Galaxy S8 vs LG G6 "Infinite Display vs Full Vision"

Samsung has gone all-out to make a phone with luscious curves that stands out from the crowd thanks to its incredible sex appeal. On the other, LG has made a design that’s arguably a lot more practical. The curves of the Galaxy S8 do make the phone feel better in the hand, but the fingerprint sensor is the biggest sticking point for me. Not only is it rectangular which poses challenges given the curved tips on your fingers but it’s also in a ridiculous position that makes it near useless.

The LG G6 on the other hand, takes a more traditional approach and has all the subtlety of a slab of concrete, at least when compared to the Galaxy S8. Yet, this works exceptionally well for the G6, as it feels more solid in the hand and the central fingerprint sensor on the rear proves to be a much better implementation than the sensor on the Galaxy S8. The lack of the curved dropped edge on the G6 also means it feels more grippy, and less likely to slip out of your hand.

And herein lies the crux of the problem for both manufacturers; neither symbolises the perfect design. The Galaxy S8 is arguably a little too fragile and has the odd fingerprint sensor, but the LG G6 is a little on the thicker side. The ideal would be to have the Galaxy S8 with a slightly thicker edge, like on the Galaxy Note 7. Alas, you are left to choose between the two imperfect approaches to a taller display (and the design changes it necessitates), so the question is, which do you prefer?

Moving onto that taller display and this part of the comparison is straight forward; the LG G6 has the best display that LG has ever put on a smartphone and it is a joy to use. The only problem is, Samsung makes the best smartphone displays. Its Super AMOLED panels are punchy and offer deep blacks and vibrant colors, in a way that no LCD can replicate. Yes, the LG G6 comes close and looks great, but put them side by side and the Galaxy S8 wins comfortably.

Both are rated as being HDR-ready and LG is working with Netflix to offer HDR content – with v5.0 of the Netflix app now available, the LG G6 is the first phone to officially support HDR. Samsung on the other hand has a Mobile HDR Premium-rated display from the UHD Alliance and supports HDR10 content. The Galaxy S8 will presumably also be added to Netflix’s supported device list.

What a difference a month in technology can make: while LG announced the G6 at MWC at the end of February, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S8 a month later at simultaneous events held in New York and London. Why is this important we hear you ask? The devil, as they say, is all in the details.

The LG G6 is powered by late last year’s Snapdragon 821 processor with 4 GB of RAM and an Adreno 530 GPU. Prior to launch, we heard that LG opted to go for the Snapdragon 821 because the Snapdragon 835 was delayed, meaning no phones would launch with Qualcomm’s latest chipset until May or June. Well, that was not quite accurate: rather than delaying the launch of the G6 until the next batch of Snapragon 835 chipsets were ready, the company decided to stick with its pre-S8 launch window and use the already proven Snapdragon 821. Samsung, as you know, is rumored to have had first dibs on the initial batches of Snapdragon 835 chipsets as part of its manufacturing agreement with Qualcomm.

Does it make a huge difference? Not particularly and our testing shows that the difference in performance is between 15 and 20 percent, depending on the test. Take for example, performance benchmark AnTuTu where the LG G6 scored 136,814 and the Galaxy S8 Plus (with the Snapdragon 835) scored 164,626. One area that seems to be largely improved is the GPU, with the Adreno 530 inside the LG G6 scoring 2,097 on 3DMark’s Slingshot Extreme, while the Adreno 540 inside the Galaxy S8 scores 3,512 on the same test.

The latest chipset – or “platform” as they are now known – can also make a difference to the battery life of each phone and while we’re still conducting our full range of battery tests on both phones, we’ve noticed that battery life is pretty comparable on both devices. Granted, this is between the regular Exynos-powered Galaxy S8 with its 3,000 mAh battery, and the LG G6 with its 3,300 mAh battery, so there will be differences when using the Galaxy S8 Plus with its larger 3,500 mAh battery, or a Snapdragon-powered Galaxy S8.

The Galaxy S8 has one camera on the rear, which can capture 12 MP images supported by Optical Image Stabilisation, f/1.7 aperture, phase detection autofocus and f/1.4µm pixel size for better low light photos. By comparison, the LG G6 has dual 13 MP cameras, one with f/1.8 aperture, 3-axis stabilisation and phase detection autofocus and the other with f/2.4 aperture and a super-wide 125° field of view.

Two very different approaches mean two cameras capable of very different things. The Galaxy S8 camera follows previous Samsung flagships by offering good amounts of detail, punchy, vibrant colors and an image that is, overall, more pleasing to the eye. It’s a slight improvement over the Galaxy S7, but if you liked that camera, you’ll also like the one in the S8. The LG G6, however, produces images that are more lifelike and with a seamless transition between the wide angle and regular lenses, allowing you to capture both “normal” images and cool wide-angle ones.

The wide-angle lens in particular on the LG G6 allows you to take the same scene and capture it from the same position but with a much wider view, giving it an almost fisheye look that doesn’t look like it was captured on a smartphone.

The Galaxy S8 can take great photos in most conditions but we can’t help but feel that Samsung missed a trick by focusing on the display and arguably neglecting the camera a bit. To the average eye, the Galaxy S8 takes stunning photos and often captures a scene how we would wish it to look, rather than how it actually looks in real life.

Something we all love about Android is the ability to take the default out of the box experience and customise it to your heart’s content. For most advanced users, using a custom ROM or rooting your phone to unlock additional functionality is second-nature, but for more average users, you might often stick with the features included on your phone.

LG and Samsung both take similar yet differing approaches to the custom interface they apply atop the default Android interface. Both interfaces are considerably tidier and lighter (meaning less bloatware and heavy skinning) than in previous years, but this is where the similarities end.

On the one hand, LG has taken the practical approach of adding small amounts of functionality to Android in a bid to create the perfect balance of stock Android with a few choice additions. The company uses frames around the icons on its displays to provide symmetry across the interface, but does employ an interface design that’s atypically-LG.

The experience is mostly smooth, with very little in the way of performance issues, and it’s the lightest and most efficient skin that LG have put on their phones. The issue for LG is that it has a very recent history of having flagships that develop bootloop issues rendering them useless and the concern – whether valid or not – is that the G6 will follow this trend.

It’s light, has a fresh white-and-blue feel and feels very refreshing, especially as the new color icons pop on the Galaxy S8 screen. At the same time, Samsung has repeated some of its old mistakes of duplicating Google apps (such as Assistant with Bixby) but, for the most part at least, its duplications offer up better experiences than Google’s own apps. This is certainly true for the calendar, dialer and contacts but not for Bixby, which is half-hearted at best in its current form, but will hopefully be much better with future updates that bring Bixby Voice.

The LG G6 takes the Google approach of a light skin with a handful of features and adds to core Android experience in a few very useful ways. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S8 proves to be the must-have phone for anyone who really wants to customise their smartphone, as the sheer number of customisation options is simply mind-boggling.