LG G6 video teardown, and safety testing lab tour

LG puts its phones through their paces to ensure that they’re safe for use and can survive all the wear and tear of daily life. We filmed a full teardown of the device, so you can see the G6’s components. We also got an inside look at LG’s battery testing lab and quality control facilities where all the testing takes place. Here’s what we learned about how LG stress tests its phones.

Please also read our full First Take on the LG G6.

LG G6 teardown

LG took the G6 apart piece by piece so we could see the internal components. The entire process took about six minutes, and we caught it all on film. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the teardown is just how small some of these components are. The selfie camera module, for example, can sit comfortably on a fingertip with room to spare. Check out the photos and full video to see all the components inside the LG G6.

How LG performs battery tests

Ever since Samsung’s catastrophic Galaxy Note 7 battery problem, its competitors have been highlighting their safety protocols. LG showed us the insides of its battery testing lab to demonstrate just how safe the LG G6’s battery is. We saw the G6 battery go through a number of tests without incident. All of LG’s batteries go through many tests and deep analysis to ensure consumer safety.

During our tour, we saw the G6’s battery punctured with a very sharp nail, and it survived. In other words, you don’t have to worry if your phone accidentally gets skewered with a sharp object once it leaves the lab — it’ll be perfectly safe and will not set on fire or inflate like a balloon.

LG also tests the battery’s response to extreme temperatures. The battery is even set on fire in a pit. If it explodes outside of the pit, it’s deemed unsafe.

Another key test is performed by dropping heavy objects on the battery. This test is used to determine whether the battery can withstand the intense pressure of a heavy weight.

Whenever a battery fails LG’s tests, it is carefully examined in the lab with microscopes and scanning equipment to see what went wrong.

Quality control tests

In addition to making sure the battery doesn’t explode, LG does many other quality control tests on its phones. We saw a wide variety of LG phones placed in machines that simulate extreme temperatures to determine whether the phone can survive intense arctic or desert environments.

More: HandL’s new phone case has one ‘butt’ you can grab without getting into trouble

Perhaps the most famous test is a robotic butt that repeatedly sits on the phone to test its strength and resistance to bending under the pressure of your derriere. We saw LG’s jean-clad bottom sit on a phone a few times, and we had to wonder how the technicians watch the test without snickering.

LG has a number of machines that repeatedly press all the phone’s buttons thousands of times to see how long the buttons will hold up over time. Similar tests are performed on all the ports. Machines plug and unplug charging cables and headphones thousands of times. Sometimes, the charging cables are bent and twisted around to test how resilient the ports are to rough handling. The phone itself is also bent and twisted to find out just how tough it is.

More: LG Watch Sport (Android Wear 2.0) review

One of the more common metrics, the drop test, is performed by dropping the phone onto a steel surface over and over. Most of the stats you see aren’t for drops on concrete, which is much less forgiving, but LG does test its phones on that harder surface as well.

All of these tests are intended to ensure that your phone can survive years of use and even misuse — within reason.

Google Assistant is coming to millions of devices running Android Marshmallow or Nougat

Why it matters to you

Voice assistants are the future, and Google’s bringing the highlight feature of its Pixel smartphone to millions of devices running the current and last version of Android.

Google’s biggest announcement at Mobile World Congress is about its artificially intelligent Assistant, now available on smartphones running Android Marshmallow and Nougat.

Assistant lets users perform certain actions with their voice by saying “OK Google,” or by pressing and holding the home button. You can ask it about your upcoming day — and Assistant will recite your calendar events, the weather, and even put on a podcast of your choice — or you can use it to control your smart home devices. It can make quick translations, find the nearest restaurant, pull up your flight information, and a whole lot more. It’s conversational and it understands contextual search so you don’t need to repeat queries or commands more than once.

More: Google Assistant adds another 10 skills, including a virtual sommelier

Assistant originally debuted last fall in Google’s messaging app, Allo. It then went on to be a prominent feature of the Google Pixel, the company’s first phone “made by Google,” and it’s also what powers Google Home, an Amazon Echo competitor. It’s also available now on Android Wear, and it’s heading to Android Auto as well as Android TV.

Android smartphones running Marshmallow or Nougat — basically version 6.0 or higher — will now be able to use Assistant. But the best part is you won’t have to wait for a version update from Google or your device manufacturer, which would have taken months to roll out. Instead, version 6.13 or higher of the Google app will bring Assistant functionality.

There are some rules with which devices are eligible to utilize Assistant, though. Specifically, you’ll need to have Google Play Services installed, so phones in China will not be able to utilize Assistant. Secondly, your device will need to have at least 1.5GB of RAM, and a 720p or higher screen resolution.

More: Make the most out of Google with this list of ‘OK, Google’ voice commands

The first smartphone since the Pixel to come packaged with Google Assistant will be LG’s G6, which you can read more about here. The Google app update with Assistant will begin rolling out this week in the U.S., and it will be followed in Australia, Canada, and the U.K. It will also come to German users in Germany afterwards. More language support will come over the course of the year.

