LG G7 ThinQ Brings USB PD 3.0, PPS, and Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ to Major US Carriers

LG was an early adopter of USB Power Delivery and Qi wireless charging technology in its phones with the LG G5 and LG G6 (in addition to supporting Qualcomm Quick Charge). With the LG G7 ThinQ, LG continues its support of both charging technologies but adds Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ which includes USB PD 3.0, PPS (Programmable Power Supply), and Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology over USB Type-C. The LG G7 ThinQ declares that it can support 27 watts charging at 5V, 9V, and 12V voltage rails, although in practice we've only seen a max of sustained 15 watts charging. The LG G7 ThinQ does not support DisplayPort video which LG dropped after LG G5.

The LG G7 ThinQ is now the first phone supporting Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+, USB PD 3.0, and PPS sold in major US carriers like Verizon, Spring, and T-Mobile. It's also sold in most regions around the world, and we picked up the LG G7 ThinQ at Fortress in Hong Kong.

The main feature highlighted at Fortress was the phone's Boom Box Speaker, where the entire phone acts like a speaker and also delivers sound through a flat surface you put it on. The Boom Box Speaker demo was a bit confusing to use and the Boom Box Speaker feature wasn't articulated well.

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The LG G7 ThinQ box promotes Google and Qualcomm brands. 

Interestingly, the LG G7 ThinQ purchased in Hong Kong restricts the SIM card by region, but Fortress was able to disable this restriction in the store although we had to wait for half an hour to get that done.

The LG G7 ThinQ supports a LG branded Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 charger, a USB Type-C to Type-A cable, 3.5mm audio headphones, replacement earbuds, and documentation.

Despite the phone's support of USB Power Delivery, LG still uses a USB Type-A based Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 charger in the box. This charger supports 7.5 watts (5 volts @ 1.5 amps) and 16.2 watts (9 volts @ 1.8 amps) output power.

Rather than using the Quick Charge logo, the charger uses LG's Fast Charge logo.

The LG G7 ThinQ has a sleek design with a nice premium finish.

Like its Korean counterpart Samsung, LG has decided to keep the 3.5mm headphone jack and maintains a three button architecture- volume, assistant, and power.

The highly reflective display surface of the LG G7 ThinQ acts almost like a mirror which can be used when the phone's display is off. This surface is much more reflective than those found on flagship phones from other brands.

Using the USB Power Delivery Compliance C2 Tester from Granite River Labs to run just a subset of the full USB Power Delivery compliance test suite, we can see that the LG G7 ThinQ supports these PDO's: 15 watts (5 volts @ 3 amps), 27 watts (9 volts @ 3 amps), and 27 watts (12 volts @ 2.25 amps) for charging. Note some compliance failures were observed.

DUT Information

Manufacturer	LG
Model Number	G7

Test Information

Date and Time:

20180626_130136

Controller and Instrument Information

Parameter	Value
GRL USB-PD_C2 Serial No.	084.109.084.066.134.
GRL USB-PD Software Version	1.3.4.5
GRL USB-PD Firmware Version	1.3.5.0.8
Board Calibration	Calibration Success.
App Mode	COMMUNICATION_ENGINE_TESTS
Tx Mask	true
Rx Mask	false
RX mask Power selection	Neutral Power
Device Type	DRP
Cable IR drop Imp(R)	0
Cable Type.	GRL-Spl-Cable
COMMUNICATION_ENGINE_TESTS CTS Version	1.06
Noise Pattern Generation:	GEN-2 Noise
VIF info	*Since VIF was not loaded below test results are information Only.

