LG G7 Plus ThinQ

Let me cut straight to the chase here – the LG G7+ ThinQ is a gorgeous flagship, but one that won't draw much attention to it. Much like the competition, the smartphone ships with glass on both the front and the back which gives it a premium, yet customary look. Now, the G7+ does come in a vibrant red colourway, though the company has launched the phone in a relatively duller black hue in India. Although I haven't tried the other colours of the smartphone, I'm willing to bet that they hide fingerprints and smudges a lot better than my black review unit. I'd also like to point out that if you're coming from the LG G6 or the V30+ like me, then the smartphone will feel particularly familiar in the hand.

The LG G7 ThinQ relies on a pair of 16MP shooters positioned at the back to take photos. The primary shooter at the back makes use of a standard 16MP lens with f/1.6 aperture and a combination of OIS and EIS, whereas the assisting shooter utilises a 16MP wide-angle lens with f/1.9 aperture. For selfies, LG has finally upgraded the front camera on the G7+, which now offers an 8MP shooter. Since, the better part of my day goes into perfecting my hair to take a self-portrait, let's talk about the quality of the selfie shooter first.

For software, the LG G7+ ThinQ ships with Android Oreo v8.0 with a skin of the company's LG UX on top. Although I would've preferred if the smartphone booted a near-stock version of Android, I don't have any major issues with the custom skin, primarily because it doesn't bog the smartphone down by eating up all the system's resources. The UI feels fluid and the launcher's animations are swift enough to keep you from slapping a third-party launcher the minute you unbox the device. You also get a bunch of different features with the custom skin, such as the ability to theme the smartphone, add a floating bar which lets you get in and out of apps quicker and program the phone to become contextually aware of your surroundings through which, the device can automatically change the settings for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

There's no two ways about it – the LG G7+ ThinQ has an abysmal battery life which will not see you through the end of a day on heavy use, especially if you've set the display resolution at Quad HD. Now, this could be a deal breaker if you travel a lot, but since I spend the better part of my day glued to my office chair, I never faced any problems, so to speak. Spec-wise, you'll get a 3,000mAh battery with the phone which drains really quickly. On the flip side, the bundled fast charger tops up the smartphone in a little over 1.5 hours, so at least you won't have to stay tethered to a wall charger for long.