We’ll stop by Google’s “Android Global Village” at MWC to check out existing HTC, Huawei, Samsung, and Sony smartphones with the Google Assistant to see how well it works.

LG G6 officially unveiled at MWC 2017

Read our LG G6 review!

Following weeks of leaks from LG and unverified sources alike, the LG G6 is finally official for all to see and experience. Unveiled on-stage at MWC 2017, the LG G6 rounds out much like we expected based on the early information. The phone is highlighted by its extra-tall 5.7-inch display with a new 18:9 aspect ratio, which means the phone is smaller overall. Thanks to the dramatically reduced bezels, LG says the G6 has the footprint of a 5.2-inch phone. It’s wrapped by a glass and metal body that brings the materials back for the first time since the original Optimus G.

That necessitated the drop from a modular design that was truly a flop with the LG G5, and in many ways that’s a signal for where the LG G6 is headed — simpler designs all around. There are fewer features on this new phone, and it doesn’t have every single latest spec, but together it seems to work better as a complete product.

LG’s putting a huge emphasis on the 18:9 display. They’ve worked with developers of Google Play apps and games to ensure that their content will work on the taller screen, as well as with Amazon Prime Video. The screen is also HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR capable, for brighter brights and better colors and detail on compatible content form Amazon, Netflix, and others.

As with the G5, the G6 includes a dual camera system on the back. But this time they’ve put the same 13MP sensor behind each lens. The wide-angle lens is a whopping 125 degrees — wider than the human field of view. Even the front-facing camera is wide, at 100 degrees. The cameras will both shoot in 4K for video and capture HDR10 video. The camera software has several collage options, including a neat mode where you can overlay an old photo on the viewfinder to match composition. Great for those with specific Instagram sensibilities.

Software-wise, the phone’s running Android 7.0 Nougat with all of the features that includes. Support for running two apps on the screen at once is particularly impressive, as the taller screen makes it easier to display the two apps. The G6 also has Google Assistant built in, making it the first non-Pixel phone to be announced with support for Assistant.

LG has yet to unveil specific pricing information as it will vary depending on the market, but we know the LG G6 will make its debut first in South Korea with other markets to follow. It’ll come in ice platinum, astro black, and mystic white colors — the platinum color has a faux-brushed-metal look under the glass back. Those of us in the U.S. will have to wait until April to get our hands on one.

LG G6

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• LG G6 specs
• These LG G6 features are exclusive to some countries
• LG forums
• Latest LG G6 news

LG G6 specs: Dual 13MP cameras, 3300mAh battery, Snapdragon 821

Get to know everything that’s inside the latest from LG.

The LG G6 isn’t pushing the envelope in every spec category, but still has plenty of what you want in a top-end phone today. With a high-res display, dual cameras, fast charging and waterproofing there’s lots to like here. Though perhaps some may see downsides in the Snapdragon 821 processor, limited 32GB storage in some regions and wireless charging that’s exclusive to the U.S.

Here’s the full spec sheet for the LG G6.

Operating System	Android 7.0 Nougat
Display	5.7-inch LCD 2880x1440Gorilla Glass 3Dolby Vision, HDR10
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 (MSM8996)
Storage	32GB (U.S., Europe)64GB (Asia, Korea, Hong Kong, India, CiS)
Expandable	microSD up to 2TB
RAM	4GB
Camera (Main)	13MP (IMX258), 1.12µm pixels, f/1.8, OIS71-degree lens, phase-detect AF
Camera (Wide)	13MP (IMX258), 1.12µm pixels, f/2.4125-degree lens, fixed focus
Front Camera	5MP, f/2.2100-degree lens
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, NFCUSB-C 3.1
Audio	32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC (Asia only)
Battery	3300mAhNon-removable
Charging	USB-CQuick Charge 3.0Qi wireless (U.S.)
Water resistance	IP68
Security	One-touch fingerprint sensor
Dimensions	148.9 x 71.9 x 7.9 mm
Colors	Black, white, platinum

LG G6

• LG G6 review!
• LG G6 specs
• These LG G6 features are exclusive to some countries
• LG forums
• Latest LG G6 news

LG G6 first photo and video samples!

Check out our first sample images and video from the G6’s dual 13-megapixel cameras!

With the official announcement of the LG G6 today in Barcelona, we’re finally able to share our first sample images and video from the phone, which we’ve been using here in Barcelona, Spain for the past few days. The G6 builds on the dual camera setup of the LG G5 and V20 from last year, now with the same 13-megapixel sensor in both cameras. In the regular 71-degree camera you’ve got an f/1.8 lens and optical image stabilization. For the wide-angle, it’s f/2.4, but without OIS. And around the front, LG brings a 5-megapixel behind an f/2.2 lens, with a 100-degree angle to fit more stuff in your selfies.

