LG G8X ThinQ Review!

LG G8X ThinQ

LG is an oddball for smartphone makers. To model, build, and market appliances that totally challenge tradition, a certain chutzpah is necessary. More than a lot of those over the years this company has been responsible for. This knows the modular G5. So does G8 ThinQ this year, which introduced a gesture-based control scheme which until it didn't look dumb. And now the G8X tells some of the gimmicks that divided the original G8 so much and included a few of its own.

LG chose to make Smartphones more flexible: cases with secondary screens that were built into them, and did not build proper folding that would be inherently compromised. The V50 ThinQ was the first phone of the business to have a shell, but now the G8x is sold worldwide with one of its nuts.

LG G8X ThinQ

I admire businesses that are ready to welcome strangeness profoundly but I am going to make it clear: LG's dream is not really working. Not because the underlying idea is bad; LG simply failed to understand how to make full use of that unusual dual-screen configuration.

In addition to the dual screen ambitions, the G8X is not far removed from the usual flagship formula of LG. It packages one of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 chipsets plus 6 GB RAm, like just about any other high-end smartphone we saw in 2019; it ran Android 9 without much stir. There is a 6.4-inch "FullVision" OLED front screen which offers some lively colours, but struggles to increase its brightness sufficiently when used outside. There is a 4,000mAh battery in it, which was adequate to regularly see the G8X a day and a half (with a single screen) before a charge was needed. A headphone jack is available here that helps to cement the G8x as one of the best smartphones to people who care for music thanks to the built-in Quad DAC.

LG G8X ThinQ

Don't worry, nothing is lost, but LG claims that the absence of Z-camera is not an indication of loss of confidence in the design, but rather a cost-saving move. We rather have a more conventional front-facing camera, but one with a resolution of 32 megapixels to capture selfies. By default, the camera can shoot 8 megapixels selfies, but it doesn't matter as the results don't matter. Pro tip: Look for the best light you can find while taking selfies, because these front-facing pictures are blurry and sad.

When the G8X is released in the United States, it will save you just about $700 for an unlocked version— one of them will include a screen. LG says the price may change after the deal expires, so you'd probably act fast if you're somehow already obsessed by the G8X. After all, $700 is even less than what you would be charging to a new, $2,000 Samsung Fold for a brand new Galaxy S10+, iPhone 11 and Pixel 4. Obviously, whether or not that was a bit depends on how well this particular dual-screen company works.

LG G8X ThinQ

It's not, as I said before, the company's first crack on its own camera on a mobile device. The Korean V50 ThinQ was also fitted with its own dual screen, and LG benefited directly from some failures. The G8's dual-screen case has enough flexibility to stay open regardless of direction, rather than holding in three semi-comfortable positions. The second screen is the same as the one inside the phone, down to the (comprehensive) teardrop. And on the outside of the box is a secondary display so you can see who is calling without the whole package having to be open.

Here is the big picture: LG doesn't like the idea of foldable phones, which are essentially only half-bound tablets. Maybe this is why only a one —Chrome— can be set to run across both displays from all the apps I have run on the G8X and its small buddy screen. In fairness to LG, however, if used like this, Chrome works well. The problem is, because there is a half-inch dead space between them due to the necessary hinge linking both displays. So put it mildly, it is unattractive.

LG G8X ThinQ

Luckily, LG has cooked up several ways to improve the coordination of both monitors. If I was using the camera, I would tap the roll for the photographs I had only shot on that side display, so it would be very easy to see whether I had to reframe my shot and try again. One LG spokeswoman has suggested that the G8X could be used as "like a notebook" as one displays would display a full-width keyboard. You can do that with any effort, but in any case I never want the G8x on a table to click it as I would on a tablet. But is it using a discreet keyboard like a mid 2000s phone? Well, at least when it works, that's pretty great.

I finally realized one of the most annoying character flaws of the G8X during the mid-game. The phone started complaining of a low-battery after about three hours plowing through an old school RPG, so I tried to charge the machine. In this case, the MagSafe-like USB-C adapter had to be digged, attached to the USB cable, and connected to the entire case with its magnetic pins. In turn, it is almost impossible to prevent cable pulsation and the adjustment from the phone, which makes it basically impossible to use any kind of dual-screen charging.

LG G8X ThinQ

The LG G8X is quite easily outclassed as a standalone handset. It shows potential as a double-screen computer but the interface is so incoherent that the G8X never transcends its joke status. But it's a rather cheap jacket compared to the rest of the year and that's just enough to help me overlook some of the phone's shortcomings. The G8X isn't a bad way of getting a sensation of the multiplex life, as unpublished as it is at present, assuming you can get a good deal on one. Just don't mistake the phone for anything but what it is: a stopgap solution while LG knows what kind of devices it wants to produce.