the nature of the output of frames of video files with various parameters: the resolution varied: 1280 by 720 (720p), 1920 by 1080 (1080p) and 3840 by 2160 (4K) pixels and frame rates of 24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps. In this test, we used the MX Player video player in Hardware mode. The results of this test are summarized in the table:

According to the criterion of frame output, the quality of playback of video files on the screen of the smartphone itself is good, since frames (or groups of frames) can be output with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without skipping frames. For some unknown reason, the screen refresh rate is set to 61 Hz, so in the case of files with 60 fps, at least one frame per second is output with an increased duration, and ideal smooth movement in the frame is never achieved. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed inscribed in height, while on test worlds it can be seen that the clarity is slightly reduced due to interpolation to the screen resolution. However, for the sake of experimentation, you can switch to the one-to-one pixel mode; there will be no interpolation, but the image will be smaller than the working area of ​​the screen. The brightness range displayed on the screen corresponds to the standard range of 16-235: in the shadows only a couple of shades merge with black, but in the highlights all gradations of shades are displayed.

Battery life

The non-removable battery installed in the LG G6 has a capacity of 3300 mAh. With such a battery, the LG smartphone could not help but demonstrate decent battery life results: its level is above average. In real-life usage scenarios, under normal, average operating conditions, the hero of the review is able to last a couple of days without recharging, but more often you will still have to resort to daily overnight charging.

Testing has traditionally been done at normal power consumption levels without using power-saving features.

Continuous reading in the Moon+ Reader program (with a standard, light theme) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd/m²) with auto-scrolling lasted almost 17 hours until the battery was completely discharged, and when continuously watching videos in high quality (720p) with the same brightness level via a home Wi-Fi network, the device operates for up to 12 hours. In 3D gaming mode, the smartphone can work for as long as 6 hours.

The smartphone should support proprietary Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging, but the test unit did not include a network charger, so support could not be confirmed in practice. From a conventional charger (5 V, 2 A), the device is charged for approximately 2.5 hours with a current of 1.75 A at a voltage of 5 V. Support for wireless charging will depend on the region of delivery: such functionality is provided for the USA, but not yet for other countries .

Bottom line

“The G6 is a new visual image and a new tactile sensation. It combines a large screen with one-handed smartphone operation,” said Juno Cho, President of LG Electronics and Mobile Communications. Well, that's it. The first thing you notice when getting to know the LG G6 is its unusual design. The slightly excessive elongation of the body does not cause any discomfort in everyday use, and the narrow, noblely shining matte metal frame and the completely unusually rounded corners of the screen, coupled with the glass back panel with a colored backing - all this evokes only positive emotions. The design of the LG G6 looks fresh and very attractive, and the smartphone is almost miniature with its huge 5.7-inch screen.

As for technical capabilities, there are no complaints here either: in terms of characteristics, the LG G6 is a real flagship smartphone of the first magnitude. It has excellent cameras, a screen, a sound system, a set of communication modules, a powerful top-level hardware platform and a decent level of autonomy. Moving away from the modular design introduced in the previous LG G5 is neither bad nor good. Some people would like to get additional functionality through plug-in modules, while others don’t need all this, but in general, users have not gotten used to the modules enough to list the lack of such functionality as a definite disadvantage of the new product.

LG G6 is ready in all respects to compete with similar products of the highest level. Its initial cost in Russia will be 52 thousand rubles; its direct competitor is Samsung Galaxy S8, which was announced just the other day and should cost even more. It is unlikely that the price will be lower for models that are similar in level, such as Sony Xperia XZs or HTC U Ultra. So for the buyer, everything will depend on the preferences of the brand and their own feelings, since in terms of basic capabilities the LG G6 is definitely not inferior to its main competitors.

In conclusion, we suggest watching our video review of the LG G6 smartphone:

Another interesting feature that became available thanks to the use of such a display was the ability to immediately create a collage of four photographs, which is instantly displayed on the screen. You can also select an artistic mode when shooting: photographs by famous photographers will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. This allows you to repeat a beautiful frame without much effort and collect a lot of likes.

In addition, FullVision is great for multi-window mode. Two simultaneously running applications fit perfectly on such a screen, and this greatly increases productivity. After all, you can simultaneously write a letter and search for the necessary links in the browser, or correspond on social networks and send funny pictures without unnecessary movements.

Smartphone LG G6 Platinum (H870DS)

Smartphone LG G6 White (H870DS)

27645 rub.

