LG G8S vs. Samsung S10: 2020's last year top models user review

Intro
When looking for a new smartphone, I always recommend to go for last years top models. Last time, the S7 Edge won over the LG G6 for me. This time it is the LG G8S Thinq vs the Samsung Galaxy S10. I skipped the S8 and S9, because the normal size (not +) models did not any significant advatage over my S7 Edge, which has beed updated to Android 8 in the meantime and still got a new security patch this year. And I skipped the G7, as I always preferred the phones with OLED screens.
I am still very satisfied with my S7 Edge, but I wished for a better camera with wide angle and tele lens. And as the G8S now also has an OLED display, I have two of last years champions to choose from.

Overview
The S10 is last years low risk Galaxy update, like the predecessors have been before. The only significant changes were the move to a in place fingerprint sensor and the triple camera, already in the base modell. LG made more changes compared to the G7. Finally, the display technology changed to OLED, it got a depth sensor at the front and triple camera. But in return, LG removed the excellent QuadDAC and the Boom Box Speakers. So lets see how they compare.

Price
This is the easiest part. If you are short on budget, just get the G8S. Watch out for special offers, I got mine for EUR 310,- while the best offer for the S10 that I found is EUR 510,-. So the G8S is only 60% of the price of the S10. Both phones have their pros and cons, but if you need to watch your budget, the differences aren't so big that these would judge nearly double the price.
The G8S, beeing one of LG's last years flagships behind the V50, is now in the lower midrange price region which makes it a bargain.

Rating - G8S: 9 - S10: 6

Software

I did this test in May and June 2020. The S10 is on Android 10 with June 2020 security patches, which is excellent. The G8S came with Android 9 and the latest security patch I got was from March 2020, which is not a good result for a phone from last year. LG has always been weak with patches and it did not get better with the G8S. LG has annouced to roll out Android 10 to the G8S this fall, but at the time of writing at the end auf August 2020, there is no Android 10 on the LG.
Samsung has already announced to deliver an upgrade to Android 11 for the S10, I won't expect that for the G8S. But for today, I can only rate what is available now.
Android 10 is important for a real dark modes, which makes sense to save battery on an OLED device. The G8S has a high contrast mode, which is ugly IMHO. You can download some dark themes for the G8S, but not everything is skinnable so the result is some mixture of dark and light mode. Overall, LG's skin looks very old fashioned as like they cannot say good bye to Android 4. I like Samsungs One UI, it gives the system a fresh look without doing too much.
Samsung comes with it's own voice assistant Bixby, but you can always use Google assistant on both phones. I don't care for both launchers. Both are OK and will do the Job somehow. But I install Nova Laucher on both after a short period of working with the vendord launchers. Overall, both systems come with some nice extra functionality like extra application launcher side menus, location based services etc. Overall, both are very similar in terms of extra features, but LG's sluggish upgrade strategy is a big minus.

Rating - G8S: 7 - S10: 10

Body, build and battery

As in my last comparison between the LG G6 and the S7 Edge, Samsung created a slimmer body by using its Edge Screen, a rounded screen left and right, and no bezels on the side. The G8S ha
s a more traditional design with small bezels on both sides. The G8S also has a military spec durability certification, and I expect the G8s to be more durable because the glass on both sides is more exposed to damage. I haven't tried it, but for the S10 I use the thickest Spigen Ultra Armor bumper case. For the G8S, I am comfortable with any slim silicon bumper from eBay.
But though I am no friend of Edge displays, in the end it works. Even with the Ultra Armor bumper, the S10 is comfortable in my Hand. The G8S is only a little thicker, but just so much that I personally consider it as too bulky for daily usage. It is also a little longer and does not fit in many of my pockets. But your mileage may vary.
The G8S comes with a new infrared bar at the top, which gives you hand- and face-ID unlock as well as hand gestures. I am with many of other reviewers: these are gimicky and of no practical use. Especially the hand features take forever to operate and often stop because you are doing it not exactly the way it wants you to do it. Overall, the face unlock feature works, but you need to have your face very close to the camera. In the end, I disabled them because they also drain the batter faster. What cannot be disabled, is the gigantic notch from the IR array. The G8S has a larger screen, but much is wasted  by the notch. The battery indicator on the top right even does not have enough space to display the percentage. The S10 only has a little punchhole for the camera which I personally find less intrusive.
Speaking of battery, the S10 is a monster. Even with heavy usage, I have over 20% left at midnight. And with my average usage profile, I nearly get it through 2 days. So I am confident, that even after two years, when the battery may have lost 30% of its capacity, it will get me through the day. The G8S is a different thing. Though it gets me through the day most of the times, sometimes it suffers from extensive battery drain. One day with moderate usage and half an hour playing a puzzle game (nothing 3D), it has been down to 12% before lunch. I sent it back and ordered a new one, because I thought it was a defect. But the other one was the same. Don't get me wrong, the heavy battery drain only happened maybe every one or two weeks, and I only had the 12% before lunch. Overall, I won't rely on the G8S to bring me through every day, whereas the S10 is a strong performer.
An area where the G8S shines is the excellent fingerprint sensor on the back. It is super fast,100% reliable and sliding down on the sensor pulls down the notification area. This is class leading, I never had a phone with a better fingerprint reader. The S8 and S9 had similar (but less perfect) readers on the back. For the S10, Samsung decided to use an in-display fingerprint reader, that is about as unrealiable as the in-button reader on the S7 Edge and it is definitely the weakest part of the S10. At least, it unlocks faster then the S7 Edge, because the S10 is overall a faster phone.

