LG continues to match Samsung with every major phone launch and feature. Sometimes things don't quite pan out for LG, which explains why they're painfully behind in market share in the smartphone market, but it's not for lack of trying.

This year they delivered the LG G8 ThinQ, a continuation of their G series devices that offer high-end performance with no compromise hardware. Now that Samsung is moving away from headphone jacks and expandable storage on the Note line, that's more important than ever.

But is it worth actually switching away from your Galaxy device to the G8? Let's dig in and find out.

Design

The G8 won't impress you if you weren't already a fan of LG designs, and conversely, if you do like what LG's doing, the G8 is pretty inoffensive. It keeps the fingerprint scanner on the back of the device instead of trying to figure out how to cram it under the screen, and generally just looks like an LG phone.

That's not to say that there aren't some similarities to a Samsung Galaxy device, though. The power button sits on the right side, while the volume keys are on the left side. Underneath the volume keys is a Google Assistant button in almost exactly the same place as Samsung's Bixby key. Granted, Google Assistant is way less annoying that Bixby, but hey, gotta point it out.

If you played with the LG V40 ThinQ from late last year, you're going to see basically the same phone, just scaled down. Surprisingly, the G8 feels a little bit heavier despite being smaller, which could just be due to a denser battery and better hardware. But the overall aesthetic is the same, with a horizontal camera array above the fingerprint scanner, SIM tray in the right side of the phone, USB C and headphone jack on the bottom, and a microphone on the top side.

And yes, the phone does have a headphone jack. LG's not giving that up just yet. There's still a notch, though. Can't win them all.

Unfortunately, LG just can't seem to nail that premium feeling like Samsung and Apple can. The G8 ThinQ is made of glass and allows for wireless charging, but despite the added weight from the V40 ThinQ, it still just doesn't feel like a $1000 piece of hardware like a Galaxy S10. Once you put a case on it it's really not particularly noticeable, but you'd think LG could solve this last little problem by now.

Hardware

Performance

The G8 ThinQ sees an upgrade from last year's model with a Snapdragon 855 and 6GB of RAM. The memory is outclassed by other similar phones, but the processor is identical, and at this point I don't think many people can really tell a difference.

6GB of RAM is plenty for most users, including some of the more aggressive power users. I never have issues with memory management on LG's end, and it's extremely rare for an app to have to reload or things to get prematurely flushed out of memory. Sure, other phones win on paper, but in practice I think you'd fail a blind test in determining the difference between 6GB and 8GB on a phone.

The G8 also uses a similar P-OLED display from the V40, but this time around it's a little cooler and brighter. Much more natural looking, in my opinion, and it's miles better than the LCD panels that used to be mainstay in the G series devices.

Like the V40, the G8 sports a hifi quad DAC, which is great. But also like the V40, the BoomBox speakers seem a bit overhyped, and I really couldn't see myself ever listening to music specifically through the phone speakers, no matter how good LG says they are. Samsung and Apple still have them beat there.

But with headphones in? Oh man. If you primarily listen to music through your phone and you're still rocking real hifi headphones with a plain old 3.5mm connection, you're going to love the G8 ThinQ. The higher quality DAC really fills out your music, especially if you're using Tidal or Quboz or your own higher bitrate music. Music's louder, more defined, and with more punch across the board, cementing LG's commitment to top-shelf hardware for power users. That extends to other media and games, too; dialog in movies is crystal clear, explosions and gunshots are powerful, and swinging a sword in a game clangs with great definition. You'll need nice headphones, of course, but that seems to be LG's target with these phones, anyway.

Battery

Battery life is actually an improvement over the V40 ThinQ, which is pretty strange considering the size difference between the two devices. However, LG managed to put a bigger battery in the G8 by about 200mAh even though there's less space in the phone for it. Go figure.

You'll easily get all-day usage out of the phone, and even with the Always On Display working I was never reaching for a charger. Surprisingly, this might be one of the best phones for battery life that I've used so far. Not sure if that's some under-the-hood enhancements that LG has worked out, improvements to Android Pie, or a more efficient Snapdragon 855 CPU, but you'll get no complaints from me. I'm going out on a limb and saying it's probably a combination of the three, since Always On Display wrecked the battery life of my V40.

