LG G7 Plus Review

Last Updated : 8/8/2025 (unstubbed for now)

Introduction

In 10/7/2025, 2 boys were playing the game they swore would someday quit, on their lunch breaks. They discussed about their future about the game as they went with their usual rotations. One wanted to keep going for a bit, but the other wanted out. As the discussion began heating up (to a I dunno bro, won't you stay a bit longer? I'll make it worth your while!), both of their devices froze, roaring out one last long beep before powering off, never to boot again. This left the boys with 2 dead devices, which can only be sold off as spare parts (and fate agreeing with the quitter, coercing the one who wanted to keep going to quit). As the boys had this peculiar tradition of having matching devices (to symbolize their bond), both ended up scouring the internet for suitable devices, ending with 2 LG G7 Plus (which will be described as G7P where it mattered (like the different RAM/storage config), but will be addressed as G7 for when I'm generalizing the G7s) units awaiting their new displays and custom systems, which is in the quitter's hands. And as that quitter is clearly me... this left das b0ss Bob Macedrop the financier (with a bit of my "disposable" salary cut to further cover the costs) of this project, and the one who wanted us to keep going with our FGO career despite our increasing dissatisfaction.

And thus, 2 G7Ps arrived in our shared abode's mailbox in 12/7/2025. And our first impressions were surprisingly positive ‐ aside from the display issues we knew we had to fix (cracked glass) and my unit not having any buttons (in addition to worn volume switches, thanks b0ss), everything else was surprisingly healthy for secondhand units. Even the battery, which we usually expect to replace as soon as we got our hands on any secondhand shitbars.

Physical features

The G7 felt like your average glass sandwich flagship of 2018. Relatively lightweight for its size, small, and thin, all of which are a welcome break from the bulky ass X3(N/P).

• Top section is mostly blank, save for the microSD/SIM tray and secondary microphone hole.
• USB‐C charging port, speaker, 3.5mm jack, & primary mic on the bottom corner. The jack is positioned on the bottom‐left, which is not quite ideal for gaming unless your headset's plug is L‐shaped. Speaker on the bottom‐right shouldn't be too easy to block though (at least not as easy as most OnePlus shitbars with a 3.5mm port would).
• Left section contains the volume buttons & Goolag Assistant button (which, just like the Samsung it was inspired to copy, can be reconfigured in AOSP ROMs but not in stock). I've set this up as a quick volume panel toggle since it doesn't reliably wake the device when pressed (making it only effective at half of what I think it was supposed to do). I'll still call that GA button Bixby for now, considering the relative similarities.
• Right section is home to the power button, now separate from the fingerprint scanner. Having the power & volume button on the opposite of each other is ideal for faster (and more accidental) screenshots.
• Front side is reserved for the earpiece (off‐center for your (dis)pleasure), front camera (centered because LG thought they could copy Essential's notch but forgot the earpiece & other sensors until the very last second, but then again I'm making shit up on this one), & 6.1' (65mm x 140mm) 19:9 notched 60hz LCD.
• The back holds the rear cameras (along with flash diffuser & laser autofocus thing) & fingerprint scanner.
• For materials, Gorilla Glass 5 covers the front & rear glasses, with aluminium for the body, buttons, and microSD/SIM tray cap. Plastic is mostly used within the microSD/SIM tray.
• The now‐independent fingerprint scanner is still as accurate & fast as it was on the V30. The buttons turn out to be unnoteworthily clicky, though my unit could use a volume flex replacement as both volume switches (but not Bixby for some reason) seem worn (and made them tougher to press and offer less feedback).
• Vibration haptics in the G7 is not as strong as the V30 was, with 35ms being ideal.
• JerryRigEverything durability test video for the LG G7

Skipped the screen protector observations for now, as I've got a matte hydrogel (which lacks the usual crease in the middle) on and it's enough for me (combined with some cheap bumpercase).

Audio Quality

The G7 has a 3.5mm jack & a "boombox" bottom‐firing speaker. The earpiece should be able to work as a second speaker, but I'm not going to try that out for now, considering the last time anyone took that concept seriously was 2020 AFAIK.