Overall, if the S10 had the fingerprint reader from the G8S, it would be perfect for me. The G8S is too bulky and heavy for my taste and the useless IR array eats too much of the large screen. But it is still smaller than many large phone and maybe it might just have the right size for you. But it looses points for its sometimes unreliable battery

Rating - G8S: 7 - S10: 9

Displays
Both phones have similar wide displays. But while Samsung sticks with their rounded Edge Display, the G8S has a classic flat display with a bezel. Though I am not a fan of rounded Egde Displays, I must admit that this seems to be the perfect compromise between dispay space and body bulk. As I wrote in the body section, I consider the S10 as handy, the G8S already as bulky.
Many are willing to cary a bulky device in exchange for significant more screen estate. But this is the point: the G8S does not offer significant more screen estate.

Comparing screen estate

The G8S' gigantic notch eats up much of the larger display, whereas I find the S10's punchhole camera less intrusive. Especially when zooming YouTube content to 16:9, the difference is noticable.

Punchhole vs. mega-notch

Comparing the quality, the LG display is some years behind the Samsung AmOLED. The G8S' display is very good and I could easily live with it. But Samsung is the expert for smartphone OLED display and that shows. Images and movies have more depth and brilliance on the Samsung. Think of it like the difference between glare and anti-reflective laptop screens. The difference is about the same, just that both reflect about the same.

Rating - G8S: 8 - S10 Edge: 10

Audio

The audio section was, where the LG G-series (as well as the V-series) has been dominant over all other smartphones. So I was disappointed, that with the G8S, which should be a ramp up model from the G8, LG changed things to the worse.
First, this is the first LG G-Series model, that does not have the excellent Quad Audio DAC for the headphone jack. That does not mean, that headphone audio is bad on the G8S, but it is also good on the S10. I could not hear any significant difference on my Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones. At least, both phones still do have an audio jack.
On Bluetooth they both support the same codecs, so no difference here.
Leaving it to the speaker, and here the G8S is weaker than expected. After the G7 had that innovative Boom Box sound, though the G8S has a larger body, it sounds tinny compared to the S10. I tried all EQ settings and the Dolby mode on the  LG. They all sounded different, but all sounded tinny.
So after LG easily winning the audio section for years, with a draw in headphone and Bluetooth audio and a win in speaker sound, for the first time the Samsung wins the audio section. Hey LG: the boom sound speakers and the Quad DAC already have been engineered by you. Putting both into the G8S would have made it a clear winner again. But with the G8S beeing weaker in both headphone jack and speaker performance then it's own predecessor, this was an easy win for Samsung.

Rating - G8S: 6 - S10: 8

Camera(s)

This was a close one. Both companies use differect color science. Samsung is more on the warm side, LG is a bit cooler. It is a little like Fuji vs. Canon. I personally prefer the cooler Fujifilm look, but this is a matter of taste. Overall, there is no clear winner here. I took hundreds of shot with both phones, you can find some of them in this album. Often, I took the same shot in all three modes. Sometimes I tried to fix a shot in post, eg. by lowering saturation. You can identify these by an underscore and a counter at the end.
Often, one shot went completely bad on one phone whereas the other gave a good picture. And just the next shot, is has been vice versa. For the most times, forget about the intelligent auto modes. They do too much on both phones, giving the shots a complete unrealistic look. But shooting in manual is often also a bad idea.
You cannot trick physics and the small sensors in both cameras have very limited dynamic range. Like cheap cameras 20 yrs before. So get a somewhat realistic image, they need to do at least some HDR. Unfortunately, that is what they don't offer. You can only choose between no HDR (manual mode) or HDR with many picture 'optimizations'. So in many cases, my old S7 Edge delivered me the best shot, just because it made more subtle 'optimizations'.
The warmer Samsung and colder LG color science lead to more yellow'ish greens on the S10 and blue'ish greens on the G8S. The natural look would often be somewhere in the middle. The G8S sometimes also mixes some red into the sky, giving it a slightly pink'ish look. Especially the latter is harder to fix in post.

