LG Q7 released - the G7's smaller, cooler brother

[Djole123]

So, with the G7 released, it is time to unveil the new smartphone from the Q series, and the new Q7 does not dissapoint.

 

 

So, firstly, the Q7 is an all glass and metal phone, like the Q6, and it also retains the 5.5 inch, 18:9, 1080*2160 IPS display with, surprisingly, no notch.

 

LG has put three new models, the Q7 Plus, the Q7 and the Q7 Alpha, the difference being the Q7 Plus has 64/4GB of memory while the Q7 and Q7 Alpha have 32/3GB, and the Q7 Alpha has a 5MP camera instead of the 8MP one on the former.

 

The Q7 series brings very nice features from the G7 lineup, such as DTS Surround Sound with virtual 7.1 channel audio and HiFi Quad DAC, and the QLens feature (similar to Bixby Vision, gives you reccomendations based on what it sees).

 

LG doesn't give exact specs on the CPU side of things, but we do know that the Q7 and Q7 Alpha feature an octa core 1.5GHz CPU while the Q7 Plus features a 1.8GHz octa core variant.

 

Pricing is unknown at this point, but my guess from the Q6 is around the 250-300 euro mark ($300-$350), so not too bad for the price if I'm right.

 

Source:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/lg-q7-news/

[Ginger_]

As long as it has expandable storage and usb c, that's a really solid budget phone. 

[Nowak]

No notch? LG has some sense after all.

[Rupe]

19 minutes ago, NowakVulpix said:

No notch? LG has some sense after all.

So if some of the top bezel had been screen it would be a worse phone?

[suicidalfranco]

19 minutes ago, NowakVulpix said:

No notch? LG has some sense after all.

notch, just like no headphone jack or no expandable storage are exclusive features of premium smartphones

[Nowak]

1 minute ago, Rupe said:

So if some of the top bezel had been screen it would be a worse phone?

The notch is an ugly design compromise, because you need somewhere to put the FFC and earpiece.

[iamdarkyoshi]

1 minute ago, Rupe said:

So if some of the top bezel had been screen it would be a worse phone?

Yeah. I can't stand the notch or rounded corners. You're essentially making a phone screen that is incapable of showing the entire image that the GPU is rendering

[Rupe]

Just now, NowakVulpix said:

The notch is an ugly design compromise, because you need somewhere to put the FFC and earpiece.

I don't think it improves the look of a phone but if I get more screen I will take the compromise

[Rupe]

1 minute ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Yeah. I can't stand the notch or rounded corners. You're essentially making a phone screen that is incapable of showing the entire image that the GPU is rendering

No it's there because you need a place to put things like the camera and speaker. It creates more screen not less

[Nowak]

Just now, Rupe said:

I don't think it improves the look of a phone but if I get more screen I will take the compromise

I'd rather have somewhere to grip my phone in landscape without touching the screen ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[D13H4RD]

Still probably not enough to reverse their falling fortunes. 

 

Rumor has it that the G7 is at least $749.99. Yeah......I have a better chance of buying a OnePlus 6 over this

[Rupe]

Just now, NowakVulpix said:

I'd rather have somewhere to grip my phone in landscape without touching the screen ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm not gripping that area of the phone when I put it in landscape... 

[Nowak]

2 minutes ago, Rupe said:

No it's there because you need a place to put things like the camera and speaker. It creates more screen not less

You know what else creates more screen?

Not having a fucking notch.

[Rupe]

Just now, NowakVulpix said:

You know what else creates more screen?

Not having a fucking notch.

If you can create a phone with no notch then that is the future

[Rupe]

Just now, Rupe said:

If you can create a phone with no notch then that is the future

Or bezel i should clarify  destorying my own argument

[D13H4RD]

I don't know. As much as I want LG to rise again, it really seems that they're completely oblivious to their shortcomings. 

 

• They did not handle the G4/V10 bootloops as well as they should've, preferring to issue a blanket statement and promising replacements under warranty that wasn't even honored 
• The G5 was messed up in a lot of ways. Let us never speak of that 
• The G6 fell victim to the BS regional thing and only just received Android Oreo, months after Samsung, known to be one of the absolute slowest, released it for the S8
• Both the V20 and V30 had awful unveilings and release schedules, with no pricing info until nearly a month afterwards 

It might sound like I'm bashing LG......and I am, for good reason. 

