This was LG's flagship entry in 2018's phone wars, just about seven months after Apple's iPhone X hit the market, and a few months before Samsung's Galaxy S9. The LG G7 ThinQ was LG's attempt to take the best of both worlds, a premium phone with AI-packed features. The device was powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, alongside 4GB/6GB of RAM, and it managed to afford a performance which is on par with the competition in the high-end segment at the time, handling multitasking and gaming well at the time of launch. The 6.1–inch IPS LCD panel, though, was its prize attraction by way of having a 3120 x 1440 resolution and a “Super Bright” mode that would bump brightness temporarily up to 1,000 nits for outdoor use, something of a rarity in 2018.

The phone comes with a dual-camera setup that includes a 16MP standard lens (f/1.6, OIS) and a 16MP wide lens (f/1.9) that will shoot from a variety of ranges. On the front there was 8MP front-facing camera with portrait mode, AI beauty effects The R11 came with 3,000mAh battery, equipped with Quick Charge 3.0 and even wireless charging. Dedicated Google Assistant button, 3.5mm headphone jack with Hi-Fi Quad DAC, IP6 water and dust-resistant rated. It launched with Android 8.0 Oreo on board and was LG’s first to offer the AI-backed ThinQ suite for voice commands or for selecting camera scenes, among other nifty tricks.

The LG G7 ThinQ, on the other hand, was the alternative to the Galaxy S9 and iPhone X that wasn't particularly heavy on the new stuff, but was heavy on the old stuff: especially in screen brightness, sound quality and a few tricks that nobody else has. But at the same time, its flaws, particularly the so-so battery life and the kind of not-so-fancy plasticity, began to outweigh its accomplishments, and make it a harder phone to champion opposite its rivals.