Same picture, different color science: G8S (left) vs S10 (rigth)

The one big advantage the S10 has is it's variable aperture on the main camera. While the G8S has a fixed aperture of f/1.8, the S10 can change between f/1.5 and f/2.4. So in good lightning, the S10 can step down the aperture and trade the amount of light for a larger depth of field. This results in overall better sharpness of the S10 when pixel peeping. The G8S images are overall a bit soft, sometimes also visible in full image viewing.
Also this helps with sunlight from the side, where the G8S camera sometimes produced heavy reflections, whereas the S10 steps down and delivers a clear image. System camera shooters know, why they carry a lens hood. It helps a bit, when you try to use your hand to give a bit of shadow to your lens. But it makes shooting a bit fiddly and sometimes I got my fingers into the pictures.

Short distance: sometime focus problems on the G8S, but better color

The S10 also has a multi exposure night mode, the G8S' night mode is more a traditional one. If it does not get too dark, the G8S often delivers more realistic images. But when it gets darker, the S10 takes the lead here. 

Night modes: subtle and realistic vs. night vision

LG has often been blamed for it's mediocre selfie shooters. I personally prefer the results from the G8S, as they are less 'optimized'. But both are better than my old S7 Edge, where everyone had a wax skin on photo. But in low light, the S10 is by far the better selfie shooter.

When shooting manual, the S10 often exposed to the right (ETTR), which is a good starting point for a manual mode. The G8S tends to more often blow out the highlights. But as this is a manual mode , you are to set your exposure manual anyways. 

After all, I went through all photos I shot with both phones and rated, which I did like best. Overall, I preferred the G8S' photos slightly more often, than the ones from the S10, but that was close. Mostly, I liked that the G8S' photos often looked a bit more natural then the ones from the S10. And I also prefer the cooler look, but as I said, I am more a Fujifilm than a Canon guy.

I cannot say much about video, as did not shoot many videos during this test. Both results looked very similar to me, the S10 has a better working stabilization.

And to give you a long term review: after this test, I took the S10 on a holiday and found that it has been a very reliable shooter. Overall, it was much better, than I expected. Beaches with blue skies, dramatic sundowns, city trips in bad weather: the S10 handled most situations well so I could often leave my larger camera at home.

Overall the S10 has better sharpness, a better night mode and a more reliable auto focus. The G8S has a color science that I personally prefer and sometimes the images look more natural. Overall I could get happy with both and declare a draw.

Rating - G6: 8 - S7 Edge: 8

Summary

This time, it is a clearer win by points for Samsung. And the points reflect, what my overall experience with both phones has been. I used both for nearly three weeks as my daily driver. Using a phone every day brings out so much more than just running a test suite. And overall the S10 is a more balanced phone than the G8S. The S10 is a bit like a higher end Volkswagen: not the world best in every aspect, but very good in most and bad in none (well ... except for some Diesel models, but that is a different story). The G8S is very good in some aspects like the camera and the price. But the battery runtime was a bit unpredictable and for me it was a bit too bulky without delivering value for that bulk. Tinny speakers, weaker battery, only minimal more screen estate: these are no good reasons for carrying a bulkier an heavier phone. All the features from the IR-Array are gimicky and mostly useless. LG went the wrong way here. They should have saved the money for the development and the extra components. Instead they should have just build in, what they already had developed: the Quad-DAC and the Boom Sound speakers. And the time they had spend to deliver the software for that IR features could better have been spent for Android software upgrades. And the gigantic notch could have be a very small one with just the front facing camera.
If LG would have taken the easy way as I described, it would had a draw on software, a smaller gap in the display section, a win in the audio section. That would have been 8 points more for the LG, what would mean a win by the points. But LG decided to invest in the wrong area.
That does not mean, that the G8S is a bad phone. Especially in it's actual price range, it is well positioned against it's competition. But it could have been so much more and it is a shame that the always innovative G-Series ends with a model, that is less competitive compared to it's predecessors.
Talking about the winner: the S10 is now my daily driver for two months and I really like it. It is my best phone so far. If I had three wishes on the S10, I would wish for the return of the fingerprint scanner on the back, a better fingerprint scanner on the front (like many Chinese phones already have) and a more muted and realistic color science for the camera. But as the S20 is already out, I know that at least my dreams for the fingerprint scanner won't come true in that generation.
But the S10 is an overall very strong performer with a very good camera, superb battery life, a handy form factor, an excellent display and very good software support.

