The LG G8 Review: Solid, But Not Great
by Andrei Frumusanu on April 30, 2019 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- LG
- Smartphones
- LG G8
- LG G8 ThinQ
Camera - Daylight Evaluation: Dynamic Range & Detail
[ G8 ] - [ G7 ]
[ V40 ] - [ P30 Pro ]
[ P30 ] - [ P20 Pro ]
[ P20 ] - [ Mate 20 Pro ] - [ S10+ (S) ]
[ S10+ (E) ] - [ S9+ (S) ] - [ View20 ]
[ OnePlus 6T ] - [ Pixel 3 ] - [ iPhone XS ]
In this shot the G8 produces a good result, however it feels rather washed out and lacking contrast. The phone has trouble getting a good black point and thus some shadows that are supposed to be black become grey with a blue veil. We can note huge processing differences between the G8 and V40, and again the phone is a huge jump to the G7.
[ G8 ] - [ G7 ]
[ V40 ] [ P30 Pro ]
[ P30 ] - [ P20 Pro ] - [ P20 ]
[ Mate 20 Pro ] - [ S10+ (S) ]
[ S10+ (E) ] - [ S9+ (S) ] - [ View20 ]
[ OnePlus 6T ] - [ Pixel 3 ] - [ iPhone XS ]
Again this next shot is just a huge improvement for LG. Compared to the G7 we have significantly better details and exposure, while compared to the V40 the G8 produces much better colour balance.
On the wide angle, the V40’s HDR in AI mode produces a better composition. Details are a known story – LG lags behind the competition.
[ G8 ] - [ G7 ] - [ V40 ]
[ P30 Pro ] - [ P30 ]
[ P20 Pro ] - [ P20 ] - [ Mate 20 Pro ]
[ S10+ (S) ] - [ S10+ (E) ] - [ S9+ (S) ]
[ View20 ] - [ OnePlus 6T ] - [ Pixel 3 ] - [ iPhone XS ]
This shot is again very interesting for the G8. The exposure and composition is again great with fantastic dynamic range, a massive jump from the G7. I actually find the result among the best among the tested phones, which is impressive.
There’s one odd thing in this shot: the red colour of the no parking sign. For some reason both the V40 and G8 have issues with tone mapping this very saturated red and it seems to clip beyond the gamut of the sensor, resulting in quite the muddy red.
[ G8 ] - [ G7 ] - [ V40 ]
[ P30 Pro ] - [ P30 ]
[ P20 Pro ] - [ P20 ]
[ Mate 20 Pro ] - [ S10+ (S) ]
[ S10+ (E) ] - [ S9+ (S) ] - [ View20 ]
[ OnePlus 6T ] - [ Pixel 3 ] - [ iPhone XS ]
LG here continues to show its strength in the new sensor and processing of the G8. The resulting shot is in my opinion again one of the best of the lineup as it manages to capture the brightness of the scene yet still maintaining good amount of contrast and proper highlights and blacks.
The wide angle has similarly great composition, with the familiar issue of blurred details.
[ G8 ] - [ G7 ] - [ V40 ]
[ P30 Pro ] - [ P30 ] - [ P20 Pro ]
[ P20 ] - [ Mate 20 Pro ] - [ S10+ (S) ]
[ S10+ (E) ] - [ S9+ (S) ] - [ View20 ]
[ OnePlus 6T ] - [ Pixel 3 ] - [ iPhone XS ]
Finally in this shot again LG manages to hit correct colour balance without issues. Exposure maximises dynamic range of the shot, with great highlights as well as shadows.
Daylight Capture Conclusion
Overall, I was very impressed with the new main camera performance of the G8. LG has managed to massively improve over the G7 and V40 and processing has seen a big jump in quality.
While on the G7 I might have ignored the new AI Cam mode, and on the V40 sometimes it can be a miss, I almost never found a shot on the G8 where the AI Cam produced shots which were any worse than the auto mode. On the contrary, I found the AI Cam mode in general to produce better exposures.
LG’s noise reduction and sharpening is still a tad more aggressive than other vendors and still lags behind in this regard, however it’s a big improvement for the main sensor.
For the wide angle, while the G8 again improves on exposure and composition, for whatever reason LG still massively lags behind in terms of detail. This should be a processing issue on LG’s part and nothing inherent to the hardware. However since Huawei and Samsung have introduced wide-angle modules, it means that this feature is no longer an LG only exclusive feature, and both of the aforementioned vendors beat LG in terms of the quality of the wide angle shots, which is a shame for the G8.
