The iPhone 7, meanwhile, is almost exactly like its two predecessors. It’s (probably) the final evolution of this particular chassis design and can therefore be considered pretty much as good as it can get. It’s superbly built, nice to hold and look at and takes excellent photos and videos. But the G6 holds several advantages over it – as we’ll see. You can also read our iPhone 7 vs 7 Plus comparison.
Which is the cheapest phone?
If you go by list prices, surprisingly, it’s the iPhone. That’s mainly because it has a rather meagre 32GB of storage and, unlike the LG, isn’t expandable. There’s just one capacity of the LG G6 – 32GB – but you can expand this using a microSD card. It comes in black, white and platinum and – a couple of months after launch – can be found for a whopping £100 cheaper than its original price. You can buy a G6 for £549 from John Lewis.
Which has the better specs?
This handy table shows how their main specs compare:
Screen
This is where the two phones differ most. The iPhone has a 4.7in screen with a low resolution of 1334×750 pixels. The pixel density of 326ppi isn’t terrible by any means, but you really can see the difference in sharpness between this and the 565ppi screen on the G6.
LG has gone for an 18:9 screen which is similar to the 18.5:9 display on the Galaxy S8. Read our LG G6 vs Galaxy S8 review for more. The fact that two big phone makers have gone down this route could mean we’ll see Android app developers optimising their apps for these super-tall (or super-wide depending on how you hold them) phones. Technically, both are great quality displays with high brightness and contrast ratios. They’ll both display HDR content, with the G6 supporting the HDR10 and Dolby Vision standards, and the iPhone 7 the P3 standard. LG has built in software to re-render content to fit the screen without any noticeable stretching, too.
Design
Despite the much bigger screen, the G6 isn’t really that much larger than the iPhone 7. And that’s thanks to the new-found ability to slim down the bezels and therefore have a much higher screen-to-body ratio. It’s a good-looking device, too, apart from the ugly camera arrangement on the back.
There’s Gorilla Glass on both the front and back and, if you look closely, the edges of the screen are rounded a bit like the phone’s corners. Apple hasn’t changed much since the iPhone 6’s design but the iPhone 7 now comes in two shades of black, one glossy and one matt (below). It’s also now available in red, so there’s a wider range of hues than you can get with the G6.
The antennae lines are almost invisible on the matt black model, as are the front camera and light sensor. If you’re the sort that wants people to notice you have a brand new phone, the iPhone 7 is perhaps not the best choice here. The G6 has slim bezels, but not quite the wow factor of the Samsung Galaxy S8 whose screen curves at the edges and affords it an almost invisible bezel here.
Returning to the two devices in hand, the G6 retains a 3.5mm headphone jack which might be a deal-maker for some. The iPhone instead uses its Lightning port and, although Lightning headphones and an adaptor to 3.5mm are included in the box it still means you can’t listen and charge at the same time. And the adaptor is easy to lose or leave behind.
Performance: Which phone is faster?
The iPhone 7, despite being the older device, is the winner here. But it’s not really a fair comparison. For general speed, the iPhone 7’s A10 Fusion processor is an absolute beast. It thrashes the Snapdragon 821 in tests such as Geekbench 4 and the marriage of hardware and software, which is exclusively controlled by Apple means everything is optimised and silky smooth. Until you upgrade to a newer version of iOS a couple of years down the line, that is. 3D benchmarks will always yield higher scores on lower-resolution screens because the phone’s GPU doesn’t have to work so hard and so it’s no surprise to see the iPhone hit 60fps in GFXbench Manhattan while the LG G6 can’t even manage half that frame rate.
The G6 does have a couple of extra hardware perks, though. First is Bluetooth 5, which can work up to 800ft from paired devices such as headphones. It also has twice the data speed of the previous version. Plus, the G6 has a microSD slot so you can easily add storage, something the iPhone will always prohibit.
Cameras
It’s a mixed bag here. The iPhone has really good cameras, but no special tricks. It’s the first 4.7in phone from Apple to have optical stabilisation, which helps give sharper photos in low light. But it lacks the second camera of the iPhone 7 Plus, so lacks its telephoto capabilities (such as they are – not too impressive) and its shallow depth effect.
At the front is a decent 7Mp selfie camera, which is also good for video calling. LG has stuck with its dual-camera setup first seen on the G5. This means it has one ‘standard’ lens and one wide-angle (the opposite of the telephoto lens on the iPhone 7 Plus). Unlike the G5, both cameras have the same 13Mp resolution, so there’s no penalty for using the wide-angle lens. Well, that’s if you don’t consider the lack of OIS and autofocus an issue for a lens with a 125-degree view – the main 71-degree camera has both features. At the front is a (for a flagship) lowly 5Mp selfie camera, although it does have a wider-than-average field of view which is better for taking group shots. Both phones offer video recording at 1080p and 60fps, plus 4K at 30fps. And both are capable of delivering good quality – including sound recording.
Battery life
If you look at the specs, you’d think the G6 would last a good half-day longer than the iPhone. But the reality is that a big, high-res screen is a massive power drain, so the difference is relatively minimal. The iPhone 7 will get you through to the evening even if you’re using it pretty heavily. It will need a top-up if you want to carry on right up until last orders, though. The G6 is a solid one-day-er but won’t really stretch to the next morning unless you’ve used it really lightly the day before. It will also charge wirelessly (if you buy a US model) and all versions support Quick Charge 3.
Software
This is where the Android vs iOS arguments get repeated, so we’ll leave you to read our comparison of Android 7.0 and iOS 10 if you’re not familiar with them.
Suffice to say that they are reasonably similar but – for us – iOS just has the edge when it comes to having the best choice of apps and guaranteed updates for a couple of years without the agonising waiting that many Android owners have to endure.
LG has done a great job making the default apps play nicely on the taller screen, and you can run certain apps side by side in landscape mode. Even the camera app is better to use on the wider screen. The skin which LG applies over stock Android takes a little getting used to, but it’s perfectly usable. Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.
