LG G8 ThinQ review: has bigger battery, more RAM, and feels nice to hold, but it might not receive timely OS updates and some features like Hand ID are gimmicky
It checks a lot of boxes, except the ones that really matter — If you're looking for a new phone in 2019 that has a bunch of features …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Verge's G8 verdict lands on a familiar beat in LG's flagship cycle: the G4 was dinged for poorly designed software, the G6 for slow OS updates, and now the G8 for the same update concern plus gimmicky features like Hand ID. Across four years of G-series reviews, the hardware keeps improving while the software criticisms repeat almost verbatim.
That matters because LG's G-line competes head-to-head with Samsung's Galaxy S-class on specs — bigger battery, more RAM, comfortable ergonomics — yet reviewers keep flagging the same non-hardware gaps as the reason to hesitate.
First-order effects
- Buyers weighing the G8 against Galaxy-tier rivals get a clear trade-off: strong battery, RAM, and feel in hand versus uncertain update timeliness and features like Hand ID that read as filler.
- LG's spec-sheet advantages are neutralized at the point of sale if the update question stands, since it is the one box the phone cannot check with hardware.
Second-order effects
- LG's own follow-up later in 2019, the G8X ThinQ Dual Screen, reads as a response to this dynamic — differentiating through an accessory rather than out-specing rivals as a conventional phone.
- Carriers and retailers stocking the G8 face a harder sell when the recurring update critique gives shoppers a concrete reason to pick the competitor at similar pricing.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — good hardware, lagging software support — LG's flagship line risks becoming irrelevant to mainstream buyers regardless of component quality, pushing the brand toward niche form-factor experiments.
- Persistent update lag across generations points to a structural gap in how LG allocates engineering between launch-year features and post-launch software maintenance, an instance of who holds authority over a device's compute after sale.
The trend: LG's G-series shows a multi-year split between competitive hardware and unreliable software support, nudging the company toward accessory-led differentiation instead of straight flagship competition.