Verizon's LG G6 has excellent fundamentals with no gimmicks

It seems phones are all about gimmicks these days, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The Moto Z has Moto Mods. Samsung has been putting curved screens on its phones like the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and now the Galaxy S8. LG’s G5 has Friends and LG’s V10 and V20 have a second screen. In a world where every phone has a gimmick, sometimes you just want a simple phone that executes perfectly on the fundamentals. My friends at Verizon let me spend a few weeks with the LG G6 and I’m convinced that’s exactly what it does. It’s a fast, straightforward phone with a large, single, flat screen and excellent cameras. And I love it.

Hardware

The G6 has the same large 5.7″ screen as the V20, which is significantly larger than the G5. However, the G6 packs this extra screen into a body that’s actually slightly narrower and shorter than the G6. It does this by nearly eliminating the bezel — the plastic border between the screen and the edge of the phone — as well as making the screen taller than normal.

The phone is extremely fast and I never found it to lag. It comes in 32 GB and 64 GB versions and thankfully supports SD card external storage for those of us with ridiculous amounts of podcasts. The power button doubles as a fingerprint reader and is located in a great spot on the back below the camera. Volume buttons are on the left side. The speaker is on the bottom next to the USB Type-C port and the headphone jack is on the top.

The battery is 3300 mAh and it’s not removable. In my real world usage, playing podcasts all day with Bluetooth, it lasted me from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. That’s great for someone with a desk job. On the farm that means I’d have to look for a charger in the middle of the day. LG has done a great job with fast charging, and I’m excited that they brought back wireless charging that was sorely missing on the G5 and V20. I do wish they’d have given the G6 the removable back and upgradable battery that made the G3, G4, V10 and V20 so wonderful.

The bezel reduction makes the phone somewhat more difficult to type on. Indeed, I found it almost challenging to use without a case. I grabbed an Oeago case from Amazon. While it doesn’t have a belt clip, it makes the G6 much easier to hold and use and, for under $6, is quite a bargain.

Cameras

The G6 has the same dual camera configuration that was found on the G5 and V20 — a standard lens next to a wide-angle lens. Where the V20 had a 16 MP primary sensor and an 8 MP wide-angle sensor, the G6 has 13 MP sensors for both the standard and wide-angle lenses. I’m a huge fan of the wide-angle pictures, so the big jump from 8 MP to 13 MP is something I really like. Here’s a comparison set showing pictures of canola with the standard lens and wide-angle lens.

While the standard lens resolution is lower with the G6, the picture quality is as good or better than the V20. Here’s a comparisons of an inside shot in uneven low light between the V20, G6 and the Samsung Galaxy S8+.

Here’s another comparison of the three phones taken outside. All photos are unedited. The resolution is set to high. HDR and flash are set to auto to simulate common real-world point-and-shoot phone photography.

Software

LG keeps getting better with their software. The G6 has the usual pre-installed bloat that comprises some games and Verizon apps, but those can be easily uninstalled or disabled. The additions to Android aren’t nearly as obnoxious as they were in previous phones and the experience feels fast and clean. I especially like the design of the in-call screen, which feels more modern than previous LG versions.

LG G6 review summary

The only feature missing that would make the G6 the perfect phone is a removable battery. It ticks every other box — beautiful, large, flat, IPS screen; SD card expansion slot; fast processor with enough memory to remain snappy for years to come; and the wonderful wide-angle secondary camera.

I admit that I have a soft spot for LG phones. I carried the G3 for three years until this January when I upgraded to the V20. Last year, I bought my wife the G5 before I even sent my review G5 back to Verizon. LG makes terrific phones and the G6 is no exception. Instead of trying to find a new gimmick, the G6 simply executes on the goal to build a high quality, straightforward smartphone.