Product Capabilities

Parameter	GetCapabilities
Vendor_Name	LG Electronics Inc.
TID	0x0
Type_C	NONE
SOP_Capable	NONE
SOP_P_Capable	NONE
SOP_PP_Capable	NONE
SOP_P_Debug_Capable	NONE
SOP_PP_Debug_Capable	NONE
Manufacturer_Info_Supported_Port	NONE
USB_Comms_Capable	YES
DR_Swap_To_DFP_Supported	YES
DR_Swap_To_UFP_Supported	YES
Externally_Powered	NO
VCONN_Swap_To_On_Supported	NONE
VCONN_Swap_To_Off_Supported	NONE
Responds_To_Discov	NONE
Attempts_Discov	NONE
Chunking_Implemented_SOP	NO
Unchunked_Extended_Messages_Supported	NO
Accepts_PR_Swap_As_Src	YES
Accepts_PR_Swap_As_Snk	YES
Requests_PR_Swap_As_Src	NONE
Requests_PR_Swap_As_Snk	NONE
Structured_VDM_Version	V1.0
Data_Capable_as_USB_Host	YES
Data_Capable_as_USB_Device	YES
Product_Type_DFP_SOP	PDUSB Host
Modal_Operation_Supported	NO
Security_Msgs_Supported_SOP	NO
USB_VID	0x1004
PID	0xA00
bcdDevice	0x0
SVIDs Min	0
SVIDs Max	0
SVID Fixed	NONE

Power Capabilities

Parameter	GetCapabilities
No_USB_Suspend_May_Be_Set	YES
GiveBack_May_Be_Set	NO
Higher_Capability_Set	NO
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
OP Current #1	0x12C(3A)
Supply Type #2	Fixed
Voltage #2	0xB4(9V)
OP Current #2	0x12C(3A)
Supply Type #3	Fixed
Voltage #3	0xF0(12V)
OP Current #3	0xE1(2.25A)
USB Suspend may be cleared	YES
Send Ping	NONE
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Peak Current #1	0x0(A)
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
Max Current #1	0x96(1.5A)
No_USB_Suspend_May_Be_Set	YES
GiveBack_May_Be_Set	NO
Higher_Capability_Set	NO
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
OP Current #1	0x12C(3A)
Supply Type #2	Fixed
Voltage #2	0xB4(9V)
OP Current #2	0x12C(3A)
Supply Type #3	Fixed
Voltage #3	0xF0(12V)
OP Current #3	0xE1(2.25A)

USB-IF High Level Mapping Summary

Sl No	Test Category	Test Group Description	Test Result
1	PHY_PRIMARY_TX	BMC Physical Layer Transmitter	PASS
2	PHY_PRIMARY_RX	BMC Physical Layer Receiver	PASS
3	PHY_PRIMARY_MISC	BMC Physical Layer Miscellaneous	PASS
4	PROT_PRIMARY	Protocol Specific Primary	PASS
5	POWER_PRIMARY	Power Source/Sink Primary	FAIL

Result Summary

Sl No	Test ID	Test Name	Test Result
1	TDA.2.1.1.1	BMC-PHY-TX-EYE	PASS
2	TDA.2.1.1.2	BMC-PHY-TX-BIT	PASS
3	TDA.2.1.2.2	BMC-PHY-RX-INT-REJ	PASS
4	TDA.2.1.2.1	BMC-PHY-RX-BUSIDL	PASS
5	TDA.2.1.3.1	BMC-PHY-TERM	PASS
7	TDA.2.2.1	BMC-PROT-SEQ-GETCAPS	PASS
12	TDA.2.2.7	BMC-PROT-BIST-NOT-5V-SRC	PASS
14	TDA.2.3.1.1	POW-SRC-LOAD-P-PC	FAIL
15	TDA.2.3.1.2	POW-SRC-LOAD-CP-ACC	FAIL
18	TDA.2.3.3.2	POW-SNK-TRANS-PC	PASS
19	TDB.2.2.9	BMC-PROT-GSC-REC	PASS
20	TDB.13.12.13	BMC-PROT-IGN-PPS	PASS

BMC Eye Diagram

Here we can see in the load screen capture taken via the GRL-USB-PD C2 Compliance Test Solution App that shows the LG G7 ThinQ makes use of different voltage and current levels for charging.