The curved Android phone that can repair itself
We reviewed Samsung’s Galaxy Note Edge, an Android phone with a screen that curved over the phone's right-hand edge. LG’s G Flex 2 has an even more pronounced curve - a concave design that makes it stand out from the crowd. That’s not the phone’s only futuristic feature - its rear casing can repair itself thanks to its clever chemical composition.
LG claims the curved contours make the phone feel more comfortable when pressed up against your face while you make a call, and even when it’s stored away in your pocket, pressed against your body. We aren’t convinced by these claims - any increase in comfort levels is negligible. The curve is also supposed to make the large 5.5in screen easier to use with one hand, but it’s just as unwieldy as screens on other phone of this size.
The curved screen’s only plausible benefit is that it would be less likely to crack if dropped on the floor, given that most of the screen would avoid contact with the ground. We didn’t risk putting our theory to the test, but we did have the opportunity to test the self-repairing rear casing when an over-excitable child put a gash in it using a set of house keys. A few' minor scratches healed within a few hours and the faint scuff marks left behind could only be seen when held up to the light. A more serious gouge healed in a couple of days. Although this did leave visible scratch marks behind, the recovery was nonetheless very impressive.
The image quality of the screen is excellent. It’s very bright with spot-on colour accuracy and great contrast, while text is razor sharp, thanks to its 1080p resolution. Responsiveness was somewhat disappointing though (which surprised us given the screen’s other attributes), with the touchscreen sometimes struggling to keep up with our Anger prods and swipes.
Unlike some older Samsung phones which claimed to have eight-core processors (even though only four of those eight cores could be used at any one time), the Snapdragon 810 processor here has true eight-core credentials and is one of the fastest mobile processors we’ve ever seen. The phone did get warm when running very demanding apps though, but it never became uncomfortable.
Battery life was nothing special. When connected to Vodafone's 3G network In central London and used for calls, taking photos, web browsing and GPS, the battery lasted 26 hours 15 minutes. When playing videos continuously, it only managed 11 hours 11 minutes. Call quality was generally very good though. While callers did tend to sound hushed and distant to our ears, we came across loud and clear to them with background noises successfully filtered out.
Although not flawless, the camera is better than those on many other Android phones of a similar price. Outdoor shots in bright daylight were sharp and detailed. The only flaw here were skies that were often oversaturated and looked unrealistic. Photos taken in low light were sufficiently illuminated with noise kept to a minimum, although the focus was a tad too soft.
The G Flex 2 is one of the first phones to come with Android 5.0 Lollipop, but LG has let itself down with some of the changes it has made to the interface. A large widget for tracking health data occupies one home screen and can't be removed, while a nagging dialogue box pops up to tell you the phone is using 3G/4G every time you wander out of Wi-Fi range. Lollipop’s handy new ‘do not disturb' features are now buried deep in the settings app, making them a real hassle to reach.
The G Flex 2 is a real mixed bag. The futuristic curved screen is of little practical benefit, while for every well implemented feature there’s another half-baked one. We hope the best ones will make it to LG’s other phones. For now though, even If you're willing to spend this much, you’re better off waiting for rival Android phones from Samsung and HTC.
VERDICT
A mixed bag of gimmicks and genuinely useful features make this phone only fair value.
SPECIFICATIONS
5.5in 1920x1080-pixel touchscreen • 1.56GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 eight-core processor • Adreno 430 graphics chip • 2GB memory • 16GB storage • 4G • Micro SIM • Android 5.0 Lollipop • 152g • 149x75x9mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty