LG G6 Review: Design Elegance And Efficiency A Winning Combination
LG G6 Design And Build Quality
If there's one word to describe the LG G6's overall design signature, it would be "compact." That isn't enough of a descriptor though because the second adjective that comes to mind is "premium." You can completely forget the fit and finish horror show that was the modular LG G5 (to be quite frank); the G6 is polished, with a machine aluminum body that's strapped with Gorilla Glass on both the front and back of the device. The glass on the back does make the Black version of the G6 a complete fingerprint magnet but the Titanium and White versions have no such problem. The G6's volume up and down buttons are on the left side, making for easy control with your thumb in your left hand, but slightly more awkward in your right. It's all good though because the phone isn't as wide and stretches slightly taller with its 18:9 format, making for easy one-handed navigation while still getting that 5.7 inches of super-tight display love into the palm of your hand.
LG G6 Next To Google Pixel XL - Bezel is so gauche.
Standard Android Home, Back and Recent Tasks buttons are transparent on the home screen, but change to a white on gray ribbon within web browsers and apps. On the right edge is a combo nano SIM and microSD card slot with expandable storage for up to another 2TB. On bottom is a USB Type-C port and LG does bundle in a USB-C to USB-A cord that plugs into the phone's charger and can also double as a connection to your PC for file transfers. Also on the bottom is a single speaker port that, though occasionally can be muffled by you hand if you're not careful, sounds surprisingly good with solid volume output.
Out back is where you'll find a fingerprint scanner and the two aforementioned cameras (wide-angle and standard) along with their LED flash. I'm of the class of users that prefer my fingerprint readers on the back side, making for easy placement and location of index fingers from either hand to quickly unlock the phone. Once your digits are stored in memory, the G6 is lightning quick at unlocking. The fit and finish back here is just gorgeous and the Titanium silver variant we're testing does a nice job of staying clean somehow. Unfortunately, both the front and back glass surfaces of the G6 are a little too prone to scratching for our liking. Compared to the Google Pixel XL, for example, the G6 appears to be significantly more sensitive to scratches in its glass, exhibiting a few on both the front and back of the device after only a couple weeks of use, while the Pixel XL has stood up as a daily driver device for us for many months now, with fewer scratches to show. If you pick up a G6, unfortunately you're going to want to cover up its beautiful exterior with a quality case. That's not a big downer by any stretch though and safe, covered smartphoning is always advised anyway.
And yes, there is a standard headphone jack on the top of the LG G6. Apple, how's that "courage" working for ya? A set of headphones bundled with a premium device like this would be nice though, LG.
LG G6 Next To Google Pixel XL - Bezel is so gauche.
Again though, at the risk of beating a dead horse (which we'd never do to such glorious beasts, live or dead), once you've seen the G6's 5.7-inch display sheathed in so little bezel versus a standard, dare we say "legacy" smartphone design, you simply can't unsee it and you will quickly be jonesing for it. Look at the Google Pixel XL here -- a great Android alternative in its own right -- next to the LG G6. The Pixel XL sports a 5.5-inch display versus the 5.7-inch G6, but the G6 is a drastically smaller device in comparison. The Pixel XL looks gargantuan next to it.
Unfortunately, the G6 doesn't sport an OLED panel, though its 564 ppi pixel density over 2880X1440 resolution just pops with the crispy. It also delivers great brightness, contrast and vibrant but balanced colors. Compared to the Pixel XL's OLED display the G6 actually looks just as good, though Samsung's Super AMOLED technology does still rein supreme among smartphones in our opinion.
Let's look at the software and camera side of things with the G6...
Unfortunately, the G6 doesn't sport an OLED panel, though its 564 ppi pixel density over 2880X1440 resolution just pops with the crispy. It also delivers great brightness, contrast and vibrant but balanced colors. Compared to the Pixel XL's OLED display the G6 actually looks just as good, though Samsung's Super AMOLED technology does still rein supreme among smartphones in our opinion.
Let's look at the software and camera side of things with the G6...