Check out our sample pics below, and be sure to hit up our full review for the verdict on LG’s 2017 flagship! (Keep scrolling for our (#vidsample) at the bottom of this post.)

These LG G6 features are exclusive to the U.S. and Korea

You can’t always get what you want.

Every phone launch offers some sort of frustration when it comes to differences in models between regions. The LG G6 is thankfully launching around the world, but unfortunately has a couple of features that will remain exclusive to specific regions — and even particular countries. This year wireless charging, a high-performance 32-bit Quad DAC and 64GB storage won’t be available around the world on the G6.

Here’s what you can expect when you go to buy one.

Wireless charging is exclusive to the U.S.

Here’s the big one that will get a few people riled up: only the LG G6 sold in the U.S. will have Qi wireless charging inside. No other country in the world will offer the feature, as LG says the demand isn’t high enough to justify it elsewhere.

This will definitely be a downside to those who are expecting to get all of these types of little features in a phone that’s going to command a high price. But if there’s one bit of solace, it’s that every LG G6 will have the same physical dimensions no matter where you buy it — so unlike some previous models, any G6 accessory you buy will fit any G6 around the world.

And of course you can charge up your LG G6 extremely quickly using Quick Charge 3.0.

Quad DAC is exclusive to Korea and a few other Asian countries

LG started touting high-end audio quality with the V10 back in 2015, and doubled down with an all-new Quad DAC on the V20. A very similar 32-bit Quad DAC is coming to the LG G6 as well … at least, if you’re in Asia. LG specifically notes that the Quad DAC is not available in the U.S., Europe, South America or MEA models, leaving basically just LG’s own Korea and a few other (unspecified) Asian countries with the higher-quality audio.

Once again this comes down to LG addressing different markets with features it feels will provide the most value — you may recall the much-nicer headphones included with the V20 in Asia. It’s also worth noting that if you’re in one of the regions listed above, it isn’t worth trying to import a phone — dealing with hassle and network incompatibility — just to get the Quad DAC.

Storage differences across the world

This is at once the most understandable but also frustrating regional difference with the LG G6. LG will offer 64GB of storage in Korea, Hong Kong, some other Asian countries, India and CiS models, but restricts the rest of the world to 32GB only. Though some find that amount of storage to be far too little, the vast majority of consumers still prefer the lower price of smaller storage phones and are willing to deal with it. Naturally it keeps things simpler for LG as well.

Of course every LG G6 model will still have a microSD card slot that can expand your storage heartily, which can alleviate some of the worries. Still, some of you out there just won’t be satisfied unless there’s at least a 64GB — if not a 128GB — model.

LG G6

• LG G6 review!
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• These LG G6 features are exclusive to some countries
• LG forums
• Latest LG G6 news

Everything you need to know about the LG G6’s cameras

LG is super proud of its dual cameras, and is putting even more focus on them with the G6.

Photography has become one of the leading factors in choosing a phone today, with so many companies putting out great choices. LG has been near the top of the pack for the past few generations of its G and V series of phones, and it is hoping subtle tweaks to its formula can keep it in the conversation with the LG G6.

Dual rear cameras are very much the focal point here, with the wide-angle camera getting a much-needed boost of attention as LG finds that nearly half of its users use that as their primary shooter. At the same time, the wide-angle front-facing camera stands alone as your only camera choice up front, making sure you fit as much as possible in your selfie.

Here’s the full breakdown of what to expect in the LG G6’s camera setup.

Rear cameras

LG is well known for its dual camera setups at this point, and it has tweaked the setup over the past couple generations of its high-end phones. The G6 has yet another tweak to the combination, moving to using the same sensor for both cameras rather than a markedly better sensor in the “main” camera with a weaker sensor in the wide-angle camera as before. The sensors are identical 13MP Sony units (IMX258) with 1.12-micron pixels, though the specs supporting them differ a bit.

You may not like the prioritization here, but it’s definitely a more balanced camera setup.

The standard camera has a 71-degree lens — which is about standard for most smartphone cameras — with an f/1.8 aperture and OIS. It also has PDAF (phase-detect auto focus). Depending on how much LG has improved its software, this camera setup may be looked upon as a downgrade from the 16MP sensor it was using in prior phones. Not only has the resolution dipped, but there also wasn’t any increase in pixel size to show for it — you may have noticed that laser auto focus is gone as well. LG will really have to nail its processing to stand out here.

See our first LG G6 camera samples!

The wide-angle camera still offers you those super-unique photos that you just don’t get on any other smartphone, and now with a better sensor it’s even more valuable. It has a 125-degree wide-angle lens with an f/2.4 aperture — but it lacks OIS and autofocus, just as before. Before you go running to grab your pitchfork, hear me out: because of the ultra-wide look, there isn’t much need for autofocus (everything is just set to infinity) or OIS. While stabilization would be nice to have it isn’t critical — the only worry here, perhaps, is the f/2.4 aperture for lower light shots.

