LG G Flex – Curved display

Today we are going to take a look at LG and see what they can do with the top to bottom curve on their smartphones. This is the LG G Flex which features curved display.

Design

The 6 inch screen makes for a pretty large device, this is just a big phone. The sides are pretty thin however and completely bare but that is due to LG’s new button layout that was first introduced in the G2 and it returns here on the G Flex. That is the index finger position on the back of the power button flanked by volume rockers. And also the power button on the back does double as a notification LED light. Overall this is a glossy plastic design that really doesn’t come the entire in some pretty fingerprints. However once you get past all that, the next thing you obviously notice or maybe the first thing you notice is of course that curve. When it comes to the form factor the curve really doesn’t change the handling all that much. Sure it actually helps you to somewhat reach the top of the screen but it still requires quite a big hand.

The main function of the curve however is obviously durability. The phone is able to become flat without any problems and bounce right back into its original form. This is mostly useful for people who probably put their phones, let’s say in their back pockets and then they forget that there and end up sitting down. Or if you sometimes you just leave the phone on the couch, at times when you sit down you don’t know if you just broke your phone. At least with the LG G Flex you won’t really see many problem with that. The phone does not feel weird in the front pocket, where you think without the curve might be a little bit better. No, definitely not the LG G Flex fits very squarely in the front pocket and actually doesn’t feel weird at all.

And then finally come around to the back and this is another kind of variation that is available in the G Flex, is the self-healing back. This is a back made of a material that is supposed to have small scratches slowly fade away and pretty much not be there at all. Yes it can work on small scratches by anything from moderate to heavy scratches obviously won’t be going away. And even for the small scratches, it’s more of the first glance type of thing. If you look very closely at where those small scratches, once were, you might not be able to recognize them, you might not completely actually see them but they are still there. The scratches don completely go away but they do get improved somewhat. So this is not a phone that I meant for one-handed usage, it’s meant for two-handed usage but that curve definitely does serve a purpose and in terms of the design it might allow your phone to survive the elements a little bit better.

Now when it comes to the display, this is a 6 inch screen that bring 720 P resolution and 245 PPI. The curve does somewhat distort the image that you can see. However it really just turn out to be pretty cool and really doesn’t take away from the experience. It is far from experience break. The good colors make for enjoyable media all around. You’ll have a good time watching pretty much anything on this phone or playing anything on this one, even read anything on this large screen.

Performance

If there’s one place at LG didn’t want to have any compromises that is in the performance aspect. Yes the G Flex comes with the best power processing package available – Snapdragon 800 2.3 GHz backed by the Adrenal 330 and 2 GB of RAM. There is no shortage of power, speed and reliability. The good performance was needed in the LG G Flex because of the added multitasking additions. LG added to this phone dual windows which is basically a multi-window version that LG has put into this phone.

Hardware

The hardware is pretty largely simplistic. The phone comes with 32 GB of storage which is a pretty respectable amount considering you don’t have any higher or lower capacities. Now speaking to phone calls did come in just fine with everything coming in crisp and clear in the phone speaker to the LG G Flex. And when it comes to the main audio speaker it is actually not that bad it gets quite loud and has some richness to it.

Now where the G Flex really shines when it comes to hardware is the battery usage. With 3500 mAh battery the phone easily handles a full day of moderately heavy usage and is likely to be able to handle another half a day. If the power savings are on. If you’re just a moderate user of your smartphone then you could get maybe about two days’ worth of life out of the G Flex.

From a big phone like the LG G Flex you could come to expect a big camera and that is exactly what you get there with a 13 MP camera optic package that alludes to some pretty high quality pictures. It does not come with optical image stabilization. While the app come with a quite a few ways of getting creative there are much of modes including HDR, Panorama and dual camera shooting. Along with a couple of different ways of using per shot modes.

Software

Many of the features introduced in the G 2 do make into G Flex overall I will say that there aren’t any features that take advantage of this curve. Just when you are on the lock screen when you move the phone up and down it follows along that axis and allows you to see the background above the lock screen sort of move along with it.

All of the features that are available in the Optimus UI you have to do with a lot of multitasking. The G Flex features small overlay that provides small multitasking abilities with little windows that allow you to get a few little things done after that we have the slightest side which was originally introduced in the G2. Slide inside allows with a three-finger swipe to move aside entire applications and stack them together. Once you are ready to switch to different application just slide back with your three fingers and you will see all of them stacked and available for usage. And then finally the newest addition and arguably probably the most useful one the dual window. Now this is a multi-window functionality that is very welcome on a large screen such as this. Hold the back button at any point and you will be greeted with the list of applications that you can put on the top or the bottom.

And here is the LG G Flex. LG took it to mean durability and style. And in the end the G Flex gets plenty of points for style especially for achieving what it sets out to do. Great performance, a wonderful screen providing that resolution sometimes doesn’t even matter, and a totally different profile make this a phone made to turn heads.