OnePlus 6 VS LG G7

[Token]

My LG G3 might be showing it’s age- I’ve done the SOC heat compound mod and ditched the OE ROM long ago to CM then LineageOS. The SnapDragon 801 isn’t that great for encryption (really saps performance and makes updates a huge hassle), no fingerprint sensor = I have to tap the phone once to NFC pay, unlock pattern, then tap again, and on that note pattern and pin unlock is way too easy to shoulder surf. IMO the phone has a lot more life left in it, but from a physical security aspect its a mess (software side Lineage is crazy fast on updates). So I’m looking to get a new phone and being an LG fan I’m on the fence on two phones, and want to think out loud here and get opinions:

Oneplus 6 VS LG G7

Common ground:
Notch (sigh), SnapDragon 845, USB C, headphone jack (crucial), IMO price- the LG will have a higher MSRP, but I’m pretty certain it’s sales will suck and it’s price will be in the same ballpark as the OnePlus. Maybe the cameras are on somewhat common ground? Record at 4K 60FPS, various slow motion options.

OnePlus 6 pros over the LG:

• 6 or even 8 gigs of RAM option, should make speed and future proofing strong here.
• OxygenOS- a big pro over the LG, I like ASOP or close to ASOP ROMs- a big weight on this one.
• If I don’t like OxygenOS, they have healthy ROM support
• Designated silence nob
• Dash charging
• I suppose overall customer satisfaction, LG seems to have a divide.

Cons:

• I would say notch, but the G7 has one too
• I would say 1080p screen, but I’ve seen 1080p screens that look fantastic
• Went glass back without wireless charging

LG G7 pros over the OnePlus:

• Wireless charging (making the glass back more worth it than with the OnePlus- in OnePlus’ defense one review said they went glass back to future proof the phone for 1gig wireless, but I’m not a big fan of early adopting, it never seems to pan out).
• I’ve had a good experience with LG hardware, not so much with Samsung hence its not even an option (plus their UI, nasty).
• Boombox? I don’t see myself using it/caring for it, so low weight on this one.
• Wide angle camera (meh- I’d spring for optical zoom)
• designated google assistant button, I can see myself warming up to this- here is to hoping it becomes mappable in the future.
• Not just keeping the earphone jack, but a great DAC
• Good waterproof and shock rating
• double tap screen to wake, double tap top of screen to sleep- have loved this feature on the LG and find it hard to imagine not having it. Maybe a 3rd party app does just as well? Does OxygenOS have this option?

Cons:

• LG skin
• LG’s HORRIBLE update track record- though they announced a designated update department (not the first a company says this and doesn’t deliver though…)
• Even if good ROM support, I don’t want to go that route on a phone that won’t have proprietary camera firmware available, the camera always suffers if using generic.
• Earpiece offset (MrMobile’s review brings this up)
• 4 Gig of RAM seems behind the curve- here is to hoping larger memory options will be available in the states.
• AI element seems like a gimic

I’m pretty sold on the OnePlus, but with the G7 a few weeks away, I will be binging on reviews. Now that I’ve typed it out, I can see the cons for the G7 are pretty big and heavy- I guess a piece of me is rooting for LG and I’ve really REALLY wanted wireless charging, but I’ll be so pissed if I end up with a phone that doesn’t get security updates, yet alone OS version updates or for that matter bogs down due to OE skin.

[anon46267848]

Tbh you’ve already answered your own question. The Oneplus 6 wins.

[kush]

I don’t know the answer. I think I would lean towards the OnePlus as well. However, for you, I would just like to congratulate you on being able to keep your LG G3 alive this long. From what I’ve read on Reddit, I suggest you don’t buy a phone but rather put the entire sum in some kind of lottery because you’re clearly a very lucky person.

I mean we have memes about it

Why would anyone willingly give LG any money at this point?