The 3.5mm jack is your standard LG flagship jack ‐ sounds better, with Quad DAC boosting the quality and volume particularly for high impedance headphone owners (who would otherwise have to deal with the arbitrary volume limiter just for acceptable volume levels). Speaking of the volume limiter (at least on A11 crDroid), I actually welcomed that thing on the G7 (whereas it is a hindrance in Xiaomi devices, particularly the X3P).

• Default 15‐step peaks out at 67% before the alert comes out. Jumping up to 30 steps (which I thought was ideal before this revelation) drops the threshold to 33%, which sounds fitting for its "arbitrary" title. However...
• With my 7hz Zero in‐ears, I found that I'd rather enjoy my music at 27%, with Quad DAC AVC ‐19 (everything else untouched). From the limiter's lowest known threshold (33%), that's one step away in default 15‐step and 2 steps away from the allegedly ideal 30‐step.

The bottom‐firing speaker seems (and sounds) like your generic mono speaker, at first. Except LG cut up 300mAh off the battery (which totally explains why the G7 runs 3000mAh... right?) and a bit of plastic around the speaker, essentially making the G7's back a resonance chamber (which does vibrate when playing audio). By placing the G7 on any hard surface or a hollow container, the sound immediately becomes bassier, louder, and more unidirectional.

Display

The 6.1' (65mm x 140mm) 19.5:9 LCD display on the G7 is pretty good, as far as displays go.

• Colors are... well... colors. Looks extra nice to me.
• The display runs at 60hz, which is a norm of its time. I would miss the added smoothness brought by the X3(N/P)'s 120hz display (which debuted in the year before the G7 with the Razer Phone), but then I don't really mind it considering the games I play(ed) would either top out at ≤60hz (emulated DS/PS2/PSP) or not fully obvious at taking advantage of the added smoothness (Shattered Pixel, solitaire, Xeonjia)
• Brightness curve in AOSP is workable. Gets dark enough to be quite comfortable at dark rooms (whereas the V30's P‐OLED is so bright at the darkest setting it becomes uncomfortable to use without Smart Pixels darkening it down to acceptable levels) and bright enough that the display remains legible enough under direct afternoon sunlight.
• Being an LCD panel, this display will never have the highly inky (and power‐saving) blacks OLEDs get. But then again, no burn‐in concerns, so not the worst tradeoff, especially considering the monetary costs of getting an LCD over OLED.

Bootloader unlocking

Unlocking the G7's bootloader can be a bit involved.

• On one hand, it's essentially just one fastboot oem unlock command... except you need to replace the stock bootloader with LG V35's engineering bootloader beforehand. And you can only do it by booting the G7 into EDL mode ‐ which is where it starts getting involved. Fortunately, it works regardless of firmware versions, but read further.
• Depending on your computer (either Linux, Mac, or Windows), you're in for some different flavors of complexity in playing with EDL. But we're not in the hardest part yet.
• After that fastboot oem unlock (in addition to frp.img if and only if your G7 lacks the OEM Unlock toggle in Developer settings), you're meant to reflash your backed up stock abl (& laf images in case it got silently wiped, as it usually is in certain variants). Except... what if the G7 doesn't boot after unlocking bootloader (as it happened to me, who just so happened to be one of the morons who flashed frp.img despite seeing OEM unlock toggle)? That's where dev‐patched LGUP (for those using Windows) comes in to make your G7 properly boot again if you have the .kdz files ready (at least as long as the original laf partitions are still intact). Unfortunately for us who had timing issues in getting those files ready (I had no considerations for the G7 until 10/7/2025), those files are essentially lost media. The commonly linked lg‐firmwares.com (who demands a recaptcha before you can get the download link) seems to no longer provide them (their downloader page is down), androidfilehost lost their available mirrors (not to mention whatever cuckflare issue they're on nowadays), and various others gatekept their files from us guests in some ways. I only found them after searching in Google Drive... after I bashed my head through some Telegram group (https://t.me/emhub), which required borrowing Lukas's Telegram account (and personal computer, which (un)fortunately had Chrome installed & auto‐updating) because he's the only one to somehow still retain his Telegram account even after it was explicitly banned for our workplace uses.
Bonus fact : This is the first (and hopefully the last) time I've even linked Google Drive in this website. Use some normie's computer to download those files.

