LG G7 ThinQ Battery Life: This Is How Bad It Is
The battery life on LG’s new flagship phone can’t compare to long-lasting devices from Apple, Samsung and Google. But at least the G7 charges quickly.
LG’s G7 ThinQ packs a 3,000 mAh battery in its 6-inch frame, which means it should last as long on a charge as rival flagships with similar battery capacity.
But LG’s smartphones suffer from a critical issue: poor battery life. That’s despite its solid battery capacity and power-efficient Snapdragon 845 processor, which is identical to the mobile processor powering Samsung’s Galaxy S9. That device lasts two and a half hours longer than the G7 on the Tom’s Guide Battery Test, continuous web-surfing over 4G LTE. In this case, we used T-Mobile’s network.
We test each phone’s display at around 50 percent brightness — the G7 was set to 53 percent, to be exact — because using a phone at peak brightness will drain the battery more quickly.
LG G7 ThinQ Battery Life Compared
Phone | Battery Size | Battery Life (Hrs:Mins) |
LG G7 ThinQ | 3,000 mAh | 8:35 |
Huawei Mate 10 Pro | 4,000 mAh | 14:33 |
Google Pixel 2 XL | 3,500 mAh | 12:09 |
Apple iPhone 8 Plus | 2,675 mAh (based on teardowns) | 11:16 |
Google Pixel 2 | 2,700 mAh | 11:07 |
Samsung Galaxy S9+ | 3,500 mAh | 10:59 |
Samsung Galaxy S9 | 3,000 mAh | 10:52 |
Apple iPhone X | 2,716 mAh (based on teardowns) | 10:49 |
Apple iPhone 8 | 1,821 mAh (based on teardowns) | 9:54 |
LG V30 | 3,300 mAh | 6:30 |
Like its predecessor, last year’s G6, G7’s battery life underwhelms compared to the competition. The G6 turned in 8 hours and 39 minutes, and the G7 didn’t even match that, lasting just 8:35. LG’s V30, released earlier this year, turned in a paltry performance of 6:30 in our testing.
Every other high-end smartphone lasts hours longer than LG’s devices. The category average is 9:50, and flagships from Apple, Samsung and Google all sail past that mark. Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro is still the leader among flagship phones, lasting a whopping 14 hours and 33 minutes, but Google’s Pixel 2 XL (12:09) and Apple’s iPhone 8 Plus (11:16) aren’t too shabby, either.
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Caitlin is a Senior editor for Gizmodo. She has also worked on Tom's Guide, Macworld, PCWorld and the Las Vegas Review-Journal. When she's not testing out the latest devices, you can find her running around the streets of Los Angeles, putting in morning miles or searching for the best tacos.