[Venom415]

I was in a similar situation to you, I had a LG G3 and was wanting an upgrade because the battery life was dying on me so quick, I was deciding between the v30 and the Pixel 2. Ill just run down my experience with my V30 for the past 6 months

The G7 Seems to be a more updated V30 with a lot of the same features but with a new notch and screen along with better cameras and I think more customization for the DAC, Personally I dont mind the skin as I went with a white LG skin and blue background that makes it look like a pixel. I constantly use the DAC/AMP, The AI thing seems a bit cheesy but its still interesting (I have to do more tests with the AI cam). the wireless charging is pretty sweet and its also useful for magnetic phone holders in cars because of the charge plate being able to stick to them. The V30 has a POLED screen which in the sunlight usually requires at least 50% brightness, the G7 has an LCD screen which should be a bit better for viewing in the sun. Although updates take a while, I did recieve the Oreo 8.0 update in my v30 about a month and a half ago, it doesnt personally bother me but thats just me.

Honestly the G7 seems to have more features than the OP6 but the OP6 will have better software support. Personally id rather go with the G7.

[FaunCB]

Do the oneplus. Trust me you’ll get a lot more freedom and quality with it than the LG.

[Token]

First, thanks guys for reading my long winded post! Its a lot of money + as a self proclaimed techie I’m not going into this casually, so I know I’m nuking it somewhat.

@anon46267848 yeah after typing it all out, it showed me I’m leaning 1+6.

@kush, yeah I’ve heard that sentiment, but I’ve been nothing but impressed, my G3 is WAY more ‘waterproof’ than it was not advertised to be, survived lots of falls etc. It might have helped that I did the heat sink compund mod (gets the SOC heat to the frame and back of LCD screen), so my SOC has probably lived a cooler life than most. Also afte it’s first OS update it really suffered, so going to an AOSP like ROM really helped with heat and battery life as well. Maybe LG doesn’t age well, but at least it works out of the gate- my Samsung Galaxy S2 had capacitive key ghosting and a GPS hardware flaw. I had to google a lot and follow a tutorial to cut up some refrigerator magnets to make inductive shielding to get rid of the key ghosting, and the GPS flaw was nevery figured out with softare on XDA so IMO a hardware flaw. Both showed me Samsung’s culture of half ass’ness and I vote with my $$, never again Samsung. The key ghosting I get, they had firmware to amp up the signal strength with bad reception so thats actually pretty cool, just bad testing to let it affect the capactive buttons- but a DIY fix doesn’t bug me. But the unfixable GPS issue was really annoying and at times even a safety issue.

@Venom415 Sounds like you’ve had an LG experiance like mine, where you are game to stay in the LG camp. I’ve had (thought maybe abnormally) a good hardware experiance, and nova launcher can help fix bad skins. You didn’t want to just replace the battery in the G3 and/or do a wipe/refresh? IMO lots of brands get laggy and drain batteries and usually a wipe/clean start helps with that. If its the ROM, then LineageOS is great but leads to the points I made earlier, the camera will suffer if the OEM does not provide the proprietary driver.

@FaunCB, thats what its feeling like. I really want wireless charging, but its not worth regretting other aspects. I found out that OxygenOS has the double tap screen wake/sleep, so one less advantage in the LG camp. ARS technica has maybe the most critical of 1+6 reviews and even the ‘down checks’ mentioned seem to be even worse with most other brands, so 1+6 isn’t perfect, but they are probably as good as one will get (security update, OS version update, ROM support wise) short of getting a Pixel or Essential phone. This out-weighs wireless charging if I’m going for the longetivity game again:

I suggest you don’t buy a phone but rather put the entire sum in some kind of lottery because you’re clearly a very lucky person.

Lolz. Wish that were true, but yeah I did some ‘hacks’ to help my G3 along. I did hard brick it once requiring I send it to a guy in Texas that has the JTAG and firmware to bring it back. Kitkat was good but the update to lollipop was just too much for it to handle. Going aftermarket ROM was crucial at that point.

Dude, I even have a dual booting 1st gen Nexus 7 still running, the OEM ROM updates made it unusable, using a CM ROM (no longer supported, does not get updates) is keeping it usuable, so I use it just to show the LAN PoE camera feeds.

[kush]

I have a 2013 Nexus 7. It is on nougat so life is much better.

I use a Nexus 6 on Lineage. I love it. I have two Nexus 4. Both of them have screen digitizer problem. Even my Nexus 5 has some of that problem. Replacements are inexpensive but really not worth it atm because Nexus 6 is pretty good.

