Foldable phones may be the future, but they're certainly not the present. Sure, they do look awesome, but a $2000 smartphone with questionable durability is hard to recommend at this point in time.
The LG G8X, on the other hand, costs just $700, and with its DualScreen accessory, it provides more screen space than you've ever been able to put in your pocket. You get two 6.4-inch screens for next-level multitasking, driven by the powerful Snapdragon 855 chip and a long-lasting 4000mAh battery.
But after several weeks with the LG G8X, I feel like the best feature of LG's Dual Screen case is that it can be taken off.
In the box:
- LG G8X phone
- Wall adapter (16W)
- USB to USB-C cable
- Microfiber cleaning cloth
- SIM card ejector tool
- Quick start guide and warranty information
- LG DualScreen case
- Proprietary magnetic adapter (for charging the phone while in the DualScreen case)
Design
On its own, the LG G8X looks like a typical 2019 smartphone. It is made of glass and metal, a small notch at the top houses the single selfie camera, and a fingerprint reader is built into the display. You also get conveniences like a headphone jack and a dedicated Google Assistant button on the side.
What's not so typical is that there is no camera bump sticking out. Instead, the camera lenses at the rear are protected by the same piece of glass covering the entire back of the phone. While this results in a cleaner look that some people might prefer, having no bump means that the glass over the lenses is super easy to scratch as it comes in full contact with any surface the phone is resting on.
The in-display fingerprint reader is of the optical variety. Unfortunately, it is one of the slowest readers of this kind I've tested and reliability isn't great either. Alternatives include the old-school PIN, pattern or password. There's no face recognition of any kind which is a shame when the G8's face recognition worked really well.
LG DualScreen case
The key selling point of the LG G8X is the DualScreen accessory it comes bundled with. Think of it as a folio case with a second display on the inside, and when you lift the cover, you're greeted by two 6.4-inch screens for some serious multitasking action. A tiny monochrome screen on the outside shows you status information like the time and battery level. It also lights up when you get a notification. But it's not a touchscreen, and you can't read those notifications until you actually lift the cover.
The hinge on the DualScreen case feels robust and allows the cover to be fixed at any angle. It can even act as an improvised tripod or kickstand. But it leaves a gap between the two screens of about 16 millimeters (5/8 of an inch) and it doesn't look particularly pretty.
Fundamentally, the purpose of the LG G8X with DualScreen is to let you use two apps side by side. For example, you can have a YouTube video playing on the left screen while scrolling through Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram on the right. Or you can have Google Maps on one screen and a messaging app or your email on the other. You can "throw" an app from one screen to the other with a 3-finger swipe gesture.
But when you don't need to do any multitasking – which, let's be honest, would be most of the time – you're left lugging around a bulky case while a second screen is draining your battery. Thankfully, you can take the DualScreen off if you know that you won't need it anytime soon.
There's a mode called Wide View that allows you to use one app across both screens – and the only app I found that works is Google Chrome. I must agree that some websites do look great when shown across both displays. Pinterest, for example, shows me pictures of dinner ideas across four columns instead of the usual two. But other pages just look bad when they're split down the middle by the case's hinge. Making matters worse, the home on-screen button gets obscured by the hinge – a flaw LG has yet to fix.
For those that do a lot of typing on the go, LG's keyboard has a split landscape mode. You can have a notes app on one screen and the keyboard on the other – pretty cool, in my opinion.
LG GamePad is another feature taking advantage of the DualScreen case. Basically, you can have a game running on one of the displays while the other is occupied by a virtual gamepad. All of this sounds great in theory, but in practice, not all games work with LG GamePad and even fewer work well. With racing games, for example, the analog stick is too sensitive while the dedicated steering wheel is too big and uncomfortable to use. You can design your own gamepad layout, but it's a slow, frustrating process.
Display
The 6.4-inch OLED display on the LG G8X is really good. It produces vibrant colors and accuracy is commendable. It gets plenty bright and its low minimum brightness allows comfortable reading at night. I must note that the resolution of the screen has been lowered from 1440x3120 on the LG G8 to 1080 by 2340 pixels. But in practice, 99% of people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Overall, this is one good-looking screen!
The DualScreen case uses the exact same display panel as the LG G8X. This explains the notch at the top of the case's screen, even though there's no actual need for it. Theoretically, image quality should be identical on the two screens, but on my review unit, colors on the case's screen look colder. There is no fingerprint reader in the case's display, in case you're wondering.
Display measurements and quality
Software and performance
The LG G8X comes running Android 9 Pie, which is sad to see when Android 10 has been out for several months. On top we have LG's custom interface which has been tweaked for easier single-handed use: for example, the toggle buttons in the pull-down menu are now positioned at the bottom. But overall, the entire experience feels rough at this time. Minor glitches have spoiled the experience for me: things like the phone freezing on the lock screen for about 20 seconds or the screenshot button combo simply refusing to work. A future software update might fix things, but the software my review unit is running feels a bit rushed.
Conclusion
The LG G8X is a strange phone – and one showing that LG's mobile division is in dire need of a better strategy. LG's G series is supposed to be represented by quality phones with mass appeal. Instead, the G8X's key feature is a DualScreen case that few people need and fewer people will use. LG's energy and resources would have been much, much better spent had they been invested in a reliable fingerprint reader, a quality selfie camera, and a better software experience.
Of course, there are things to like about the LG G8X. It has a good-looking screen, excellent battery life, and a quality pair of speakers. Most importantly, it costs just $600 right now at Best Buy – considerably less than a Galaxy S10. But again, the underwhelming day-to-day performance of the G8X makes it difficult to recommend, especially when a OnePlus 7T costs the same and gives you much more bang for your buck.
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