 

I remember the LG that had the G2 and G3. They weren't afraid to push the boundaries and they actually put some marketing efforts. Now? They're just following everyone and their phones haven't even gone toe-to-toe. Hell, they are still using the same tiny camera sensor from the V30 when everyone else is going bigger. 

 

Also, ThinQ. Fucking why?! 

 

That thing better be powered by a Snapdragon 636 at the very least 

[Zodiark1593]

2 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Yeah. I can't stand the notch or rounded corners. You're essentially making a phone screen that is incapable of showing the entire image that the GPU is rendering

From a pure objective standpoint, curving the display around the sensors (aka, the "Notch") would be only advantageous with a good status bar implementation. Use of OLED (or on LCD, an extra OLED strip could be used along the top) to show only battery life, time, notifications, etc against a black background can allow use of the space without making it visually contrasting. 

 

Where I see the opposition to the "notch" is how the empty area encroaches upon your actual frame (the stuff you want to see), which I would agree wholeheartedly with.

[Zodiark1593]

2 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

 

 

I remember the LG that had the G2 and G3. They weren't afraid to push the boundaries and they actually put some marketing efforts. Now? They're just following everyone and their phones haven't even gone toe-to-toe. Hell, they are still using the same tiny camera sensor from the V30 when everyone else is going bigger. 

 

 

The G2 was a great phone that still holds up well today for basic usages and moderate gaming. I had mine for quite some time. The G3 was a bit of a step back as a 1440P display was quite ambitious for the SD801 chip to handle, and (according to reviewers) other aspects of the display were notably worse. I miss the double-tap to wake.

[D13H4RD]

5 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

The G2 was a great phone that still holds up well today for basic usages and moderate gaming. I had mine for quite some time. The G3 was a bit of a step back as a 1440P display was quite ambitious for the SD801 chip to handle, and (according to reviewers) other aspects of the display were notably worse. I miss the double-tap to wake.

The biggest issue with the G3 was that it ran really hot. Coupled with the really slow UX

 

But I liked it because it was ambitious. It alongside the G2 were those phones which had really thin bezels before the whole craze was a thing 

[D13H4RD]

Just now, huilun02 said:

If its got the SD625 or better, it'll be worth looking out for

At this point, an SD636 would be more logical, but nothing less than a 630

 

A 625 is nearly 2 years old. It's still solid but doesn't make much sense to put a 2 year old chip in a phone competing with others that have newer, better processors 

[Djole123]

59 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

-snip-

 

 

 

That thing better be powered by a Snapdragon 636 at the very least 

 

43 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

If its got the SD625 or better, it'll be worth looking out for

The source I cited suggests a Snapdragon 43x, the Q6 had a 435.

 

To be fair, the 435 is a perfectly capable chip, it's got 8, while not powerful, still decent cores.

[Zodiark1593]

9 minutes ago, Djole123 said:

 

The source I cited suggests a Snapdragon 43x, the Q6 had a 435.

 

To be fair, the 435 is a perfectly capable chip, it's got 8, while not powerful, still decent cores.

My main gripe here would be that the chip is still on a 28nm process, so it won't be nearly as efficient as the 625.

[Djole123]

6 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

My main gripe here would be that the chip is still on a 28nm process, so it won't be nearly as efficient as the 625.

By the specs i would assume that the Q7 and Q7 Alpha will have a 435 while the Plus will have a 450 (unless they have switched to some MediaTek SKU).

 

For the standard, yes a 28nm node in 2018 sucks, but the Plus has a 14nm node which isn't that bad.

[Drak3]

1 hour ago, Zodiark1593 said:

I miss the double-tap to wake.

I hate every single implementation of that feature. I have to use a pin on my phones to keep them from doing shit when in my pockets.

[DocSwag]

5 hours ago, Djole123 said:

By the specs i would assume that the Q7 and Q7 Alpha will have a 435 while the Plus will have a 450 (unless they have switched to some MediaTek SKU).

 

For the standard, yes a 28nm node in 2018 sucks, but the Plus has a 14nm node which isn't that bad.

These are A53 cores we're looking at though, which are way less powerful than the A73 based Kryo 260 cores in the Snapdragon 636