OnePlus 6 vs. LG G7 ThinQ: Can the flagship killer sink LG’s latest?

If you want a flagship phone nowadays you can easily drop $1,000, but you don’t have to. The OnePlus 6 offers up-to-date design trends wrapped around cutting edge hardware and it could save you a few hundred dollars over the top phones from Apple and Samsung. But you might also consider stretching that budget just a bit more and picking up LG’s latest — the feature-packed, LG G7 ThinQ. If you are weighing up the pros and cons of these two devices, then you’re in the right place because we’re about to compare them across various categories to pick a winner.

Specs

Performance, battery life, and charging

These phones are very fast performers and there isn’t a discernible difference between them, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering they both have Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor inside. Comparing benchmark scores, the OnePlus 6 does slightly better, but we know that the manufacturer has tuned specifically for benchmark scores in the past, so we’d take those results with a pinch of salt. In the real world we’ve found that both phones are plenty fast enough to handle everything we’ve thrown at them.

The OnePlus 6 comes with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, or 8GB of RAM with either 128GB or 256GB of storage. There’s no room for a MicroSD card slot. You can get the LG G7 ThinQ with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, or 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, but it does have a MicroSD card slot for expansion.

With a bigger 3,300mAh battery, you might expect the OnePlus 6 to last a little longer than the LG G7 ThinQ, which makes do with a 3,000mAh battery, but in practice we’ve found both phones can easily last the day and beyond. They also both offer fast charging, but only the LG G7 ThinQ offers support for wireless charging. This is tight, but we’re going to give it to the G7 ThinQ because of the MicroSD card slot and the wireless charging.

Winner: LG G7 ThinQ

Design and durability

We’re disappointed to see so many Android manufacturers embrace the notch and it means that the OnePlus 6 and LG G7 ThinQ actually look very similar from the front. Apart from the sizable notch at the top, they also both have bottom bezels. Flip over to the back and you’ll find both sport a central dual lens camera module with a fingerprint sensor below it, though OnePlus has adopted a stadium or lozenge shape, while LG’s is round. Both phones are made of glass front and back sandwiching a narrow aluminum frame. We slightly prefer the larger, heavier OnePlus 6 which manages to pack in a tiny bit more screen proportionately, but there’s really not much here that sets them apart.

The LG G7 ThinQ is the clear winner in terms of durability because of the IP68 rating, which means it won’t die if it tumbles into a bath or toilet. The OnePlus 6 lacks any IP rating, but it is still water resistant so you won’t have to worry about rain. Both are going to need a good case to avoid drop damage.

Winner: OnePlus 6

Display

This is perhaps the first category where we find a clear contrast between these phones. The OnePlus 6 has a 6.28-inch AMOLED with a resolution of 2,280 x 1,440 pixels. The LG G7 ThinQ sports a 6.1-inch screen with a 3,120 x 1,440-pixel resolution. The LG is sharper at 564 pixels per inch compared to 402 for the OnePlus 6, but the OnePlus phone squeezes more screen in and manages a screen-to-body ratio of 83.8 percent compared to 82.6 percent for the G7 ThinQ.

More importantly than the numbers, both screens look great. The G7 ThinQ also has a handy Super Bright Display mode that cranks up the brightness to make it readable outdoors. But we believe that OLED technology is fundamentally superior to LCD and the extra screen real estate is always welcome, especially when it doesn’t significantly increase the size of the phone, so OnePlus wins this category.

Winner: OnePlus 6

Camera

Although both phones sport a dual lens camera, LG has taken a slightly different approach pairing a standard 16-megapixel camera, with a f/1.6 aperture and optical image stabilization, with a 16-megapixel, f/1.9 aperture, wide-angle camera. LG has also included AI Cam, which is supposed to automatically recognize scene types and fine tune your camera settings for best results, and Super Bright Camera mode, which makes the most of low-light situations. The G7 ThinQ also has an 8-megapixel front-facing camera and a decent portrait mode that works with both cameras.

OnePlus has combined a 16-megapixel lens with a 20-megapixel lens and both feature an f/1.7 aperture. There’s also a 16-megapixel, f/2.0 aperture, selfie camera. You won’t find any A.I. smarts in the OnePlus 6 camera, but it does have a portrait mode that works quite well.

The LG G7 ThinQ has a very versatile camera that gets great results most of the time. We haven’t had time to test the OnePlus 6 camera as extensively yet, but it also appears to be a good performer, though we think both fall short of top camera phones like the Huawei P20 Pro or Pixel 2.

Winner: Tie

Software and updates

The LG G7 ThinQ runs Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box with LG’s user interface on top. LG just opened a new software update center, promising quick updates to new Android versions, security updates, and updates to add new features to the phone.

The OnePlus 6 runs Android 8.1 Oreo with OxygenOS on top and OnePlus is generally good with software updates. You can also try out the Android P beta on the OnePlus 6 right now.

We won’t know for sure who handles this better until the updates roll out. Based on past performance, we’d probably give it to OnePlus, but, since LG is taking steps to improve, we’ll call it a tie for now.

Winner: Tie

Special features

LG takes audio seriously, so you’ll find a Quad DAC and headphone jack in the LG G7 ThinQ, as well as a “Boombox” speaker, which uses the phone’s body as a resonance chamber in order to crank up the volume and quality of the audio it puts out. There’s also a special A.I. key on the G7 ThinQ which activates Google Assistant. You can press it once to launch voice recognition or hold it down to talk continuously.

The OnePlus 6 has a handy alert slider, like the iPhone, which allows you to quickly silence notifications. There’s also support for some gesture controls, but we prefer the traditional Android buttons for getting around.

Winner: LG G7 ThinQ

Price

The OnePlus 6 is on sale now and costs $530 for the 64GB model, $580 for the 128GB model, and $630 for the 256GB model. You can buy it unlocked direct from OnePlus, but it won’t work on Verizon or Sprint.

Pre-orders for the LG G7 ThinQ are open in some places, but it won’t be shipping until May 31. It’s going to cost you $750, which is less than some other flagships, but still significantly more than the OnePlus 6. It will work on all the major U.S. carriers and you’ll be able to buy it from Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular.

Overall winner: OnePlus 6

This is a tricky one to call. The LG G7 ThinQ wins points for superior audio, wireless charging support, and that MicroSD card slot, but we slightly prefer the design and display of the OnePlus 6. They’re both fast, capable Android phones with a lot to offer, but we think the OnePlus 6 is better value for money and so it wins overall.