When it comes to using those cameras, LG sees them as operating independently in nearly every aspect. Though you can smoothly zoom between the two when staging a still or recording video, in the end you’re only going to be using one at a time. The only exception is a dual-shot mode that takes both a wide-angle and standard shot at the same time for an interesting artistic effect.

Front camera

After trying to use two distinct front-facing cameras with the LG V10, things switched back to a single extra-wide camera on the V20 and we have the same look now in the G6. That keeps things simple in terms of components, but also means you don’t have two cameras taking up precious space on the LG G6’s small bezels.

Front-facing cameras are usually rather wide by default, but considering there’s little reason to have anything but a super-wide lens for your selfies LG has gone with a 100-degree lens with f/2.2 aperture in front of its 5MP sensor. There isn’t any sort of stabilization here, but once again size constraints are in full effect.

There’s so much more to the LG G6 than just the cameras. Be sure to read our full review, and breakdowns of the various features from LG’s latest phone!

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• These LG G6 features are exclusive to some countries
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LG G6 review: A return to form

After years of chasing gimmicks, LG decides to just make a good phone.

The quick take

The quick take: LG achieves its goal of packing a balanced, powerful Android experience into a more hand-friendly form factor. But it remains to be seen whether the G6 is a true “flagship” to compete with the upcoming Galaxy S8. The LG G6’s success (or otherwise) will depend on its price tag, and how the competition measures up.

The Good

• Attractive design + great build quality
• Speedy performance
• Meaningful software tweaks to take advantage of 2:1 display
• Great low-light camera performance
• Fun wide-angle camera features

The Bad

• Glass back prone to scratching
• Curved corners of display don’t match bezel
• Only 32GB in most markets
• Wireless charging exclusive to U.S.

LG G6 Video Review

Returning to form

LG G6 Full Review

“No gimmicks” is this year’s LG gimmick.

For the past several launch cycles, it seemed like LG needed to have some eye-catching new thing to attract attention to its phones — a single crutch which would, hopefully, make consumers care about its G-series handsets over Samsung’s dominant Galaxy range. Recent efforts have included shiny shiny crystals, notification tones from singing schoolboys, lasers!, cow parts glued to the back and bad modular accessories.

Sure, we can make fun of the LG Rolling Bot and the Vienna boys’ choir, but the ideas weren’t universally awful. The real problem was that LG, in the past three years, seemingly hadn’t progressed much further than the old metaphor of throwing shit at a wall. Some of it has stuck — features like dual cameras, OIS, laser autofocus and super-sharp displays have become staples of the modern Android flagship. Others, like buttons on the back, haven’t made the cut.

And it’s no surprise that in 2017 we’re adding the LG G5’s ill-conceived modular system to that conceptual dumpster.

Perhaps the G6’s 18:9 2:1-aspect ratio screen is just this year’s LG thing, to be discarded in another 12 months or so in favor of the next thing. But after a few days of using the phone ahead of its MWC 2017 unveiling, I’d argue that it’s more than mere gimmickry. There’s a solid, if slightly understated phone built around this lanky display, and LG’s attitude with its latest handset is less “look at this crazy thing we did” and more “look at our cool new phone.”

At the same time, the company isn’t targeting spec hounds with 2017’s G-series phone, which isn’t an enormous leap beyond the V20 in raw horsepower, and actually lacks a couple of that phone’s major features. (All part of an effort to better differentiate the G and V lines, LG tells me.) I’d hope to see that reflected in the eventual price point, which I don’t yet know at the time of writing.

Anyway, is this new, gimmick-free LG phone actually any good? It’s time to find out.

About this review

We’re publishing this review after a total of just over two days with a U.S.-spec LG G6 on software that isn’t quite final yet. I (Alex Dobie) have been carrying the unlocked model (LGUS997) on firmware v09l, with the March 1, 2017 Android Security Patch, based on Android 7.0 Nougat. I’ve been using the phone in Barcelona, Spain on the Orange network ahead of MWC 2017. Prior to reviewing the phone, I spent a few days in Seoul, South Korea, where I was able to use a number of pre-production G6 models.

Metal and glass

LG G6 Hardware

At first glance, the LG G6 is both familiar and something of an oddball. For a 5.7-inch phone, it’s smaller than you’d expect. There’s an entirely obvious reason for that — for a modern smartphone of any kind, the screen is a good deal taller than any previous model. And while the curved glass back panel has echoes of Samsung’s Galaxy line, the front is almost aggressively flat, with a chamfered metal trim that’s essentially flush with the display.

That’s a deliberate design decision, LG tells us, with the idea being to avoid exposed “2.5D” glass protrusions on the front, which would be a structural weakness should the phone take a tumble. (You’ll still need to deal with curved glass on the back, however that panel is furnished in Gorilla Glass 5, as opposed to version 3 of the material, which makes up the screen.) The front face has an unconventional look, but it’s also a welcome respite from the sea of phones with slightly curved glass displays.