I am thinking I will wait and see how this xiaomi mi a2 rumors will pan out. If I can get 64GB storage for under $300, it is a good buy I think.

[Token]

Those Chinese phones are amazing bang-for-buck, but I must have NFC. They even have IR blasters (LG G3’s, you will be missed). Crazy what happened with ATT and Huawei, I was looking forward to that launch.

Moto hardware is great- I’ve had two Motos and the hardware and ROMs are great- I’m just not jiving with their latest flagship stuff. If I were in the market for a budget phone it would be the Moto options vs. Chinese options. With the Motos I know I’d be getting quality.

[Venom415]

Honestly skins dont bother me as ive gone through so many bad UIs in my life that anythings a blessing compared to some, Im just a person that gets used to stock. Never considered a wipe or different launcher but I did deactivate the animations for new windows etc. Might try a new launcher as I am curious but I wonder how they utilize the camera compared to the stock manual mode.
Got the G3 because I thought id use its features like IR or replacing the battery, but I never really had a need for those, my needs were music, contacting people, photos and entertainment in order of greatest to least needed. Dropped my G3 in the lake and only some weird audio issues happened but that was it.
EDIT: almost forgot to mention that my Mic was broken so I saved up for a new phone rather than repairing the old.
My V30 camera is pretty nice and I tried the Google Pixel APK on it and it did outshine the stock camera app for a while but now the stock got an update with the Oreo update and its pretty on par with it.

I guess you have to think about your needs from a phone and which one will be mostly a concern or requirement. G7 with great audio/camera and wireless charging with decent updates, or the OP6 with constant updates and decent audio and a great camera. its a Hard pick for me personally. but the better audio was the single reason I got the V30

[Token]

The DAC LG uses really had me going for the V30 when it came out (honestly thought that was my next phone after the G3 but for some reason didn’t pull the trigger), and for the G7, but I suppose the ROM and updates is number one on my list so I just threw down on a OnePlus 6. Hope I don’t regret this, I probably should have given both a few months to get long term reviews out there. If they come out with a 6T with wireless charging I’m going to be pissed haha. 1st world problems… probably can’t go wrong with either phone.

[Token]

Overall pretty nice but the haptic feedback and speaker IMO are draw backs that other current phones probably do better. Also as much as I like the idea of the rocker switch, it’s not one handed opperation friendly (so no using it in your pocket when that embarrassing call comes in during a meeting).

[Venom415]

gotta admit its probably the same sounding speaker like my V30, the G7 they said has a better sound but from my inspections it adds a little more bass to the sound. cant wait for a long term review that you and others will have with it

[Token]

The speaker is tinny, I think I like the back facing LG G3 speaker more- just sucked its facing the back, but then when I watch vids I was usually holding the phone with a cupped hand so it worked out. The haptic is better on the G3 too, and the reviews of the newer LGs indicate LG has only been getting better with that. The haptic on the 1+6 reminds me of my craptastic Galaxy S2. Now that the dust has settled more on the 1+6 launch, I think the more honest reviews of the 1+6 are from Mr.Mobile and FlossyCarter, they call it out as the phone that it is, not bad, not great, its good for the price. For me it wasn’t about budget, I just wanted a phone that checked off the most boxes of mine, but ultimately one ‘box’ trumped them all, OEM supported AOSP or AOSP like ROM. On that note the Pixel 3 is probably going to be a great option.

I miss the LG G3, probably because of the 5 years of using it there is A LOT of muscle memory. I really liked how LG put all the buttons on the back, wish they stuck to that with their new models.

I’m liking the dash charging of the 1+6, but I was using a motorola turbocharger brick on the G3 and somehow its compatible, my G3 would charge really quickly (maybe bad for the battery?) so I’m already used to somewhat fast charging.

The G3 has more service life left in it. My mom has an LG Stylo, its been great except being the budget phone that it is, the storage is so small- with minimal apps (bloatware and just a few on top of that) its already full and can’t update. I’m probably going to replace it with my ole’ G3. Make it a point to get even more years out of it, be like those old farmers that get into Ford/Chevy/Dodge commercials because their truck goes past a million miles haha.