Smartphone LG G6 Black (H870DS)

Conclusion

The LG G6 has become one of the few truly “new” smartphones. Korean engineers not only improved performance and enlarged the screen, but created something unusual, surprising and memorable. Let's face it, the company had problems finding its own style, but it seems that LG was able to “find itself” and made not just an unusual trinket, but a convenient and functional device. The G6 boasts top-end hardware, a premium body, water resistance, an excellent camera and an extremely comfortable display. It was created specifically for those who are tired of ordinary flagships and are looking for something new.

LG did a great job with the design of the G6 and made a truly beautiful smartphone. The Koreans abandoned the idea of ​​modularity, releasing their new flagship in a non-separable case made of glass and metal. The removable battery also had to be removed, but in return we received protection from water and dust, which is much more important.

The G6 is made with a strong metal frame paired with Corning glass. The front panel uses tempered Gorilla Glass 3: it is more resistant to drops and shocks, which is especially important for the display. But the back cover, although it looks like brushed aluminum, is actually made of Gorilla Glass 5: it is scratch-resistant, which is important for the back side.

The smartphone is protected from water and dust according to the IP68 standard, and also received a certificate based on the military standard MIL-STD-810G (tests included falling from different positions, testing operation in high and low temperatures).

I'm glad that manufacturers have begun to massively introduce moisture protection into their gadgets - this is a really useful feature. LG G6 is not afraid of rain, sand, dirt, it can be easily washed under the tap and immersed in water to a depth of one and a half meters for 30 minutes.

LG G6 knows how to attract attention. In public places, I felt people looking with interest at the unusual device in my hands.

Why change everything? The new aspect ratio allowed LG to make its flagship narrow and elongated. Thanks to the almost complete absence of frames and an elongated screen, LG managed to fit such a large display into a body that is no different in size from 5.2-inch smartphones.

By the way, there is no 2.5D curve on the screen, it is completely flat. This should please those who like to glue safety glass.

The large screen size of 5.7 inches is not something that should be intimidating. It is convenient to use the smartphone even with one hand.

Daniil Bazdyrev

review author

Refusal of frames is a current trend among gadget manufacturers. The Korean company can be praised for its bold experiment with screen aspect ratio and minimal bezels. The idea will most likely pay off.

However, when you watch a video in 16:9 format, black bars appear on the sides of the screen. You will have to get used to them - this is the price for the narrow screen and compact size. It is unlikely that content producers will suddenly want to switch to the new 18:9 format.

Difficulties may also arise with applications, since most of them are not adapted to work on such a display. Fortunately, LG has added the ability to customize software scaling on the screen. This feature solves the problem.

The display is slightly rounded at the edges, just like the body of the smartphone itself. The company's research and laboratory tests have shown that the new design reduces the risk of display breakage.

When it comes to the quality of the screen itself, it would be fair to call it the best LG has ever used. Overall, this is one of the best screens on the market.

The screen is made using IPS technology with a resolution of 1440x2880 pixels. It has high brightness and contrast, maximum viewing angles and natural colors. I especially liked the white color - it is perfectly calibrated.

In addition, LG G6 became the first smartphone to support HDR 10 and Dolby Vision. These technologies come from flagship TVs and support video with a wider dynamic range.

True, now there is practically no such content, but soon American online cinemas promise to broadcast streaming video with support for these formats.

Another interesting feature of the LG G6 is the Always-On display feature. When locked, the display can show the time and missed notifications - something we've seen in smartphones from Nokia, Microsoft, Samsung and Motorola.

In the settings, you can select the type of clock and set the time to turn off the function. On average, the Always-On display consumes 1% of the battery per hour.

Balanced “filling”

LG did not chase the most powerful hardware and released the G6 on last year’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor - this is exactly what is found in many 2016 flagships. The company explains its choice by the long development period of the smartphone, and also refers to energy efficiency considerations.

Devices powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 will be released in the near future, and the LG G6 will be noticeably inferior to them in performance. Another question is whether ordinary buyers need such power? That's the point, it's unlikely. For most users, having the fastest processor will not be the deciding factor when purchasing a smartphone.

Needless to say, all mobile games run at the highest settings? Absolutely everything we tested works perfectly. Asphalt Extreme, GTA: San Andreas, Mortal Kombat X, Modern Combat, World of Tanks - everything flies.