This is a phone which feels both big and small at the same time, and the form factor is just a tad reminiscent of traditional candybars like LG’s own Chocolate phones of yesteryear. Of course there is an argument to be had about just how useful a 5.7-inch, 18:9 display is, given that most videos, shot at 16:9, conjure up black borders on the G6. But for the most part, Android apps fill the extra space without issue.

This thing feels so much more sturdy than any previous LG design.

The G6 is crafted from metal and glass, and now the battery is fully sealed in, so you won’t be popping off the back to swap power packs — or, for any other reason. As a result, this thing feels solid and well-built, with clean lines, precise joins and a pleasing contrast between the deliberately flat front face and the more ergonomic curved rear. This isn’t a rugged phone by any means, but it feels much more sturdy than anything LG has produced before. Your three color options are black, white and “platinum” — my personal favorite — the back of which has a neat brushed texture beneath the glass.

(In meetings in Seoul, Korea ahead of today’s launch, LG hinted that more G6 colors would likely be arriving sometime after launch.)

The solid outer frame holding everything together has a pleasant brushed texture, and the chamfers on either side help with gripability. These side walls aren’t as intentionally slim as many of Samsung’s recent phones — the G6 wears its 7.9mm thickness on its sleeve. But again, there’s something reassuring about a phone which doesn’t try to chase numbers like this.

No matter how much you baby it, the back of the G6 is going to pick up scratches.

While the G6 may feel like a well-built, premium smartphone, it’s worth pointing out that like every other device with a flush glass back, the rear of this thing is inevitably going to accumulate scratches. I’ve already picked up one particularly gnarly one right in the center of my G6’s back panel after just a few days of use. (At least it has no trouble staying still while laying on a flat surface, unlike, say, the notoriously slippery Honor 8.

Other hardware staples include IP68-rated water and dust resistance, meaning you don’t need to worry about your G6 getting drenched out in a rainstorm, or rinsing it off if it ends up on the wrong end of a spilled beverage.

Operating System	Android 7.0 Nougat
Display	5.7-inch LCD 2880x1440Gorilla Glass 3Dolby Vision, HDR 10
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 (MSM8996)
Storage	32GB (U.S., Europe)64GB (Asia, Korea, Hong Kong, India, CiS)
Expandable	microSD up to 2TB
RAM	4GB
Camera (Main)	13MP (IMX258), 1.12µm pixels, f/1.8, OIS71-degree lens, phase-detect AF
Camera (Wide)	13MP (IMX258), 1.12µm pixels, f/2.4125-degree lens, fixed focus
Front Camera	5MP, f/2.2100-degree lens
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, NFCUSB-C 3.1
Audio	32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC (Asia only)
Battery	3300mAhNon-removable
Charging	USB-CQuick Charge 3.0Qi wireless (U.S.)
Water resistance	IP68
Security	One-touch fingerprint sensor
Dimensions	148.9 x 71.9 x 7.9 mm
Colors	Black, white, platinum

And on the inside, there’s a dependable assortment of high-end, early-2017 specs. At its core, the G6 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 (not the upcoming 835, which won’t be around for another couple of months), backed up by 4GB of RAM. The base model, somewhat disappointingly, only comes with 32GB of storage, though that’s offset by the microSD slot, to which heavier content can be offloaded. (System data, in case you were wondering, takes up a whopping 11GB on my U.S. unlocked G6.)

Some of the G6’s tentpole features have weird geographic restrictions.

Some of the G6’s other tentpole features have weird geographic restrictions. The Quad DAC — an upgraded version of the audio feature from the V20 — is only available in Korea and a handful of other Asian markets. And wireless charging is exclusive to the U.S., so other regions will have to make do with good old-fashioned cable charging over Qualcomm Quick Charge 3. And if you want a 64 GB G6, that’s also restricted to parts of Asia and Eastern Europe.

For everyone else, it’s 32GB, no Quad DAC and no wireless charging, which seems unnecessarily stingy given that few other manufacturers split up features like this. (It also means there’s no single G6 model with all these features.)

A phone’s display is always one of the most important hardware characteristics, and that’s especially true of the G6’s extra-tall screen. It’s a 5.7-inch IPS LCD at 2880×1440 resolution (think Quad HD with an extra 300 pixels or so stacked on the top), and it looks great. After all the well-documented issues with the G5’s disappointingly, dark, weirdly green panel, it’s fantastic to see this return to form in the G6. LG claims the panel can reach over 600 nits in brightness to stay clearly visible under sunlight, and that matches my experience using the phone for a few sunny days out in Barcelona.

The display is also Dolby Vision and HDR 10-ready, and LG told us the phone would “just work” when HDR content starts to hit the mobile versions of streaming platforms like Netflix. We don’t have any specifics on exactly how that’ll work, though.

The speaker setup is more run-of-the-mill. There’s a single, bottom-firing can that’ll get reasonably loud, but without the bass and clarity of rivals like the iPhone, HTC 10 and Huawei Mate 9. It’s decent, but nothing to write home about.