Overall Rating - G8S: 45 - S10: 51

Galaxy S7 Edge vs. LG G6 ThinQ: still flagships in 2018

Intro

I have been a Samsung Smartphone (and only Smartphones) user for many years. Starting with the first Galaxy S, I got addicted to AMOLED displays. Then I had the S2, S3, S4, S5neo and S7, skipping only the S6. With no expandable storage and no user changeable battery at the S6, the S5neo became my daily driver for two years. I am no Samsung fanboy and always search for a better alternative from other vendors. But in the end, Samsung always had the best overall package for me. Getting the latest Galaxy S in general means getting the best screen, best camera and leading edge performance. And even the Galaxy S series is not always leading in every aspect, they also don't fail in any. And I am one of the few, who like TouchWiz, now Galaxy Experience. Though I immediately disable most features, there are always some which I like and miss when using a non Samsung phone. But I always also lean towards LG smartphones. They always try to make things better then the other vendors and always came up with features I really like.
In 2018 I had a hard choice between the Galaxy S7 and the LG G5. The G5 still had a user replaceable battery, a great dual camera and superior audio quality with AptX HD. But the screen was only average regarding colors and brightness, though it had perfect sharpness. In the end, I sticked with what I know and got the S7, but that was very subjective choice. The G5 is overall an awesome phone, that deserved far more attention than it got. My son for example preferred the G5 and it became his daily driver (until ... see below).
But coming into age, this summer holiday where my smartphone has been my only computer I took with me, I had the desire for a larger screen for better readability. The actual models S9 and G7 ThinQ are still to pricey for what I am willing to pay.
I always recommend to go for last years top models, when buying a new smarthone unless money is not important to you. The still excellent S7 Edge and G6 ThinQ are now in the bargain range. If you are looking for a smartphone delivering 90% of the new flagships for 30% of the price, these two are excellent choices.

Overview
The LG G6 comes in different versions for Asia, Europe and the US. Don't buy the European version, that is the worst deal of the three. The US-Version at least supports Qi wireless charging. The Asian doesn't support that, but gives you 64 instead of 32 GB of storage, dual Sim capability and LG's unique quad audio DAC. I took the Asian version, though I miss Qi charging.
LG got a lot of bashing for slowly updating the Android OS. But now, both phones are on Android 8.0 Nougat with Patchlevel July 1st.
The S7 is 2016's flagship from Samsung and in general a S7 with a larger, rounded screen.

Body and build
Both vendors took different, innovative approaches to deliver a larger screen without making the device too bulky in the hand. LG was the first to move to a new aspect ratio, which is 18:9 (or 2:1). LG already had the power button / fingerprint reader on the back for some generations and that is also one of the best features of the LG G6. That approach saves space on the front panes, so LG could trim down the bezels, giving a great screen-to-body ratio. In combination with the screen aspect ratio, this resulted in a phone that is astonishingly easy to hold in the hand. It feels like a phone of the normal S7 size, though it is a millimeter or two wider. Also, according to LG the G6 passed 14 different military standard tests. Though I haven't tested that, the G6 gives a very solid feel in the hand and some tests von YouTube demonstrate it's great durability.
The S7 Edges approach to a hand compatible large screen device is to curve the edges of the screen, leaving no bezels left and right. That brings a 5.5'' 16:9 display onto a phone, that is not really wider than the LG G6. The other reason why Samsung did this is probably because they can. But having a screen on both sides with no bezel has an impact on durabilty. The S7 Edge is more durable than you might think. For example, view the After the Buzz video from Pocketnow.com. But you will probably put your phone into a stronger protective case, than the G6, where I feel comfortable with a standard EUR 5,00 case from eBay. For the S7Edge, I have chosen a Spigen Neo Hybrid Crystal which gave me a good feeling, but adds bulk and is a little sharp edge. But this leads to another problem with the Edge Display. As the case has to fit around the edges of the screen where the screen already bends, it leaves a gap between the screen and the case, making it harder to use the edges of the screen where the scrollbar lives.
Just from the looks, the S7 Edge is a gorgeous device, whereas the G6 is OK, but more bread and butter. Additional, the front of the silver G6 is like a mirror which could be a little distracting.
The fingerprint reader of the S7 Edge is under the home screen just as in former models, which is always a little stretch and heavy usage sometimes make my thunb hurt. The G6 has the fingerprint sensor on the back, just where my index finger lands when I take the G6 into my hand. After using the G6, I could not think about any other position of where a fingerprint sensor should be. When switching back and forth between the devices, I often put my finger on the S7 to where the sensor on the G6 is. Additional, the G6 sensor is fast and reliable whereas the S7 Edges sensor sometimes requires an extra try or two, especially as the thumb after the stretch touches the sensor from the side. The G6 sensor immediately brings you to the home screen, on the S7 Edge it is a two step process. First press the home button to activate the device and get to the lock screen, then leave your finger on the sensor to unlock. At least, the S7 Edge is easier to unlock with the finger, when the device lays on your desk. But you can wake up the G6 by double tapping on the home screen.
The S7 Edge is more uncomfortable to hold and to operate. The G6 should have a better durability, is comfortable to hold, I could not think about a fingerprint sensor could be any better.
Overall, the Body and Build section is won hands down by the G6.