Software

LG's settled into their style of software design, and things aren't changing much. You can read up on our LG V40 ThinQ review to get a more in-depth look at how the G8's software will act, because it's pretty similar on both phones. There are plenty of LG preloaded apps of varying usefulness, including a game launcher to quickly organize and access all the games on your phone, QuickMemo+ for taking notes, LG Health for tracking your steps, calories, and whatever else, and other small things like included file managers and themed calculator apps.

Some of these apps are worthwhile, like the game launcher. I like having a way to clean out games from the rest of my apps but still easily organizing them and having gaming modes that hide notifications and the like. On the other hand, stuff like QuickMemo+ feels pretty barebones, and most users are going to need another note-taking app anyway, especially power users like this phone is aimed at.

There's still no app drawer by default, and LG's theming may not be for everyone. In our review unit, there were also quite a few preloaded Verizon apps, which is just a Verizon carrier thing. Not knocking LG for that one, but bear it in mind if you hate bloatware. Fortunately, though, LG has bumped the base storage of the phone up to 128GB, so you won't be starved for space.

If you dive into settings you'll find all sorts of other tweaks that LG has included with the G8 ThinQ, including optional gesture navigation, an Always On Display, different color modes for the screen, customizable vibration patterns for notifications and calls, their weird floating bar that replaced the V series secondary display, and more. With Android Pie the settings menu does seem a little cleaned up, although personally I do prefer the older style with tabbed pages and categories.

One of the major marketing points about the G8 ThinQ, however, is its ability to do Air Motion controls. If you've seen any advertisements about it, it's where you can hover your hand in front of the display and do things like turn the volume up and down, quickly jump into shortcuts and apps, play and pause music, or take a screenshot. The process is tricky, involving you placing your hand in front of the phone's front-facing camera, shaping your hand into a claw, and pulling away a few inches from the camera. This pulls up the shortcut menu where you can swipe left or right to jump into pre-configured apps, or you can close your hand to take a screenshot. I accidentally took many screenshots.

Seriously, that one's a gimmick. It's cool to show off at parties, but I don't think I ever seriously used it, especially with how hard it was to properly trigger. I'll just use the volume buttons or Google Assistant.

You can also use that same camera array to unlock the phone via the veins in your hand, but once again, why? A fingerprint scanner or pin gets the job done just fine. Cool thing to show your friends, but LG really didn't do much to help you day-to-day.

Camera

The camera on the G8 ThinQ might actually surprise you. I was able to easily capture quite a few really good shots with it, even in low lighting.

The AI Camera helps you to automatically adjust settings and such without having to fiddle to get the best picture. It applies better lighting to night photos, adjusts contrast based on what you're pointing at, and overall just seems like an Auto mode on steroids. I kept it on that mode pretty much all the time.

The phone also sports an ultrawide angle lens that helps to capture more in your shot, which was great. Another one of those things that you almost want to leave on all the time.

I won't say the G8 can beat out a Pixel or a Galaxy S10, but it can certainly hold its own, and shouldn't disappoint anyone looking for something in this price range.

Worth it?

I'll be upfront that I have a soft spot for LG's latest round of phones. I really like the LG V40 ThinQ, despite its flaws and middling battery life, and I feel like the G8 ThinQ delivers pretty much all of what I liked about the V40 in a smaller package with better battery life. It trades off a camera lens, but hey, small price to pay.

LG's software seems to get better and more refined each year, avoiding the giant icon aesthetic that Samsung is chasing. On top of that, the G8 is still a real power-user phone. You're getting a microSD card slot, a headphone jack, a DAC and audio experience that Samsung can't touch, and it's going to cost a lot less, too.

If you're comparing a Galaxy S10 to an LG G8 ThinQ at MSRP, yeah, things don't look great. But let's look at what you can actually buy a G8 for.

The unlocked model on Amazon, for example, sells for $499 right now; that's $250 less than the entry-level Galaxy S10e, and those phones are extremely competitive. It's $300 less than the regular Galaxy S10, too.

If you're on a carrier, you can get the phone for $10 per month on Sprint via Best Buy (total of $240), or $5 per month on AT&T via Best Buy with a new line, which comes out to $150. Again, those do require some carrier setups, but if you're doing that anyway, this is a whole lot of phone for around $200, especially when you consider that's priced around a Moto G7 Play.

So for less money than what Samsung's asking, you're getting a phone that's packed with almost as many features, still has your regular fingerprint scanner and headphone jack, and nearly identical performance. It's not for everyone, but if you're looking for a flagship on a budget, check this one out.