LG’s dual camera system returns, this time with 13-megapixel sensors in both rear shooters — the 71-degree standard camera and the 125-degree wide-angle. Around the back, you get both standard and wide-angle shooters at 13 megapixels, this time using the same sensor. There are some differences in terms of the optics though. The standard camera has a bright f/1.8 lens and optical stabilization, on the wide angle it’s f/2.4 without OIS. So, predictably, the wide-angle camera doesn’t perform quite as well in low light. We’ll dig deeper on this in later in our review.

A lot of fuss has been made about the fact that the G6 is technically launching with last year’s processor, and that it’s stepping down from 13 megapixels in its main camera. Yet while it remains to be seen how the G6 will measure up next to the wave of new phones expected to arrive in the months ahead, I’m largely OK with the hardware on offer here, both on the inside and the outside.

UX 6.0

LG G6 Software

It’s easy to look at the software on the LG G6 G6 next to an V20 (or even a year-old G5) and say that not a whole lot has changed. And you wouldn’t be entirely wrong in saying that. The color palette, rounded rectangular icon style and lack-of-an-app-drawer by default have held over from the previous generation. However the fact that LG hasn’t completely scrapped its software design and started over is a good thing. Instead of a completely different visual style, LG has cleaned things up across the board, to produce a UI that looks like an evolution of last year’s software efforts.

LG’s latest interface is built upon Android 7.0 Nougat — unfortunately not the newer 7.1.1 Nougat right this second, but LG tells us the G6 will indeed launch on 7.1 in when it comes to the U.S. (In Korea, you’ll get the 7.0-based firmware we’ve been using for the past few days.)

The new, taller display lets LG crank up the information density and introduce new design flourishes.

The new 2:1 display lets LG crank up the information density and introduce some interesting new software features to take advantage of its lanky proportions. That taller display lets LG split many of its own apps — like Contacts, Music and Calendar — into two (mostly) equal square sections, with rich visuals up top and extra room for information down below. And obviously a taller screen is great for multi-window too, allowing you to see more of each individual app.

LG’s flirtation with “squircles” — rounded rectangular bubbles for each of its app icons — continues in its latest software, giving both first-party and third-party apps a rectangular border for added visual consistency. Although if you’re not a fan, these can be easily changed in the home screen settings panel.

The rest of the software builds on the work LG started last year with the G5 and V20, making things a bit more visually consistent throughout, and settling on a refreshed design language with lighter colors, plenty of rounded rectangles and geometric graphics that fit with Google’s Material Design language. LG’s color scheme is vivid, but not obnoxious, and the company has taken a leaf out of Google’s book with wallpapers based upon layers of colored card, and abstract graphics in apps like Weather and Clock.

The company has also built out a range of themes to complement each of the G6’s colors, with icons and wallpapers to match the outer hues of each model. Some of these look pretty jarring, however, so I’ve stuck to the default theme on my device.

LG UX 6.0 is an evolution of what we saw on the V20 last year, with some neat design tweaks suited to the taller 2:1 display.

Other LG staples like KnockOn (double-tap to wake) are back, and extra-useful because the power key and fingerprint sensor live around the back. However if you were hoping LG would mimic the Pixel’s swipe-down shortcut on the fingerprint scanner for quick notification shade access, you’ll be disappointed — the gesture isn’t enabled on the G6. That’s a shame, because this kind of gesture shortcut would be amazingly useful on such a tall device, where reaching the top of the screen can be challenging. You can at least conjure up a notification shortcut button in the nav bar down below.

All in all, I’m pleased with the software tweaks LG has made here, though Android purists may view it as a little too customized.

It’s just unfortunate that few third-party applications are likely to take advantage of the new, taller screen in the same way LG’s own apps do. (That may change when more devices adopt this taller aspect ratio.) And obviously an 18:9 screen will leave you with unsightly black bars on the sides when you’re watching standard 16:9 videos, giving you a significantly smaller viewable area than the 16:9 diagonal of the physical display.

Meanwhile, the rounded corners of the screen, while they’re a neat design touch, annoyingly don’t quite match up with the corners of the bezel — it’s a minor thing, but something you can never un-see. (Your screenshots, for what it’s worth, have plain old squared-off corners.)

Google Assistant is handy, but still not a reason to buy the G6 in itself.

The LG G6 also has the honor of being the first non-Google phone to ship with Google Assistant, the same Google-powered AI that first arrived on the Pixel to mixed feedback. Assistant on the Pixel is useful, but not quite the killer app Google has promised, though it has been improving significantly in the four months or so since launch. There isn’t anything particularly special about the G6’s implementation of Assistant, it looks and works exactly like it does on Google’s handsets, allowing you to ask questions directly to Google, and receive spoken answers back based on the knowledge graph, and the information in your Google account.