Rating - G6: 10 - S7 Edge: 6

Displays

The G6 comes with a modern 18:9 (or 2:1) display, whereas the S7e comes in a traditional 16:9 format. Which format better suits your needs depends on your use cases. 18:9 seems become the new standard and LG has been an early adopter. The format sits in the middle of traditional PC and TV content and 21:9 cinema content. So that should be the sweet spot. If you are watching many movies on your smartphone, 18:9 should be a better choice. But for 16:9 content, you won't get more content on the G6 than on a 16:9 5.1'' Galaxy S7. The YouTube app now allows zooming for 18:9 displays. But that means cutting the top and bottom rows of the content to fit the 18:9 screen. Depending on the content, this could fit very well or it could mean to cut a head. If you mostly watch YouTube and TV content, you will get a significant larger display area on the S7e.

Display comparision: the G7 Edge is better for 16:9, the G6 is better for 18:9 content

Also, as the S7 Edge has hardware buttons, you can always use the whole screen for content. When showing the button bar on the G6, the remainig space on the display is smaller than on the S7 Edge. So the G6 only has an advantage on 18:9 or wider content, and only if the on-screen buttons are disabled. And that means to operate the buttons, a swipe up is required to display the button bar.

Though the G6 has a taller display, when showing the button bar the G6 has a narrower display

Both phones offer an always on display. But the G6's is so dark, that you can leave it switched off.
The G6's display is certified for Dolby Vision HDR content whereas the S7 Edge's doesn't. But this is a complete no contest. The Samsung AMOLED display offers so much more dynamic Range, so much more details in dark areas, so much more saturation and contrast, that these are not even in the same league. The G6's display is not really a bad one, about average for a higher end LCD and if you have never used an AMOLED display, you maybe won't care. But in a direct comparison these are worlds apart.
In direct sunlight, it is a draw. The Samsung display is getting red'ish making it harder to read, but a tad brighter. Overall, both can be used even in brightest sunlight, but you won't watch a movie or play a game in that lightning situation.
For some photos comparing both screen see this album.

Rating - G6: 5 - S7 Edge: 10

Audio

When I compared the LG G5 to the Galaxy S7, the G5 won the Bluetooth audio section by a wide margin because the G5 supported AptX-HD wherea the S7 running Nougat did not offer any HD audio option. Now with both devices on Oreo, both support AptX and Sony's LDAC, which is the best option of all if your headphone supports it. And of course, if you root your phone, you can install missing CoDec's anyways. But out-of-the-box, the G6 has a slight edge if you have a headphone that only supports AptX-HD, but not LDAC.
Overall, on my Sony WI-1000X, which supports both, AptX-HD and LDAC, both phones sound the same, while the G5 won by a wide margin over the S7. So Samsung has closed the gap. For the cable headphone test, I used my Marshall Mode EQ, which sounds good, but are no high-end headphones by any means. I don't own any high quality headphones, so I have to rely on the judgement of others. But mostly all testers praised the quality of LG's quad DAC audio output, so the G6 definitely has an edge here. According to them, no other smartphone can match those from LG, that come with that quad DAC.
For the built in speaker, both only have a bottom firing single speaker, which both sound OK, but are no match for phones with dual front-facing speakers. For my ears, the G6 sounds a tad better, but this is very subjective. But where the G6 scores a big point is, when you hold your phone in landscape mode and accidentally block the speaker with a finger. The S7 Edge hardly gives any sound, when the speaker is practically off. The G6 in contrast gets only slightly less loud and a little bit duller, but still very good. And it sounds even better to my ears when laying on a table. Maybe this is already an early version of the Boom Sound feature of G7. If the G6 had double front firing speakers, it would be king of the will with 10 points.

