LG G6 vs Huawei P10 comparison review: UK price and availability
Before we decide which is the better smartphone, let’s first discuss pricing and availability of both the Huawei P10 and LG G6. Both 2017 flagship smartphones were announced at MWC 2017 in Barcelona, although the Huawei P10 will be here slightly earlier than the LG G6 with a 31 March 2017 release date and a rather fair RRP of £499, although some third-party retailers are bumping the price up to £569.99. How does that compare to LG? The LG G6 is set to go on-sale in the UK on 7 April 2017, although it’ll cost considerably more than Huawei’s 5.1in smartphone at a whopping £699. That puts the LG G6 in line with Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus in terms of pricing, with users able to register their interest with the likes of Carphone Warehouse right now. Read next: LG G6 review
LG G6 vs Huawei P10 comparison review: Design and build
Huawei’s 2017 flagship, the P10, features a design reminiscent of the P-series, although more refined than in recent years. The P10, like other flagships, features a metal unibody with curved edges but Huawei’s are wider than the competition. The company claims that this provides a smartphone that is easier to grip in the hand. This is also helped by the new hyper-diamond cut that cuts down on smudges while providing more grip, although the finish is limited to the dazzling blue and dazzling gold colour options. When combined with the thin bezels of the Huawei P10’s 5.1in display, you’re left with a sleek, slender smartphone that sits comfortably in the hand. For reference, the Huawei P10 measures in at 145.3 x 69.3 x 7mm and weighs 145g, making it both lighter and thinner than the LG G6, measuring in at 148.9 x 71.9 x 7.9mm and 163g, although the G6 features a much larger display. Huawei put a huge focus on colour with the P10, working with Pantone to create the vibrant dazzling blue and greenery colour options for the smartphone. Those colours in particular are stunning and eye-catching, and separates the Huawei P10 from the sea of similarly-coloured smartphones. Of course, if green or blue isn’t your ‘thing’ then the P10 is also available in standard colours like graphite black, rose gold and mystic silver. That can’t be said for LG though, as the LG G6 is only available in either Platinum, White or Black.
Colour options aside, LG has also put a huge focus on design with the LG G6, the first of a host of near bezel-less smartphones due out in 2017. The blend of a Gorilla glass 5 front- and rear with an aluminium frame is stunning (if not reminiscent of the iPhone 4), and is only made more impressive by the huge display. It’s a 5.7in QHD display, although that’s not what is most impressive – it’s the 18:9 aspect ratio and incredibly thin bezels. LG wanted to make the display bigger without making it wider and harder to hold one-handed, so instead decided to extend the length of the display. There is much more screen space for apps to utilize, although only LG’s own apps take advantage in an intuitive way for now. The fingerprint scanner is also found on the rear of the G6, leaving LG with a ‘clean’ forward-facing look, while Huawei has moved the fingerprint scanner from the rear to the front of the P10. Huawei’s fingerprint scanner also doubles up as a Home, Back and Multitask button thanks to intuitive gestures, negating the need for on-screen Android controls. Oh, and the LG G6 should survive for much longer than the P10 in water – it boasts IP68 water resistance, meaning it can be submerged in up to 1m of water for up to 30 minutes without the need for caps for the various ports, while Huawei offers no water resistance at all. Read next: Best smartphones of 2017
LG G6 vs Huawei P10 comparison review: Features and spec
The Huawei P10 features a 5.1in FHD (1920 x 1080) display with a rather standard 16:9 aspect ratio. The display is bright and crisp, although it can’t hold a candle to the Quad HD (2880 x 1440) 5.7in display of the LG G6, especially with its taller 18:9 aspect ratio. There is also, rather interestingly, an absence of an oleophobic coating on the display of the Huawei P10, meaning that it’ll be a bit of a fingerprint magnet if you take off the supplied screen protector. The LG G6 display also features always-on technology, meaning you can see vital information like message notifications, the time and the date without even having to turn the display on. It’s not perfect though: the wider aspect ratio is causing problems with video streaming apps like Netflix that provide videos in the standard 16:9 ratio. There’s a workaround, but it’s not perfect yet – although LG has confirmed it’s working with Netflix to provide a comfortable solution for LG G6 users. Moving beyond the displays, let’s look at the internals of both 2017 flagship smartphones. The Huawei P10 features the company’s own octa-core Kirin 960 CPU, coupled with 4GB of RAM and a Mali G71 GPU. Interestingly, it’s the exact same as what’s offered in the late-2016 5.9in Huawei Mate 9. That’s no bad thing though, as we noted in our Huawei Mate 9 review that the performance was impressive, and on a par with many 2016 flagships. On the other hand, the LG G6 features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 CPU and not the flagship Snapdragon 825 rumoured to be featured on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8. Along with the Snapdragon 821, the LG G6 offers 4GB of RAM and an Adreno 530 GPU. Essentially, both smartphones should perform at similar levels, although we’ll confirm this once we’ve benchmarked both smartphones.