• And because T‐Mobile likes to fuck things up for their own customers, there's no compatible firehose for it and their variant refuses to work on others. So there's a variant you should actively avoid.

Repairability

G7's repairability is basically similar to the V30 it succeeded, except with some inspiration from Samsung on the battery & daughterboard.

• Back panel demands heat (or isopropyl alcohol), suction cup, & adhesive‐cutting pry (with no notable cables around where you're meant to pry) to remove and glue to re‐attach; with camera bump assembly (which includes flash diffuser) & fingerprint sensor (which aligns its contact pads using its bracket and the camera bump assembly) adhered to it. The back panel is glass, so it shouldn't distort from excessive heating; but additional care on prying needs to be taken if you don't want it to break (and I recommend keeping some spare back panels at the ready in the likely case you broke it when prying it out).
• Motherboard cover / wireless charging coil / NFC pad (which also holds the motherboard in place, along with microSD/SIM tray) is held by 7 screws, whereas the speaker module is held by 7 more screws. All of the cover screws are equal in heading (Philips PH0), length, : size; so you don't really need to sort them out.
• microSD / SIM reader's soldered on the motherboard, though that's common for every phone nowadays except for ASUS ZS630KL / Zenfone 6 2019 / 6z (which had their own module board for the trays adhered to the midframe). It's mounted on the back side of the motherboard, but you can consider its tray the only other thing keeping the motherboard stuck to the body, other than those board covers with their screws.
• The battery is held down with some adhesives & lacks any pull tabs. Prying isn't too difficult due to the adhesive (at least on subsequent pryouts, when you've used some gentler adhesive for the battery), though caution needs to be taken as you might pry right into the display flex cable (which is under the lower section of the battery).
• For Lego‐like BTBs, it's used for the battery, cameras, daughterboard, and screen. Everything else relies on contact pins. Those BTBs are not designed with repairability in mind, as some of them are surrounded by various capacitors, making removals requiring some precision. Especially the daughterboard one.
• Headphone jack connects to the daughterboard, which doubles as the charging port board. Said charging port board connects under the motherboard (as in the BTB connecting the MB to DB is on the MB's underside), which is just as pleasant as it was on the S9; except without any added screws to hold them in place and the coaxial cables turned into one ribbon cable fused with the DB, both of which made reattachment actually less unpleasant.
• As expected of glass sandwiches, the buttons are on their own slots, held by adhesive for the flex cables & clips into its own place. The power button's on its own slot & flex cable, while Bixby shares a flex cable with the volume rocker. And replacing the clickers themselves are as simple as prying out with blade and jamming replacement(s) in.
• Display is adhered in its place, with its flex cable sneaking under the battery & daughterboard. Earpiece grille is normally adhered under the display glass.

Teardown references :

• JerryRigEverything's teardown video
• iFixit's repair guides (teardown video)

Custom development availability (as of 15/7/2025)

I'd like to start with the rather pathetic recovery availability.

• On one hand, an unofficial build of TWRP (3‐6‐1_9.0‐G7_ab) can be readily downloaded without Telegram, except it seems to be loaded with issues despite working with my unit.
• Dalvik wiping fails.
• No storage decryption for AOSP, at least for A11. Unrooted users better start up their root mechanisms to fuck with /data.
• Vibration fails (marked as disabled in TWRP settings), but that's the least of my issues.
• Google Drive. Not even the worst of this thing's issue, but when I'm not convinced by this TWRP's performance... fuck it. Nuking links. I can't recommend something unreliable.
• On the other hand, unofficial OrangeFox (ofox‐metadata‐judyln) is mostly locked to Telegram (but also available somewhere in OneDrive, except that one's crazier than Go‐ogle) but is the way to go for installing (and modifying, to my disdain) most A11 custom ROMs. However, it can't automatically set data as f2fs so you need to do it manually for the ROMs that demand it (such as A11 crDroid).

Custom ROM on the G7 is mostly serviceable, but not without issues.