Rating - G6: 9 - S7 Edge: 6

Battery

In my simple test, I just run a YouTube video in an endless loop on maximum brightness. When the batteries went down, both phone tried to save some energy by lowering screen brightness, but I switched both back to maximum. The G6 delivered 5 hours of screen on time, the S7 Edge ran one hour longer and made it to 7 hours screen on time which is very good. On a normal day, I have about 30-40% battery left on the S7 Edge and even on heavy usage, I always had more than 10% left when I went to bed. With a little power saving, I could easily make it through 2 days. 

Please Note, that I root all my phones, disable or delete everything I don't want and install a firewall that blocks everything except what I really use. That helped a lot with older with older Android versions, but now with Nougat and Oreo, the effect is less noticeable than back in the days with Android 4.x.

The G6 should bring you through the day, but on heavy usage you might want to charge a bit in the evening. But please note, that after about 12-15 months of usage, depending on your charging behaviour, the battery will lose about 30% of its capacity. So while the S7 Edge should still bring you trough the day, the G6 might need some extra charging on most days.

The G6 already has USB 3.0C and QuickCharge 3.0 compared to Micro USB and QuickCharge 2.0. So the S7 Edge runs longer on battery, but the G6 charges faster. After my screen on test, the G6 took 1:43 hrs to fully get charge up. The S7 Edge needed 1:58, and it additionally supports Qi wireless charging, which the European or Asian versions of the G6 don't offer. Only the US modell of the G6 suports Qi wireless charging, but these don't have Dual-Sim, Quad-DAC and only 32 GB of storage.

Overall, the energy sections goes to the S7 Edge.

Rating - G6: 5 - S7 Edge: 8

Camera(s)

The G6 has a clear advantage over the S7 Edge with it's wide angle camera, which really helps if you cannot step back to catch a wider view for your shot. Comparing the main cameras, there is no clear Winner.

Same picture, different color science: G6 (left) vs S7 Edge (rigth)

It seems that the G6 has a larger minimal focus distance, so if macro shots are important to you, the S7 Edge might be a better choice. Overall, both have a different color science. The S7 Edge often produces warmer color tones, a little too warm for my choice. The G6 often pushes contrast a little too much and skies tend to get a red'ish tone. It is a little like Canon vs. Olympus, if you know mirrorless cameras. And it is important to mention, that the too warm color tint of the S7 Edge can be easily corrected with the imaging software of your choice. Normally I batch correct all S7 Edge photos in XNViewMP slightly to a cooler tone which works well without any noticeable loss in image quality. But the boosted contrast of many G6 images cannot be corrected afterwards, because that is a destructive manipulation.

The G6 has some kind of night mode, that really delivers better photos in night scenes, both in color and overall brightness.

 

In my album with test photos, I do not see a clear winner. Sometimes I prefer the image from one phone, sometimes that from the other and sometimes it is a draw. For me, I prefer the G6 images a little more often than the ones from the S7 Edge, but this is a close choice. And if I do a color temperature correction on the Samsung Images, it would be a draw.

So the G6 has the extra wide angle camera and a useful night mode, but delivers often too much contrast which spoils the photos. The S7 Edge has a lower minimum focus distance and often delivers sharper images. The color temperature is often unrealistically high, but this can be fixed in post.

Overall I prefer to use the S7 Edge for photos because overall I found the results a bit more reliable, though I miss the wide angle. But this is only because I am willing to fix some weird color science in post. If you want just take the photos, the G6 migth be a better choice.

For selfie lovers, both aren't a perfect choice. Samsung does too much face retouching, giving you some kind of plastic look. If you optimize your skin in your selfies, this might be your choice. But if you want a realistic look keep in mind that this cannot be disabled. At least you can install a different camera app, that does no automatic skin retouching. The G6 does not do that, but the image quality of it's front facing camera is lower.

