LG G8X ThinQ review: More screens aren't always better

The dual-screen experience

On the surface, LG's approach here is clever. You can add a second screen whenever you need it and leave it at home when you don't. You're never stuck with more phone than you need.

As I said earlier, this isn't the company's first crack at a smartphone case with its own screen. The Korean V50 ThinQ had its own Dual Screen too, and LG clearly learned from some mistakes it made there. Rather than lock into place in three semi-convenient positions, the G8's dual-screen case has enough tension to stay open no matter the angle. This bolt-on second screen is identical to the one built into the phone, right down to the (totally unnecessary) teardrop notch. And there's now a secondary display on the outside of the case so you can see who's calling without having to flip the whole package open.

LG did a much better job building this peculiar case, but actually using it still feels far less than ideal. For one, it basically doubles the size of the phone, and the fact that it doesn't have its own battery means it'll generally drain its host within three to five hours. LG also decided to use a peculiar, seemingly MagSafe-inspired connector instead of a USB-C passthrough on the case, which presents some issues I'll get to a bit later.

Here's the big picture: LG doesn't love the idea of foldable phones that are basically just tablets that bend in half. Maybe that's why, out of all the apps I've run on the G8X and its little buddy screen, only one -- Chrome -- can be set to run across both displays. In fairness to LG, though, Chrome works well enough when used like this. Problem is, because of the requisite hinge connecting both screens, there's about half an inch of dead space between them. It's unappealing, to say the least.

That's not a problem per se, but it does sort of fly in the face of what I'd want out of a device like this. Part of the appeal of foldables and other multiscreen phones is that I could choose to use all that extra screen space to do the things I want more easily, like reading or watching videos that really shine with more room.

Instead, the G8X and its second screen generally act like two smartphones attached at the proverbial hip. Because both screens are devoted to displaying one app at a time, multitasking can be pretty great here. Over the past week, I've had Gmail parked on one screen while the other played host to either Slack or Google Calendar. And when the workday was finally over, I'd use the two displays to read books in the Kindle app while searching for the right soundtrack in Spotify. Situations like this that benefit from multiple displays aren't hard to come by, but during my time with the G8X, none of them seemed to come up organically. I felt like I had to concoct reasons to run apps on the second screen simply because it was there, not because it made my life any better.

Thankfully, LG cooked up a few ways for both of these screens to work better together. When I used the camera, I could tap the camera roll to view photos I just shot on that secondary display, making it easy to see if I needed to reframe my shot and try again. An LG spokesperson also suggested that because one of the screens could be used to display a full-width keyboard, the G8X could be used "like a laptop." With some effort you can make this work, but at no point did I ever want to place the G8X on a table and type like I would on a computer. Using it like a mid-2000s phone with a discrete keyboard though? Well, that's pretty great, at least when it works.

LG says the G8X is contextually aware enough to know that some apps should automatically use that other screen for typing, and sometimes it is. Other times, apps like the default LG messenger wouldn't display the full-size keyboard on the main screen when I rotated the G8X, even though they should have.

Over the past week, I've found the most pleasure in using the G8X as a portable game console. That's partly thanks to the flagship performance but also because of LG's Game Pad software. Once you fire up a game that supports physical controllers and enable the gamepad, you'll get a full console-style layout on the secondary display that works seamlessly with titles like Asphalt 9 and Modern Warfare 5. The only hitch I've run into is that games that use physical triggers can be tricky, since they require an extra finger on the screen.

Thankfully, LG's software controller offers a handful of preconfigured layouts for racers and arcade-style fighters to make getting into the thick of things easy. And the best part: You can create custom layouts for games that don't natively support controllers where your on-screen controls simulate taps on the touchscreen. It's not enough to make Call of Duty: Mobile fully playable while Activision sorts out its controller problems, but it did make playing retro games in emulators easier, since I wasn't obscuring the action with my thumbs all the time.

It was mid-game that I finally noticed one of the G8X's most annoying character flaws. After about three hours of plowing through an old-school RPG, the phone started complaining about a low battery, so I set about charging it. In this case, that meant I had to dig out the included MagSafe-like USB-C adapter, attach it to the USB cable and connect the whole thing to the case's magnetic charge pins. As it turns out, it's nearly impossible to avoid nudging the cable and adapter right off the phone, making any kind of dual-screen use while charging basically impossible. I tried flipping the adapter around every which way to double-check that I wasn't making a mistake. But pushing down on the adapter even a little would cause the cable to clatter to the ground. LG's design is just flawed.

That nicely sums up my issue with many of LG's phones. I come in optimistic and intrigued. Too often, though, they're marred by seemingly obvious issues and inconsistencies. I often wonder who at the company saw them and said, "Yeah, that's totally fine."

Wrap-up

As a standalone smartphone, the LG G8X is pretty easily outclassed. As a dual-screen device, it shows potential, but the experience is so inconsistent that the G8X never transcends its status as a gimmick. It is, however, a relatively inexpensive gimmick compared to the rest of the year's high-end phones, and that's enough to help me overlook some of the phone's flaws. Assuming you can get a good deal on one, the G8X isn't a bad way to get a feel for the multiscreen life, as unpolished as it is right now. Just don't mistake this phone for anything but what it really is: a stopgap solution while LG figures out what kinds of devices it really wants to make.