• Permissive SELinux is the norm until A13, just like the V30. Except for no reason other than the developers not working on it until then (with lifehackerhansol helping out on that front).
• A11 has ArrowOS, crDroid, and DotOS, with f2fs data (will not boot if /data is ext4). Out of the mentioned ones, I've only played with crDroid & DotOS (mostly because I was curious with both).
• Couldn't be bothered with anything else above A11 (discontinued A12L builds barely worth using, ≥A13 crap), but official LineageOS exists too (under lifehackerhansol's maintenance... again), in case you'd like to run that (as it is ≥A13 I don't).

And finally we're in for the custom kernel... of which I regret to inform you that there might as well be none. Sure, we get EmanuelCN0's N0Kernel, but latest builds are locked behind Telegram (with no information about compatibility and/or KernelSU availability). Juleast has perf kernel (with KernelSU), but it only works for 2SI boot ROMs (LineageOS A14).

Other issues

Here are the horrible ones:

• Firmware.
• Custom development being mostly gated behind Telegram, locking out those without a Telegram account and/or cellphone number.
• IMS. VoLTE. VOWiFi. LG implementation not working on AOSP.
• Permissive SELinux on ≤A13 AOSP.

Some not so bad (and easily ignorable) ones :

• Magisk ≥v26 is known to break notification LED. Personally, I refused to use those versions (for one, those refused to tamper with /system, making them pointless), so this issue don't matter to me.

Some decent additions that doesn't make the cut for me :

• Qi wireless charging, up to 10W (archive.org). Requires at least 15W from the wireless charger (and some form of cooling in the likely case the G7 overheats).
• MIL‐STD‐810G compliance so you can probably toss it around with fewer regrets? But then again, it's another jargon on the G7's specsheet, just like IP68 (dust / water resistance, at least before any form of repairs) & ThinQ (the ay‐eye branding LG used).

Conclusion

On one hand, I could almost call the G7P (not the regular 4/64 G7, with less usable specs and even more additional variants) "2018's best device". It has an unofficial bootloader unlocking protocol that works, decent ROM availability (as long as you don't mind running permissive SELinux in A11 and having to browse some questionable sites (OneDrive and/or Telegram) for a working recovery), and decent hardware (...aside from the battery & buttons?). Except I could hand that title to some other devices.

• Zenfone 5z (which I haven't even tried).
• Bootloader unlocking (at this point, considering ASUS nuked UnlockTool) is as simple as flashing factory bootloader image (archive.org), which is easier than the G7's EDL fuckery. Either way, you don't need either corpos' "blessings" just to run the old shitbars you've kept around (or bought second‐hand?) the way you really want to (minus the shitfest that is Goolag).
• Hardware is a bit of trade‐off when compared to each other ‐ 3300mAh USB2.0 wired‐only vs. 3000mAh USB3.1 wired/Qi wireless, stereo speakers (featuring earpiece) with 24‐bit jack vs. mono boombox with 32‐bit jack (+Quad DAC). The tradeoffs also continue on the insides, with the 5z having ZIF connectors for its power/volume flex and 2 separate coaxial cables in return for easier charging port and headphone jack replacement, whereas G7 lacks separate coaxial cables (as those are actually integrated into charging port) & ZIF connectors (Bixby/volume and power flexibles use those pogo‐like contact pads) and allows headphone jack replacements without replacing the charging port, except it connects under the motherboard, making replacement charging ports and reassembly more involved.
• Variant availability compared to G7 is in the 5z's advantage ‐ one firmware zipfile for everyone (4/64, 6/64, 6/128, 8/256). The G7 is either 4/64 or G7P with 6/128; with firmware files for various nations.
• Custom development is overall better (and mostly on XDA instead of Telegram) except for custom kernels (the 5z has none, so no KernelSU). We have official crDroid, LineageOS (both of which has enforcing SELinux on ≥A10, but even less up‐to‐date ≤A12L builds without self‐compiling), and TWRP.
• 5z also wins in telephony ‐ IMS seems to be working even in custom ROMs. Whereas the G7 is tied to shitty stock ROM for IMS.
• In summary, the 5z could be a better device than the G7 in most cases... except we've had better luck finding 2 used G7Ps than we ever had with a single 5z (and we'd like to insert something about capitalism & production scaling over here but we ran out of inspiration just for this thing). Granted, those G7Ps needed some new parts, but still.
12/8/2025 Update : These notes were taken before I had my say on ASUS's quality issues, which worsened the prospect of us getting a 5z.