Rating - G6: 8 - S7 Edge: 8

Summary

There has been no clear winner, both phones have their pro's and con's. From my scoring, it is a very close 37:38 with the S7 Edge leading with just one point. After all, I kept the S7 Edge as my daily driver, though I miss the wide angle camera, the better fingerprint sensor of the G6 and I still dislike the Edge display. But overall, I love OLED displays, especially the absolute black if I use it at night. But if you don't mind an illuminated dark grey instead of black, the G6 might be the better choice. If the G6 had an OLED display, I would have taken that one instead of the S7 Edge.
My son took the G6 and is very happy with it. He said, it is the best phone he ever had.
One thing, LG really drives me nuts with is their market strategy. They seem to have excellent engineers and idiots in marketing. The G6 could be a nearly perfect phone. But then, LG's market modell managers decide, that European buyers don't want wireless charging. The room for the charging coil is still there and they put a plastic dummy into it. And European buyers only get 32 GB of internal storage and no dual SIM slot. And US buyers get the wireless charging, but not the quad DAC if I get this right. Hello, LG! Just build one model that has all the features so buyers don't have to get one from the other side of the world if they want a better feature set.
For the last years, LG phones were always on my shortlist and I have been close to choosing them as my daily driver. LG's engineers created great stuff  that I loved year over year. The leather back on the G3, the wide angle camera on the G5, the Quad DAC, the best audio output in the industry. But LG always managed it to do some unnecessary stupid so in the end I choose the Samsung model instead. So for this year, it is again the Samsung for me.

Rating - G6: 37 - S7 Edge: 38

Samsung Galaxy S7 vs. LG G5 quick camera comparison

This is just a short one, because I made my decision for the S7 by the excellent SuperAMOLED screen and both cameras are good enough for what I need. Comparing the Cameras, here is the obvious. The dual cameras makes the G5 much more usefull. The wide angle lens catches about the same field of view as the human eye, which is a big plus. The narrower lens gives a slight telephoto angle. In between is the single lens of the S7, which is 4/3 compared to the 16/9 of the G5. Personally I would prefer the DSLR-like format 3/2, which is a good compromise but none of the two offers.
The autofocus of the S7 is more reliable, I dropped a few shots from the G5 because of AF misses.
Comparing the images, the G5's images look much punchier, the S7's a little dull. The S7's images need a bit more punch like the one I gave a slight edit in Darktable. For later editing the S7's approach is more usable, because the high contrast of the G5's images leads to some loss of highlights and depths. The S7 seems to try to Expose-to-the-right (ETTR) to save highlights, wheras the G5 has a few blown out highlights as in the white sections of the roof on picture 3.
Interestingly, when looking on the photos on the smartphones screens, the G5 images look dull and the S7 images are punchy. So maybe both manufacturers try to comensate the properties of the specific screen.

Picture 1: The G5's shot is out of focus, though this is a best of three

Picture 2: More punch on the G5, more sharpness on the S7

Picture 3: More punch on the G5, especially more saturated green. But also blown out highlights on the white part of the roof on the G5. The S7's image is slightly dull.

In comparison a wide angle shot of the G5, which matches about the angle of the human eye, but with visible distortion at the hut on the left.

On picture 4 again more punch from the G5, but the shadows got too dark with loss of detail. The S7's shot is too dull. The optimal look would be somewhere in the middle. The G5's image looks overprocessed, especially way too much microcontrast/clarity. In contrast, the S7's image could use some more processing.

With some editing in Darktable, I adjusted the S7's image to my taste,V adding some elvia, local contrast and vibrance.

Both smartphones are good casual shooters, but for both the results need some touching. As an alternative, RAW might be an option.

Trying to #switch to Windows Phone 8 ... my review

What I always missed on Android were high quality devices with high quality extras and ecosystem. You'll get everything somewhere for Android, but it is sometimes a little messy. And the lack of widely accepted styleguides lets every app look like an app for a different system.
Apples iOS and the apps for it are much more consistent, but the Apple ecosystem is much too tigth for me, iOS is too feature-less and I don't find a fitting device in Apple's one-size-fits-all strategy. I hate to buy internal memory for an absurd price just because the manufacurer denies the usage of cheap SD-cards.

So could the Windows Phone ecosystem be the golden path in the middle, between Androids anarchy and Apple's jailhouse? I am highly attracted by Nokias ecosystem around it's Lumia line with wireless chargers, speakers and so on. I like their design language and their software extras. And I like Microsofts clean and clear modern UI (former Metro UI) design language. So why not give it a try? I decided to get a Windows phone device and try it to use it as my main device for some weeks.

Here is my review:

• WP 8 first try: Lumia 820
• The pretty Lumia 800

WORK IN PROGRESS ...

