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CHRIS VELAZCO: LG has been
making flagship smartphones

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for years now, but I
think it's probably

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fair to say that when you're
looking for the absolute best

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of the best, LG probably
isn't the company you

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turn to immediately.

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And nothing about what
we've seen in the new LG G8

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changes that.

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That said, there is a
lot to like about this.

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And I think in a
lot of ways, it is

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one of the most charming
and most interesting

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phones LG has made in
a really long time.

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Let's take a closer look.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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Let's just run
through the basics

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really quickly because
they are, in some ways,

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the least interesting
parts of these phones.

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There's a Snapdragon 855
chipset in their making.

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That's one of the
first devices to use

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the 855 we've played
with this year,

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and that's not going to change.

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It's going to be the chipset
of 2019, mark my words.

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In addition to that,
you have six gigs

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of RAM, 128 gigs of storage.

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We're also working with a
6.1 inch OLED display here,

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and it's maybe not the
nicest I've ever seen,

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but still actually very,
very good by LG standards.

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It runs at 3120 by 1440.

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It has HDR10 certification.

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And yet, it's generally
quite nice to look at.

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In my brief time with
the phone, the screen

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itself seems more
than nice enough.

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It's actually a little
bit better than what I've

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generally seen from LG devices.

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Arguably, the most interesting
thing about this phone

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actually sits just north of that
screen in that notch cut out.

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Next to the eight megapixel
front facing camera,

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we have what LG calls the Z
camera, or, more accurately,

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a time of flight camera.

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Now, we've heard about these
a few times in the past,

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and you've seen them pop
up in a few other devices.

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Long story short, that
means the phone gets

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more nuanced depth information.

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That comes into play
in a couple of ways.

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First, if you're a fan
of selfie portraits,

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they're going to be a
little better this time.

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It does a better
job of separating

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you from everything else
happening in the background.

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That's fine.

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What's really interesting here
is that LG is kind of engaging

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in a bit of blue sky thinking.

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They're trying to figure out,
well, time of flight cameras

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are becoming readily available,
and we're working with one now.

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What can you actually
do with these things?

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Their answer was to
build a way for you

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to control your smartphone
without ever actually

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touching your smartphone.

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It's called air
control, and it sort of

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does what the name implies.

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And I know what you're thinking.

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The idea of
controlling your phone

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by waving your hand in front of
it has been around for a while.

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What's really interesting
about LG's approach

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is that they're actually
giving you access

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to fairly granular tasks.

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You can, for example,
hold up your hand

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in this weird sort
of claw gesture

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and use it to turn the
volume up and down.

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You can also use it to define
and launch app shortcuts.

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So if you're--

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I don't know-- in
the kitchen cooking

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and want to jump into the
"New York Times" cooking app,

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you can do that very easily
with just a hover and a swipe.

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That all sounds really cool.

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And when it does work,
it is profoundly awesome.

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Again, this isn't
anything dramatically new,

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but it's nice to see
something brought back

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from the annals of
smartphone history

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and implemented in a way that
kind of feels like it works.

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That said, it doesn't
work great all the time,

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especially on this,
which, in fairness,

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is a preproduction device.

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Some of the software
is not complete yet.

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Turning up the volume works,
but you can't generally

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turn it back down
because it seems

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like the camera can
only track motion moving

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in one direction at a time.

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If you fire up the new hand ID
secure unlock feature, as well,

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a method that LG
says is, by the way,

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very secure, you're going
to spend a lot of time

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trying to find that sweet spot.

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Basically, instead of
just holding your phone up

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to your face or using the
perfectly fine fingerprint

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sensor on the back, you
can position your palm

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in front of the
camera and unlock

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the phone without touching it.

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Again, totally great in
theory, but you I guarantee

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are going to spend at
least two or three minutes

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trying to find that sweet spot.

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And since there is no physical
reference point for your hand,

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you have to go through
that process every time.

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The muscle memory,
I would imagine,

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does not build up
very quickly here.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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So yeah, LG has packed some
really ambitious things here.

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Even if they're not, strictly
speaking, the newest ideas,

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they're executed with
some degree of elegance.

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And hopefully, the
software that comes

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when these things officially
launch fixes some of the issues

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that we encountered.

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Beyond that, we're
basically looking

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at last year's G7 design.

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It's sort of flattened out
and rounded off, and in a way

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that actually feels
really, really nice.

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The dual cameras sit flush
along the camera's back.

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The fingerprint sensor
sort of nestles very nicely

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into the back of the phone.

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And the whole thing
actually feels

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a lot more cohesive than I'm
used to from an LG phone.

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I will say that in my
brief time with the phone,

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and in holding it up to
my face in particular,

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my hair tends to get
caught in that little gap.

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So it yanks when I pull it
away, and it kind of hurts.

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Now, normally, I might not even
notice that because I generally

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don't make phone calls
on hands on devices,

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but LG has worked up a new
approach to the speaker,

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which kind of means I had to.

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Basically, there is
no speaker grill here.

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LG built a capacitor directly
into the back of this glass.

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So basically, the entire
panel is your speaker.

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It works well enough,
and I don't think anyone

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who really cares about
phone calls will find

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much to complain about here.

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But I should point
out that when you have

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the volume cranked
up all the way,

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your conversation does
get pretty audible.

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So maybe be careful about having
private conversations in public

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on this thing.

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Oh, and the cameras.

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By the way, there
is a 12 megapixel

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standard camera on the
back with a 16 megapixel

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wide angle camera.

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That should sound pretty
familiar if you've ever

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used a G series device before.

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And in many ways,
we have a very,

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very similar
software experience,

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down to the 19 AI modes here.

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They're exactly the same as
the ones we got last year.

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The few improvements
we have seen

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center around portrait mode.

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So studio lighting does
work a little bit better,

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especially when you're
taking them as selfies.

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And it's fine.

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I've noticed slightly
better color saturation

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and detail in some of the
photos I've taken so far.

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I think the dynamic
range tends to get

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a little screwy with HDR on.

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I've had some trouble getting
really accurate looking shots.

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But that's almost not the point.

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You kind of want the most
punchy visual possible with HDR.

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And on some level, this is going
to give people what they want.

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All told, I've got to say I
did not expect to like an LG

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phone as much as I like this.

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And I've put in my time with
a few of them to be sure.

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The hardware feels
polished in a way

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that I'm really not used to.

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And the software, while honestly
just not done right now,

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is more ambitious than
I would have expected.

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LG has done some
interesting things here,

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and I don't think they all will
work as seamlessly as they want

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it to, but it shows that LG is
committed to figuring out how

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to improve interfaces not just
on phones that look like this,

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but on the phones
of the future, too.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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