As on the Pixel, there are instances where Assistant can startle you with its wisdom — like correctly identifying a building based on your description. Other features, like the ability to recognize songs (something built into the regular Google app on Android), are oddly still not there.

Extra wide

LG G6 Cameras

The G6’s dual camera setup is sure to be one of the more controversial hardware decisions, because on paper it seems like the phone takes a small but noteworthy downgrade (or at best a sidegrade) compared to its immediate predecessor.

Whereas the G5 has a 16-megapixel main camera backed up by an 8-megapixel wide-angle lens, the G3 has two 13-megapixel shooters — one wide-angle camera using a 125mm f/2.4 lens, the other optically stabilized with a more traditional 71mm at f/1.8. For what it’s worth, we’re not talking about any kind of fancy 1.4 or 1.5-micron pixel sensors, like Google’s Pixel and Samsung’s GS7. You’ve got plain old 1.12-micron pixels at play, which usually wouldn’t bode well for low light performance.

So there’s parity in terms of megapixel count between both cameras, but because of the disparity in optics, you’d expect the wide angle camera to come out a little worse in low light performance.

So how does real-world performance measure up?

On paper the G6’s main sensor doesn’t appear to be anything special. Yet the overall package, with that bright lens and OIS, beats the Galaxy S7 and goes toe-to-toe with the Google Pixel in the dark, thanks in part to LG’s software tuning. And although wide angle camera can become grainy in darker conditions, it’s miles ahead of the old 8-megapixel sensor from the V20 and G5. With a steady hand (and sometimes, the assistance of LG’s great manual shooting modes), it’s possible to get some fantastic wide-angle shots.

And in daylight, the results can be truly spectacular, with rich colors complementing the broad field of view.

The G6’s new, higher-res wide-angle camera is incredibly fun, and capable of taking spectacular shots.

I was ready to be underwhelmed by the G6’s cameras, just based on the numbers, and instead I’ve been very pleasantly surprised. This is a fantastic camera setup, with fine detail performance to rival some of the best out there, great dynamic range and punchy, but not unnatural colors. It’s also been great to get reacquainted with the 125-degree wide-angle camera — a feature I loved in the G5, but soon had to leave behind because the rest of that phone was so disappointing. It’s true that the difference in optics reduces fine detail capture in wide-angle shots, but still, being able to just push a button and capture a really wide field of vision is incredibly fun.

Some of my fellow Mobile Nations editors have been eyeing the G6’s wide-angle camera with envy, and I suspect for many phone buyers in the coming months this feature might be what sells them on the G6.

It’s also important to note that low-light performance from the G6 — at least from its main sensor — far outperforms what I had expected based on the specs. I think the Google Pixel still captures slightly better color detail, but when it comes fine detail performance, the advantage is LG’s.

Around the front, there’s a 5-megapixel, 100-degree sensor that can switch between a cropped-in view and a wider angle to fit in your friends, a bit of extra scenery, or both. Low-light performance on the front-facer isn’t great, especially in video mode, but it’s perfectly fine for sharing on your phone, via Facebook or whatever else. And as you’d expect, performance improved rapidly with decent indoor lighting, or in daylit shots.

The G6 is a dependable video camera, building on the V20’s capabilities.

The G6’s rear shooters make for a much more capable video camera, with software stabilization features that you may remember from the V20. As usual, the regular camera does a bit better in the dark compared to the wide-angle. And at a normal walking pace, LG’s stabilization does a good job of smoothing stuff out, with only minimal ghosting in tougher lighting conditions. I’d still say the Google Pixel’s video stabilization is better overall, but it is pretty close, with the biggest difference being more noticeable blurring around lighter areas within darker shots.

As with still photography, the most fun aspect of shooting video with the G6 is seeing just how much detail you can suck in with the wide-angle lens, giving you a more immersive view into the subject of your footage.

On the software side, LG has also expanded its camera app to take advantage of the new 2:1 aspect ratio, with a useful filmstrip view giving showing you your last few photos alongside the viewfinder. Some shooting modes have been rearranged too, with the HDR toggle (confusingly) now living behind a menu overflow. Instead, LG gives top-level exposure to panoramas, 360 pano and slow-mo modes.

Once again, photography might be the main reason to choose an LG phone this year. However good the Galaxy S8’s camera is, it’s basically guaranteed to lack the G6’s wide-angle chops. And the fact that it outperforms expectations in darker shots bodes well for its competitiveness against what’s coming later in the year.

All day

LG G6 Battery Life

The move away from removable batteries gives LG the chance to fit a slightly beefier cell in its new high-end offering. And that’s exactly what it’s done, with an ample (but not numerically outstanding) 3,300mAh internal battery keeping the G6 chugging along. And you’ll be able to rapidly juice it up using Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0, just like the G5.

Americans also get wireless charging support to boast about, a feature sadly exclusive to the United States. Given that Samsung has been offering wireless charging as standard for almost two years, it seems crazy for LG to limit this functionality to specific regions.

