Dubai
LG’s curved phone — G Flex — is the new trend that is going to happen in the smartphone arena after the curved TVs.
Even though the phone looks bulky, the curved design helps the phone to stay comfortably in the hand despite the huge screen size. It weighs just 177 grams.
The six-inch device is powered by Qualcomm 2.26GHz processor with an Adreno 330 graphics processor.
The plastic screen is organic light-emitting diode (OLED) capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. The screen is not full HD and you can really see the difference. This means Flex has 245 pixels per inch density compared to LG G2’s 424 pixels per inch. It has 2GB of RAM and 32GB internal storage capacity and no support for microSD slot. Out of the 32GB, only 24GB is available for users.
Another drawback is that it runs on Android 4.2.2 operating system which is pretty old when many of the phones in the market run on Android 4.4.2 KitKat OS.
As the name suggests, the phone is flexible up to some extent. By exerting some pressure on the rear by facing the phone down on a flat surface, the phone can be straightened without the chassis and the glass cracking.
The phone is fully made of plastic and no metal. From LG’s point of view, metal cannot be straightened and plastic is the ideal way.
LG has tweaked the user interface and the biggest change is in the notifications bar. Pulling down the bar, you see a fully loaded apps menu for quick settings.
The back cover of the phone, LG has used a new material for self-healing. It can absorb small scratches and dents and it can reform to the natural shape.
On paper it is good but when I tried it by scratching with a key it did not disappear. So the new technology is questionable.
The curved design is good for placing the phone in the back pocket and it won’t damage the screen.
The G flex does not have any physical buttons on the sides or the front, similar to LG G2, and instead LG has placed a power/lock button and volume keys on the rear, below the camera lens.
The power/lock key glows when a notification is received and the button can be easily found but it take a while to get used to the new style and I had to flip the phone over several times to see if I am hitting the correct key.
There’s a micro-USB port and 3.5mm jack on the bottom, a micro-SIM tray on the left and a microphone on the top.
Similar features to LG G2 are that the front screen can be turned on and off by tapping it twice; users can answer a call by bringing the device close to the ear; decrease the ringtone when picking it up; silence the phone by flipping it over and pause videos when your eyes are not on the screen.
LG has cleverly added one handed features to handle the phone easily by adjusting the settings menu.
The 13MP rear camera with a single LED flash takes very detailed photos in bright sunlight with rich in colours.
The camera app has lot of advanced features and effects but it does not have a shutter key. The volume keys can be turned into shutter key, but since it is at the rear it is difficult to use. The camera button on screen can be turned into shutter key while the camera is fast in taking pictures. Objects taken up close lacked razor-sharp focus and edges looked blurry and soft.
In low light and varying light conditions, it suffers and the colours look washed out.
Video recording
LG has added ultra high-definition (4K) video recording with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels into the device. If you have a 4K TV you can enjoy it, but since the device is only 720p it does not look so eye catching.
Watching videos on the big OLED screen is superb and the only let down is the 720p display. Due to the curved screen, images are sharp and colourful while the bend minimises glare. It has got very good viewing angles. LG has added a dedicated video player and users can pop up the player into a mini app like a picture-in-picture effect.
The front camera is 2.1MP and has plenty of options.
The QuickTheater app is a hub for your photos, videos and for YouTube videos. It is very good and no need to go to different apps to get these features.
The device plays Real Racing 3, Riptide GP, Flappy Bird and Clash of Cans with no lags
The QuickRemote app uses the IR transmitter on the back of the device to turn the device into a remote control for home entertainment devices. It works very well but it is now found on most high-end devices.
Regarding connectivity, it has WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and 4G LTE.
The 3500mAh curved battery is very impressive and it is one of the best batteries I have reviewed so far. It can survive a full day of heavy use on 3G. If you are moderate user, it can survive for two days. In the video test, the battery withstood for 14 hours. Another interesting feature is that it will take only three hours to charge the battery to full. It is priced at Dh2,999.