But what about the camera department? While both the Huawei P10 and the LG G6 feature a dual-camera setup on the rear, the two differ hugely in terms of the feature on offer. The Huawei P10 features one 12Mp colour sensor and one 20Mp monochrome sensor, both co-engineered with high-end camera company Leica. Huawei claims that the monochrome sensor provides more light and detail on photos when combined with the standard 12Mp colour image. The LG G6 cameras on the other hand are both colour, and both are 13Mp. There’s a difference in aperture at f/1.8 and f/2.2, meaning one will perform better in lower light conditions than the other. While Huawei aims to merge the images captured by both lenses into a single image, LG offers a number of shooting modes that’ll make use of both cameras independently, although as noted in our LG G6 initial review, some of these modes are confusing to use. That’s not to say that Huawei doesn’t offer a range of photo modes: it offers a Pro mode for manual control over the camera settings, although Portrait mode is the flagship feature of the Huawei P10. Using the dual camera setup, the P10 will analyse your face in real time, adjusting the lighting effects and applying a slight airbrush to provide picture-perfect selfies. It also uses a faux-Bokeh effect to blur the background, but we’ve had mixed results with this so far.
In terms of front-facing cameras, the Huawei P10 features an 8Mp camera while the LG G6 boasts a slightly smaller 5Mp camera. Despite the 3Mp difference between the two cameras, both the LG G6 and Huawei P10 should be more than sufficient for all your Snapchat/Skype/Selfie-taking needs. Read next: Best Android smartphone of 2017
LG G6 vs Huawei P10 comparison review: Software
The Huawei P10 features Android 7.0 Nougat alongside Huawei’s own EMUI 5.1, which offers significant improvements (both visually and under the hood) when compared to earlier versions of Huawei’s Android overlay. The Machine Learning first introduced on the Huawei Mate 9 will ‘learn’ how you use your smartphone and will automatically allocate resources depending on what it thinks you’ll be doing at any given time. That’s coupled with recent additions to the Machine Learning roster, including the ability for the Huawei P10 to predict where your finger is about to tap on the display, providing a more responsive touchscreen experience. You can find out more about EMUI in our roundup of the best custom Android UIs of 2017. The LG G6 also features Android 7.0 Nougat, although with LG’s own overlay that changes the look of the operating system. It features pastel colours, a square design focus coupled with rounded edges to reflect the corners of the display. It’s refined, everything flows well without any sign of lag, although it might take a little bit of getting used to compared to stock Android. To find out more about what Android 7.0 Nougat offers, take a look at our Android 7.0 Nougat review. Lewis Painter is a Senior Staff Writer at Tech Advisor. Our resident Apple expert, Lewis covers everything from iPhone to AirPods, plus a range of smartphones, tablets, laptops and gaming hardware. You’ll also find him on the Tech Advisor YouTube channel.