Overall, I was very happy with the daylight capture of the G8, especially the main camera.
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liteon163 - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
More evidence to be used against LG when upgrading from my V30 when it breaks...MananDedhia - Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - link
I currently use a V20 and feel exactly the same.rocketman122 - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link
I have a V20 and the reason I never upgraded was no swappable batteries.for those whove never tried it, you should. you go from 5% to 100% in 1 minute. I carry no extra charging cable or charger, I slip an extra battery in my wallet and always have my screen brightness at 100%. never worried about battery draining.
at home the phone is never connected to any cable. I simply charge the other battery in the cradle
LG has massive issues with their phones imo. the g4 bootloop I went through. issues with the camera glass breaking on my v20 and aftermarket batteries dont work well as well.
unfortunately im getting a 2nd v20 to have because of the swapping batteries. huge plus for me.
amosbatto - Saturday, May 11, 2019 - link
For the life of me, I can't figure out why at least one phone manufacturer doesn't offer a decent phone with a removable battery. All the phone makers have decided that we want to throw away our phones after using them for 2 years, because the batteries no longer hold a decent charge.For the love of God, give us a phone that is designed to survive a drop or two. Making phones with glass backs, no bezels for protection and curved edges where the screen is higher than the bezel is insane. It really bothers me that this review had no evaluation of how well the LG G8 will survive a drop, but it spends so much time talking about its 0.6 mm increase in the thickness, as if anyone cares. The LG V20 was the last decent phone that LG made because it had a removable battery and was designed to survive normal drops.
HTC, Motorola/Lenovo, LG and Sony are losing millions of dollars every quarter trying to sell phones, but none of them have figured out that maybe they should off something different, like a durable phone that is not based on planned obsolescence. The reviewers like Frumusanu would tell us how horrible it feels to hold a phone with a polycarbonate case, compared to a glass case, and how thick the bezels are, and how we simply can't live without IP68 rating, but those of us who care about the longevity and lasting value of our phones would buy it in droves.
I have gotten so disgusted with the planned obsolescence in the phone industry and the monetization of my data and the collection of my data to train AIs, that I have decided to crowdfund the Purism Librem 5. I am willing to accept a lousy processor (NXP i.MX 8M), low screen resolution (720p), and a low camera quality, just to get a phone that is designed to last 5 years, protects my personal data, respects my digital rights and allows me to unlock the bootloader and install any operating system that I want (PureOS, Linux+KDE Plasma Mobile, UBports, LineageOS or PostmarketOS).
Here is what a phone should have, but is is impossible to buy such a phone:
1. Removable battery
2. Plastic or metal case with thick enough bezels to protect the screen
3. MicroSD slot
4. 3.5 mm audio jack
5. Dual front facing speakers
6. Unlockable bootloader
7. Designed to be opened using a Phillips screwdriver, so it can be repaired, not pried apart using a heat gun, suction cups and plastic spudgers, and I shouldn't have to reglue the f*ing thing.
jifarina - Tuesday, May 14, 2019 - link
Maybe add an IR blaster ;). I love my v20.Vitor - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
LG and its crazy colors...I would feel disappointed the day their displays are not a disappointement. It always deliveries the lulz.PeachNCream - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - link
Non-flagship phone...Starting at $620...
It should be a real pleasure to take that one up the financial backside. I hope LG includes some sort of lubricant with the higher end V50 since the price is likely in the $1K range given how they price out the supposedly more affordable G8. I did just buy an LG, but it was a refurb Rebel 3 from Tracfone for $10 - 5 inch screen, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, removable battery (oddly absent from anything high end), and if it lives the next couple of years, I'll have sunk a total of $345 into two years of mobile service plus the cost of the handset (300 for airtime, 10 for the phone, 35 for a case, screen protector, and possibly a fresh battery after a year). It's balls out stupid to pay anything more than that for a phone when you could be tossing that money into some sort of interest bearing investment or workplace-funded retirement account so it can compound for you over the coming years. Every little bit makes a considerable difference over a long time horizon.
Bulat Ziganshin - Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - link
poor americans. here in russia i have 100 Mbit landline, 400 min voice + unlim 4G on smartphone - all that for $5/monthNicko_ - Thursday, May 2, 2019 - link
Here in france, you can have unlimited voice/sms/rcs/mms & 60gigs of data (in 4g+/LTE) for just 9.99 bucks (or unlimited data for 15.99€ it depends). So when I look for google fi or other I just fell in apple so much that is expensive xDPeachNCream - Thursday, May 2, 2019 - link
Eh, there's nothing I can do to change the costs associated with living in the US.