[Venom415]

Yeah The haptic feels really nice on my V30, solid and short like apple, and I still cup the audio like im still using my g3 haha, yeah muscle memory is a pain cause im still getting used to a flat phone after having my g3 with a curved back. I havent ever heard of those reviewers but ill check em out and see what they say. if theres anything I miss, its the volume at the back as well, snapshots on the g3 were so easy to do; but the side is still pretty nice and solid. The quick charge is fantastic on the V30 and its something you try once and then you have to have it… always.

Donating the phone would be fantastic, wanted to do the smae since my aunt uses a phone from 2005, shame my G3s mic is broken

[Token]

Does your V30 still have the LG ‘keep screen on when reading’ feature? I really took that for granted on the G3, I’m assuming the G7 has it because in review vids you can see an LED in the notch rapidly blinking (I bet the human eye doesn’t catch it). Really thought its an android thing but I guess it was more an LG thing.

From the LineageOS side of the house I’m also missing the ‘caffeine’ setting in the status bar- where you can keep the screen on even when not looking at it.

[Venom415]

Im reading articles that it has it but I cant find it on my V30, might have to do with the recent update to oreo, might have changed its placement, ill check some more.

[Token]

A little bit of me will miss this ritual- the GUI update never worked right, I would have to manually download via their website and reboot into recovery.

[Token]

So a minor gripes list thus far- disclaimer I know NO product is perfect, this is just observations, I’m not ‘mad’ at OnePlus, just things I think people would be interested in:

• vibration is cheap, I don’t like taptic feedback much anyhow so I dissabled most of it.
• I keep finding myself trying to lock the phone via fingerprint sensor like its a Moto- its not an option in OS. In 1+ defense I don’t think many rear sensored phones offer this option (maybe too easy to accidentally lock?). Band aid is I enabled double tap home to lock so I’m not stuck with just the side power button.
• vibrate/silence rocker is very stiff, IMO no way to use it with one handed opperation- was hoping it was one handed friendly so when the phone is in the pocket and a rude interuption happens, its a quick flick. Not a big deal, but just figured they would make it easier- again maybe on purpose from years of customer feedback and they don’t want it too easy to accidently move.
• When switching from phone to speaker phone, a very healthy delay of about 3 seconds occurs before you can hear the person- hope software updates resolve this.
• phone hung up when put to face, the proximity sensor was too laggy- another hopeful software update.
• factory text app does not support group text. Don’t like having to install a 3rd party app to support this, plus I liked how the OEM app matched the dark theme I selected on the OS, now when I check text its bright white (google app). I liked the looks of the OEM app, also liked the look of the LineageOS factory app, but I have to go with what works, in this case google’s app (hard to trust any other app- google is already getting my data anyhow).
• Not a fan of whatever 1+ calls there card swipe launcher thing- google now launcher is not supported but this is on google, not 1+.

The last observation, I’m not sure if its a oneplus thing or ATT thing. My data tanked at work this morning, it wasn’t 100% down, but was crawling so slow that most things would time out. Called up ATT thinking it was a tower issue but they had no alerts. Cleared network settings, reboot, nothing. ATT reset the connection on their side, reboot, nothing. Went into SIM > SIM1 > SIM name > APN and verfied ATT phone- phone was selected. I didn’t change any settings, just went into the menu then suddenly the data speed went back to normal. The jury is out on this for me, could be where I work (testing that causes intereferance), could have been an ATT intermintent issue, or could have been the phone.

Side note, very impressed with ATT customer service.

[Token]

OP6 update, still running great!

A friend got an S9+, so I drove it a little. Initially snappy- she needed to setup fingerprint so went to settings- yuck, TouchWiz, ew. Then playing around, seems snappy… Tap on chrome, nothing, tap again, wait, wait, finally comes up.

Yep, loving the OP6- the snapster

[fredrich_nietze]

LG’s HORRIBLE update track record- though they announced a designated update department (not the first a company says this and doesn’t deliver though…

this for me is the decider. all the pros and cons you are talking about are additional features, but lack of updates can make the phone literally unusable very quickly. my old g4 was unusable way too soon even thou the hardware was fine. lg is the internet of shit devices that dont work without internet. sure those fancy features are nice but if you cant even do the basics a year from now due to lack of updates, then it isnt worth it at half the price.

go one plus and get a phone that actually works in a year.