• Pocophone F1 is even better... except you're compromising on audio (on‐paper stereo speaker with onboard audio jack), build & display quality for easier repairs & larger battery. And with Xiaomi slowly but surely shuttering bootloader unlocks... good luck finding one already unlocked.
• I could've considered its "siblings" V35 & V40, except I'd rather not. As good as LG's OLEDs were (at least on the V30, which the V35 used), they don't really justify their costs (which is occasionally enough to net you a shitbar motherboard, or even an entire shitbar) when compared to the G7's cheaper LCD. However, for honesty's sake, I listed the advantages the V35 & V40 had over the G7 (aside from the aforementioned display).
• The V40 uses its earpiece as a second speaker by default.
• The V35 shares most of its parts (aside from the motherboard) with the V30.
• Both V35 & V40 has a 3300mAh battery whereas G7's on 3000mAh.
• Both V35 & V40 starts from 6GB RAM (along with 64/128GB internal storage options), whereas the G7 starts at 4/64 with G7P being stuck at 6/128. Tiny details for the penny pinchers who don't mind less specs for less costs, but irrelevant if you found only one storage option (which tends to be the norm).
• OnePlus 6? Sure... but I'd ask for more reliablility and a microSD slot. I had this bad feeling that I don't have the best of luck with A/B devices (Mi A1, Pixel XL, Zenfone 6, Mi A2, Pixel 3, and two of this shitbar; all doomed in my hands in one way or another), but considering the LG V30 had the "dishonor" of surviving alongside the Poco F1 (which is a feat in itself considering my V30 was used whereas my F1 was brand‐new), who knows if the G7 is the first A/B device I owned to... last longer than 1 year in my ownership?
• The S9? Nope. At least the G7 can probably be considered the Gouf to the Zudah that is S9... in my headcanon. send help, author boi's running out of brainjuice)
• On one hand, the S9 packs the same battery as the G7 while being notably smaller, which can be considered an advantage on its own if you like your shitbar smol.
• Development is in the S9's advantage, with its things freely available in XDA. However, it offers less up‐to‐date ≤A12L builds (with the latest build I can recommend being an A10 build with stock vendor, released in 2023), no custom kernels for AOSP ROMs, and an official TWRP that does not decrypt internal storage.
• A‐only partitioning on the S9 made it so you don't have to reflash custom recovery everytime you flash a ROM.
• The S9 also wins in audio, with a comparable audio jack (without Quad DAC, so less jargon?) and stereo speaker featuring its earpiece. Except these 4 (or 3 if size is not an issue) points were the S9's only advantage.
• Curved OLED that costs about as much as one of our G7Ps (at least the original assembly did, aftermarket ones can be cheaper but comes with their own issues). This display also contains the annoyingly immutable (in AOSP ROMs) 3d home button that keeps on waking the device.
• Under our own anecdote (which featured one with a broken board that devours battery even when powered off, which does worsen the issue) the S9's battery life sucked, barely lasting 24 hours doing nothing. Whereas I jammed on with my G7 (and maybe played some PSP games) and went for 72 hours without charging 20‐80 (which is a surprisingly long time for a 3000mAh shitbar). This alone (even if it's only one claim among many) ended up dooming the S9 for me, but there is one more worse issue that truly dooms the S9, and that is...
• The bootloader unlocking, which can be unreliable at times despite being allegedly simple to execute, not to mention OneUI 8 nuking even the concept of bootloader unlocking for newer Samsung shitbars. I had an A50S that refused to unlock its bootloader, and even if the bootloader is unlocked I had to jump through Spike's hoops before I can even start flashing stuff (if there was any for the A50S that is). That experience soured my opinion of Samsung even before OneUI 8 sealed it.

So, why does it look like you'd rather not hand that title over? ...huh. Neat. You're right. I could've but wouldn't. For all of its issues, the others were worse. Might as well end them by not giving it said title, but not giving it to anyone else.

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