Thanks to the powerful Adreno 530 video accelerator and support for the Vulkan API, you can be sure that games will run at maximum speed for many years to come.

Despite being super-fast in games, the LG G6 can be sluggish in the simplest tasks. The problem is clearly not in the processor, but in the optimization of the LG UX 6.0 shell. How else can you explain the fact that a flagship gadget with noticeable slowdowns switches tabs in the phone book? This lag was already in G2, it definitely exists in G5 and it has not been fixed yet.

Sometimes the notification curtain pulls out with jerks, and scrolling in the Play Market and Twitter comes with microlags. Most users are probably not that picky and are unlikely to notice any dullness in the interface. But this does not change the fact that visually the LG G6 is noticeably slower than most flagships from last year. The Koreans need to do something about optimizing their system - this is a weak side of the smartphone (although it is likely that this is due to the non-finality of the sample that we were one of the first to receive).

The RAM capacity is 4 GB, which is enough for all tasks, including running two applications simultaneously. A version with 64 GB of memory will be sold in Russia. For those who need more space for data storage, a hybrid slot for a memory card was left.

Dual camera for wide-angle shooting

The LG G6 has both main cameras with a resolution of 13 megapixels. One module is used for regular shooting with an aperture of f/1.8, the second for wide-angle with a viewing angle of 125 degrees and f/2.4.

Compared to last year's G5, the second module received more megapixels and became noticeably better at taking photographs. LG research showed that 50% of G5 owners used the widescreen camera first, so the new smartphone continues to focus on this feature.

It's worth noting that wide-angle shooting in the G6 slightly bends straight objects at the edges of the photo, creating a fish-eye-like effect.

Normal mode

Wide Angle Mode

Note the building on the left.

At the same time, LG smartphones are the only ones that use a wide frame in their cameras. This makes them unique! In addition, we admit, this is much more useful than blurring the background and other “decorations” of the frame.

LG did not put the most modern camera module into its new flagship - Sony IMX 258. Despite the weak camera module, the Koreans were able to prove that the most important thing in mobile photography is the quality of the camera software.

During the day, pictures are bright, saturated, with good color rendition and a wide dynamic range. This is facilitated by the Auto HDR mode turned on by default, the operation of which does not at all affect the shooting speed, but has a positive effect on the resulting photographs.

Photo in the dark. Exposure and white balance are very good, but the buildings in the background lack detail. Night sky with a lot of noise.

True, there are also unpleasant nuances. For example, in photographs with a large number of small details, such as fur, grass, leaves, it is noticeable that they turn into “porridge” - they are blurred and poorly detailed.

In low light conditions, the photos are more than decent. The optical image stabilizer plays an important role in this - even in the dark, blurry frames are rarely obtained.

The only thing I can complain about is the large amount of noise in night shots.

photo

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The front camera has a resolution of 5 megapixels, which by modern standards is not enough for good selfies. If you can get good pictures during the day, then in the dark it’s better not to turn on the front camera on the G6 - the photos will turn out blurry and of poor quality.

By the way, competitors' flagship smartphones are equipped with front cameras with higher resolution: the Apple iPhone 7 Plus and Huawei P10 have 8-megapixel modules, the Sony Xperia XZ has 13 megapixels, and the Oneplus 3T and Samsung Galaxy A7 2017 have even 16 megapixels.

The smartphone shoots video with a maximum resolution of UltraHD (3840x2160 pixels). The videos we shot look good: the G6 exhibits excellent exposure, focuses quickly, and records high-quality audio even in strong winds.

A serious advantage was the ability to instantly switch between a regular and wide-angle camera right during shooting. And don’t forget about optical stabilization - it greatly corrects minor hand shakes and makes the video smoother.

It is important to note that we tested a pre-sale sample with non-final software. We noticed that our test sample is equipped with a slightly different camera - the properties of the resulting images display information about the f/2 aperture, while a full-fledged G6 should have f/1.8 and f/2.4.

It is likely that the quality of shooting in a smartphone intended for sale will be radically different for the better.

Day of battery life

LG G6 received a non-removable battery with a capacity of 3300 mAh. It may seem to you that for a large and bright 5.7-inch screen with a huge resolution, such a battery will not be enough and you will have to charge your smartphone twice a day. You'll be almost right - autonomy here is not too high.

In mixed use mode, the G6 lasts until the evening. If you disable the Always-On display function and enable energy-saving mode, you can safely use your smartphone even for a day and a half.