Samsung Galaxy S2 vs. Canon compact camera comparison

The camera of the Samsung Galaxy S2 is that good, that I did a few comparison shots with my Canon compact cameras, a Canon Powershot SX230 and a S95.

left SGS2 - right SX230

It is quite amazing, how close the SGS2 gets to the SX230. In the sky, the smaller dynamic range of the SGS2 becomes visible. And in 100% view, the SX230 shows more detail. But for a phone, this is quite a good picture quality.

left SGS2 - right SX230

Here it gets even better. You have to look very closely to see, which one is from a phone and which one is from a compact camera.

left SGS2 - right S95

Now this scene is very difficult for a compact camera and would be so even for a DSLR, so I took the S95 instead of the SX230. Of course the SGS2's photo lacks a bit of the drama which the S95 could catch quite well. But hey, this is comparing a phone's camera to one of the best compact cameras ever made. And though you probably would not print a poster from the SGS2's shot, it is quite a good picture.

In general, the SGS2 offers a very good camera replacement for all the situations, where you have just your phone with you.

iPhone 4 vs. Galaxy S2 camera comparison

I did a short camera comparison in a flower store.

It looks like a draw to me, maybe with a slight advantage for the SGS2.

Apple iPhone 4 vs. HTC Incredible S camera comparison

I had an HTC Incredible S for a few days. It is not the right phone for me. The displays black value is too high, more a gray than a black. And though it feels solid, I personally consider it as too heavy. It is in the same class as the popular Samsung Galaxy S. Compared to the Galaxy, the software of the Incredible is much better. Samsung decided to stop updating the software of the Galaxy, unfortunately the last release of the SGS firmware has been a buggy and laggy one. HTC on the other hand became the vendor with the best software support even for older devices. So my first step has been to upgrade the firmware to Android 2.3.5 with Sense 3.0, and Android 4.0 ICS is already announced. A big compliment to HTC.
In general, I consider Sense as the most polished variant of Android. Nearly everything looks better then on stock android.
But as I also had an Galaxy S2, there is no reason for me to keep the Incredible. This is not a fair comparison, but if you once get used to the speed, brilliant display and great camera of the S2, there is no need to use the Incredible S until you get it really cheap and are not willing to pay the extra money for the SGS2.
So I did not write a complete review for the Incredible S, but I want to share a few comparison photos and videos with you.

All HTC phones before the Incredible S are well known for their crappy cameras. Though HTC phones had their strengths, like the mentioned high software quality, the cameras where just rubbish. The Incredible S has been the first HTC phone with a stronger focus on the camera. And the result does not look too bad against the iPhone 4, instead some pictures of the Incredible s look better than the iPhone 4 shots. And the iPhone 4 which has been known for its good camera for quite some time. The Incredible's camera is not great, but at least average.

Incredible S video

iPhone 4 video

Comparing the video results of both phones, without going too much into detail it's a draw in my eyes. Depending on where you stop the video, you will see some parts are better on one phone and vice versa.

To sum it up: if you are looking for a phone with a very good camera, then go for a Galaxy S2, iPhone 4S or Nokia N8. If you are instead looking for a phone with a good software, the camera is not so important for you and you get a good offer (not more than 60% of the SGS2 price), then the Incredible S might be worth a try.

HTC Sensation Video & Photo Samples

I did some photo and video testing with the HTC Sensation. After HTC's camera quality already got better with the Incredible S, now this is the first HTC smartphone with a really good camera. Congratulations HTC, it has been a long way. Don't get me wrong: this camera is not very good like the one from the iPhone 4 or some high end Nokia devices. But the Sensation's camera is definitely above average and the camera won't be the reason to leave it on the shelf.

And even the video is very good.

Here is a short comparison of the displays of the Sensation, Galaxy S and iPhone 4

Using the Sensation, you will probably never complain about it's display, but in direct comparison it can not keep up with the very good display of the iPhone 4. And compared to Samsung's high contrast SuperAMOLED, it looks washed out.

Also in bright sunlight, the Sensation can not keep up with the SGS and the iPhone 4.

Though it can not keep up with the best displays on the market, the Sensation has quite a good screen. And this is the best camera in any HTC phone until now, at least on par with the Galaxy S.

Phone 3GS and 4 vs. Samsung Galasy S i9000 video comparison

Additional to my photo comparison, I also did a short video comparison. Like in the photo comparison, the sharpness of the SGS looks best to me, but the iPhone 4 shows better color and exposure. Overall, I would rate the iPhone 4 slightly ahead of the SGS, the old 3GS is a distant 3rd.

iPhone 3GS and 4 vs. Samsung Galaxy S i9000 camera comparison

I did a short camera comparison between the iPhone 3GS and 4 vs. the Samsung Galaxy S i9000. Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy all days I had the three devices. My conclusion: the SGS made the sharpest pictures, but the iPhone 4 is often - but not always - better regarding exposure and colors. In general, the iPhone 4 is my winner, followed by the SGS. The 3GS' camera is still good, but on the 3rd place in my comparison.