3,300mAh isn’t an enormous amount of juice for a 5.7-inch phone, but the G6 manages just fine regardless.

3,300mAh gets you a full day, but not much more.

I’ve found the integrated power pack to be good for a solid day’s use out here in Barcelona, even over the course of a few busy days getting ready for Mobile World Congress 2017. Bouncing between LTE and Wifi, and taking a couple of hundred photos each day, I found I’d take the G6 off its charger at around 8am and start running out of juice again around 10pm. That said, making extensive use of the cameras can quickly drain the G6 into the danger zone. On a couple of heavier days when I was taking lots of video as well as still images, I hit the 15 percent warning level by 6pm in the evening.

That’s pretty much standard for a high-end Android phone right now — a full day’s use, but probably not much more than that, and extra power suck from using demanding features. Naturally, should you need a mid-day refresh, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3 has you covered.

Since we’ve been using the LG G6 with pre-production firmware, we’ll update this review when we’re on final G6 firmware to note any differences, as well as any changes — good or bad — in battery performance over time.

The bottom line

Should you buy the LG G6? Yes

When I look back on many of the gimmicks LG has tried to use to sell smartphones over the years, the most striking thing about the G6 is how this time the focus is on just making a good, balanced phone that does most thing really well, and a few things. As much as you could argue that the taller display is indeed a gimmick, LG’s doing enough with it that it’s not just there for the sake of it.

Most importantly, the core experience of the G6 is flagship-class across the board, with a good-looking design, top-notch display, solid performance and battery life — and that’s complemented by a surprisingly great camera setup with some really fun features. The G6 isn’t exactly cutting edge in every area — LG tells me it deliberately isn’t playing the spec game this time.

Even so, its success is going to depend on its price tag, especially when you consider the Galaxy S8 is just a couple of months away. And should it be priced within striking distance of the Samsung flagship, it may be a hard sell for LG.

Regardless, right now, the G6 is a solid phone that I can absolutely recommend. The Korean firm hasn’t achieved perfection here. Instead, it’s a return to form.

Welcome back, LG.

Making the LG G6

Alex and Andrew visited LG HQ in Seoul, Korea, to get a look at how the G6 is made, find out why LG made the choices it did with this phone, and learn about the design direction and testing behind the new flagship.

Check out our report to find out how the G6 went from concept, to prototype, right through to the finished product.

Balance, simplicity and a tall screen: How the LG G6 is made

Google Assistant is coming to all phones running Marshmallow and above

Get ready to interact with the Google Assistant on your phone.

The Google Assistant is available on the Google Home, Android Wear 2.0, Google’s messaging app Allo, the NVIDIA Shield TV, and Android TVs, and Google is now vastly expanding its reach by bringing the AI-based virtual assistant to all phones running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and above.

Google made the announcement at Mobile World Congress, stating that the rollout will kick off later this week for English users in the U.S., followed by English users in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as German speakers in Germany. The best part is that you don’t have to wait for an update from your manufacturer or carrier to receive Assistant, as an upcoming update to the Google app — version 6.13 — will enable the functionality.

Assistant will be enabled on millions of phones through an update to the Google app.

All phones running Google Play Services will be eligible to receive the update, which rules out devices made in China and those using forked versions of Android. You also need to have a phone running at least 1.5GB of RAM and a 720p display to use Assistant.

Google has mentioned that it will make the Assistant compatible with more languages over the course of the year. New handsets will offer the Google Assistant out of the box, like the LG G6. Google is also showcasing Assistant on phones from HTC, Huawei, Samsung and Sony later this week at MWC.

Assistant is still in its nascent stages, but there’s a wealth of functionality on offer. You’ll be able to use the “Ok Google” command to view flight itineraries, weather alerts, set reminders, control the lighting in your house, view calendar events, and so much more. Google Assistant understands contextual queries, allowing you to pick up from where you left off in a particular thread.

By rolling out Assistant to all Android phones, Google is looking to take the fight to Amazon’s Alexa. Alexa has racked up over 10,000 skills over the last two years, but the ubiquity of Android allows Google to reach a far wider userbase, thereby giving the search giant much more data to work with to improve Assistant.

Here’s what you can do with the Google Assistant

Watch Andrew and Alex discuss the LG G6 in Korea!

See our first impressions of the LG G6 from Korea.

We had a wonderful and unique opportunity to join LG for a tour and set of interviews surrounding the launch of the new LG G6. On our final day in Seoul before heading back home prior to MWC 2017, we took the opportunity to sit down and collect our thoughts on everything we saw.

As you can tell, we have plenty to talk about. From the interviews and experiences to of course details about the new phone, we cover it all here! Consider this a great jumping-off point for your dive into the LG G6, and be sure to continue by reading our complete review!

• Android Central on YouTube

LG G6

• LG G6 review!
• LG G6 specs
• These LG G6 features are exclusive to some countries
• LG forums
• Latest LG G6 news