LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen review

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Introduction

The LG G8X premiered at IFA last September, but it's not an upgrade of the G8 headliner. The G8X is a reimagined version with a larger screen of lower resolution, a beefier battery, and often ships with a dedicated Dual Screen case.

The LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen title is not the best review opener and not an eXpansion over the original G8. The G8X is another take on an otherwise excellent flagship with a few twists, one of them being the support for the Dual Screen accessory. And the G8X is part of LG's ThinQ lineup of smart devices that includes phones, refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, speakers, cameras, air conditioners, and whatnot.

Now that we've made the full model clear name, we will proceed to call the phone LG G8X and be done with the rest.

The LG G8X is premium no matter how you look at it - the phone has a stunning dual Gorilla Glass design, quite resistant at that, it employs a big 6.4" P-OLED screen with a droplet-shaped notch, runs on the Snapdragon 855 chip, and the dual-camera at the back - wide + ultrawide - seems promising on paper.

The key feature of the G8X is the Dual Screen option. In fact, most of the pre-orders are for the LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen, and few retailers offer a standalone G8X package for purchase. We saw a similar turn of events with the LG V50 5G ThinQ Dual Screen.

LG's solution for a foldable phone is rather simple, and bulky, but it has a lot of benefits - the screen on the left is absolutely the same in size, shape, pixel count. You don't have to worry about a special hinge or screen protector. And you can opt out of it anytime and thus get rid of the bulkiness.

But before we continue, let's take a deep dive in the specs sheet.

LG G8X ThinQ specs

• Body: Aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass 6 front and Gorilla Glass 5 rear. 192g. MIL-STD-810G compliant (14 categories of tests); IP68 rated for dust and water resistance.
• Screen: 6.4" 1080p+ OLED; 19.5:9 aspect ratio with a waterdrop notch, 403ppi; HDR 10 support.
• Camera: Primary: 12MP, 1/2.55" sensor, 1.4µm pixel size; f/1.8 aperture, 78-degree FOV lens, 25mm equiv. focal length, OIS, dual pixel PDAF. Ultrawide-angle: 13MP, 1/2.8" sensor, 1.0µm pixel size; f/2.4 aperture, 136-degree FOV lens, 16mm equiv. focal length, fixed focus.
• Selfie cam: 32MP, 1/2.8"sensor, 0.8µm pixel size, f/1.9 aperture, 79-degree FOV lens, fixed focus.
• Chipset: Snapdragon 855 chipset, octa-core processor (1x2.84 GHz Kryo 485 & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 485 & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 485), Adreno 640 GPU.
• Memory: 6GB of RAM; 128GB storage; microSD slot.
• OS: Android 9.0 Pie with LG UX 9.0.
• Battery: 4,000mAh Lithium Polymer; Quick Charge 3.0/Power Delivery fast charging; Qi fast wireless charging.
• Connectivity: LTE-A, USB Type-C; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; GPS; Bluetooth 5.0; FM radio.
• Misc: Under-display fingerprint reader; Hi-Fi Quad DAC; 3.5mm headphone jack; stereo speakers.
• Dual Screen: Optional snap on secondary display: 6.4" FullHD+ OLED (same as main one), 165.9x84.6x15.0mm, 134g, no battery.

LG has a habit of protecting its flagships very well, and the G8X is no exception - the phone is IP68 rated and is MIL-STD-810G compliant in 12 categories for shock, temperature, humidity, dust and more. Just like the G8.

But the G8X is not G8, and you can tell - the screen is of lower 1080p resolution and its cutout is smaller because the Face ID tech is gone. There is no telephoto cam on the back, but not all G8 models had one, so we won't hold that against the X.

There are some nice additions - Dual Screen support, a larger screen and battery, and LG UX 9.0 boots right away and it's a nice upgrade of its own.

So, without further ado, here comes the LG G8X unboxing.

Unboxing the LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen

The LG G8X black paper wrap holds two separate boxes together - the LG G8X smartphone and the LG G8X Dual Screen accessory.

The LG G8X phone box contains a USB-C cable and an 18W charger. There are no headphones inside.

The LG G8X Dual Screen box contains the Dual Screen case and a USB-C magnetic connector for charging and wired connectivity. If you are going to use this Dual Screen cover, you will need to plug this at the end of your charger as the case attaches to the G8X's USB-C port. Having a magnetic charger is not that bad, just on the contrary! Just make sure you don't lose the adapter.

The LG G8X Dual Screen case is a bit different from the V50's and not only by the type of connection - magnetic pins on the V50 and the USB-C port on the G8X. This one also has an external 2.1" monochrome Cover Display. Nice!