Hands-on with the LG G8 ThinQ, a device that may or may not come to Ireland

The LG G8 ThinQ has been a much-anticipated phone, and now, from its showcase at MWC Barcelona 2019, we have a better insight as to why. Although LG’s flagship this year, the LG V50, was a roaring success, the LG G8 ThinQ has caught the attention of many tech fanatics. It brings in some especially unique features, including touchless gestures, vein recognition, and of course face ID unlock.

The device rocks an AMOLED display, with a 3120×1440 native resolution. Its 6.1-inch QHD+ screen size gives it a respectable PPI of 564. It has a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner too. Its 3,500mAh battery supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, as well as Fast Wireless Charging. It sports a Snapdragon 855 chipset.

The cameras on the device are standard enough. There are two rear cameras: standard and wide. The standard one is 12MP f/1.5, with a 79° field-of-view. The wide shot camera is 1 6MP f/1.9, with a 107° field-of-view. Both are capable of recording video at 4K with 60FPS. On the front, there is one 8MP f/1.7 camera, with an 80° field-of-view. It also includes autofocus, with an IR VCSEL and IR Sensor, for transmitting and receiving.

With its 128GB of stock storage, as well as expandable support of up to a 2TB microSD, and it’s 6GB LPDDR4 RAM, this phone is pretty well rounded all in all. So, what makes it so unique?

Hand Gestures and Biometrics

This phone brings with it something inherently new and unique about it. This feature is the 3D time of flight camera. With this, the LG G8 ThinQ supports decidedly weird new means of interacting. Contactless hand gestures and vein recognition included. You can watch our own editor in chief, Adam Conway, who is actually at MWC 2019 with XDA-Developers, demonstrating the gestures here. You can also read his article for XDA here. Bear in mind that this video was recorded using prototype software, and may not perfectly reflect the full functionality of the release model.

As it stands, the gestures are just for very specific tasks, such as opening the camera (done by waving, as if to grab its attention), and navigating music software (pause/play). There is also functionality for opening Google Maps and your SMS application. One would assume that more will be added regularly, with the eventual support of custom hand gestures.

The vein recognition software is something entirely new to mobile phones. In theory, your vein pattern in much more individual and unique in comparison to your fingerprint. However, only time will tell how it compares when it comes to security and spoofing. Perhaps it will become an eventual replacement for fingerprint scanners on mobile devices.

Conclusion

The LG G8 ThinQ is a very solid, higher-end competitor. It’s expected to come into stores for in and around $800, so right about €700. The phone’s popularity will come down to its price in the end. It has some impressive specifications that are tried and tested, such as the AMOLED display, high resolution, 2 TB external SD support, Snapdragon 855 and 6GB RAM.

The key selling points of this phone are, of course, it’s hand gestures and vein recognition. We’ve seen the 3D time of flight sensor before on the Honor View20, it holds a lot of promise. One thing is for sure and that’s that with this phone, LG has shown that they’re still in the game for new and innovating features.

In terms of availability in Ireland, it’s unclear as to whether any particular retailer in Ireland will be selling the device.