LG G Flex 2 review – the bendy phone that self heals

Samsung might be the centre of attention when it comes to curves right now thanks to upcoming Galaxy S6 Edge, but LG is already on its second-generation smartphone with a bendy display. This latest attempt, the G Flex 2, has a concave screen, which shares the same 700mm radius curvature as the company’s TVs – allegedly making for a more immersive viewing experience.

At 149x75x7.1-9.4mm, the G Flex 2 is almost the same size as its flat cousin, the G3, but as the name suggests, it can bend and flex when you apply a small amount of pressure to the back of the handset. This is thanks to LG’s flexible plastic substrate OLED (or P-OLED) panel, which is made from a thin film rather than a rigid sheet of glass. It’s still incredibly strong, though, as the phone repeatedly sprung back into shape during our tests with no damage whatsoever to the display.

Admittedly, the curve is not quite as pronounced as you might think, with the handset having a gentle bend to it; rather than a banana shape, the handset just lifts slightly at either end. This means that when it is face down, it doesn’t have to bend much to go flat. That’s not to belittle the technology, as other phones won’t even take the slightest hint of pressure on them without the phone cracking, but it’s important to point out that, despite the name, the G Flex 2 doesn’t look quite as curved as you might expect. This is particularly true if you’ve seen one of LG’s curved TVs, where the larger screen size gives you a much bigger sense of scale and of the curve; on this comparatively small handset it makes much less difference.

^ The G Flex 2 certainly catches the eye, but we’re not convinced about the curve

LG G FLEX 2 DISPLAY

Likewise, OLED technology makes the G Flex 2’s 5.5in, 1,920×1,080 display look absolutely stunning. With an sRGB colour accuracy score of 99.4%, colours were rich and vivid and provided plenty of punch despite a somewhat low peak brightness of 324.79cd/m2. This isn’t necessarily a problem, though, as OLED screens tend to appear brighter than their LCD counterparts at this brightness level thanks to the thinner display layers inside the panel itself.

As OLEDs generate their own light, they can simply switch off whenever they need to show black, leading to deeper, clearer-looking text and a much higher contrast ratio than your typical LCD display. As we’d expect from an OLED panel, blacks measured a perfect 0.00cd/m2 in our testing and the contrast ratio was so high our colour calibrator couldn’t give us a score.

The display is first rate, then, but we’re not convinced the curve adds any real value to overall usability. Plenty of phones already have curved backs, so it’s not any more comfortable to hold, and the fact that the front curve is more naturally aligned with our general swiping motions or a fraction closer to our face is neither here nor there.

Instead, the only main advantage it has over its flat rivals is that the concave screen will never fall flat on the ground if you happen to drop it, potentially leading to fewer shattered screens (but undoubtedly more smashed corners). In this sense, it’s more practical than the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, but there’s not much in it.

The G Flex 2’s ‘self-healing’ back panel didn’t particularly impress us, either. The original G Flex was supposedly able to heal light scratches in a few minutes, but the G Flex 2 is meant to be able to do it in as little as 10 seconds. After carrying it around in our bag with our keys for a few days, though, we’d made a couple of noticeable dents that failed to disappear. Unsurprisingly, anything more violent, such as gouging it with a key, will leave permanent damage.

^ The G Flex 2 won’t survive deliberate scratches, but even lighter ones failed to heal

Admittedly, the glossy plastic coating does a reasonable job of disguising any leftover scratches due to the sheer number of reflections and fingerprints it picks up, but when it catches the light just right, every single scratch is clear as day. This is a shame, but our biggest disappointment about the G Flex 2’s back panel is just how cheap and unattractive it looks. LG insists the G Flex 2 isn’t a flagship smartphone, but its current price of £529 SIM-free says otherwise, and with so much chunky, slippery plastic on show, it certainly doesn’t look or feel like a high-end device.

LG G FLEX 2 BATTERY LIFE

We were hoping its huge 3,000mAh battery and energy-efficient OLED screen might produce a winning combo, but battery life was something of a disappointment as well. It still managed a respectable 11h 25m in our continuous video playback test, but the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge’s 3,000mAh battery, for example, managed another 2 hours under the same conditions.

The top-heavy brightness settings are partly to blame for this, as our standard brightness 170cd/m2 actually came out as 69% on the phone’s overall brightness. Fortunately, the G Flex 2 supports fast-charging, reaching 50% from empty in just 40 minutes, so at least you won’t have to wait long if you happen to run out of juice mid-afternoon.

LG G FLEX 2 BENCHMARKS

Performance was slightly problematic at first, with the 2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor running extremely hot during our initial benchmarks. We thought it could be due to the 810’s much-rumoured heat-dissipation problems, but it was an issue we’ve had with other LG handsets in the past.

^ The G Flex 2 has its main buttons on the rear of the phone. This can take a little getting used to, but they’re within easy reach of your fingers

Thankfully, our more recent tests all ran relatively smoothly with almost no significant increase in the phone’s internal temperature, leading to a much more stable set of results. We also haven’t seen any limitations on the screen’s overall brightness levels, as the G3 often prevented us from raising the screen brightness over 80 or 90% if the phone became too hot. This could potentially still change, as LG could only provide us with Korean units rather than full UK samples for our review, but we’ll be keeping an eye on this when LG send us a UK model in the coming weeks.

In our latest scores, the G Flex 2 managed an overall score of 3,962 in PC Mark, putting it just behind other flagship phones we’ve tested such as Samsung’s Galaxy Note Edge and Galaxy Note 4. Its individual web browsing score of 4,768 was particularly high, putting it almost 1,000 points in front of both Samsung handsets.

As a result, it coped with complex web pages extremely well and we were able to pan round and zoom in on news articles with ease. We did notice a couple of slightly stuttering animations on the Android 5.0 home screens, though, particularly when swiping out of its annoyingly immovable LG Health and Smart Tips panel to the left of the main home screen.

^ The G Flex 2’s screen doesn’t catch many reflections, so it’s ideal for watching films and TV shows on the move

Graphics performance was also good, as it maxed out our 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme test and scored a massive 23,959 (or an average of 113.4fps) in Ice Storm Unlimited. This means it should have no trouble at all playing the latest 3D games, but we were surprised and slightly disappointed to see that it only managed 50.7fps in our Epic Citadel test on Ultra High quality settings. This is still a great score, but we were hoping for a near-perfect 60fps considering the capabilities of Qualcomm’s brand new Adreno 430 GPU.

LG G FLEX 2 CAMERA

The G Flex 2 shares the same 13-megapixel camera as the G3, so it comes with laser auto-focus, optical image stabilisation and a dual LED flash. It was certainly very quick to lock onto targets, but colours came out looking rather cool in our resulting test shots.

This had the effect of making some of our photos look a little wintry, particularly in areas of shadow, but we were pleased to see very little noise and areas of brickwork were pleasantly detailed.

^ Photos could look a little cool on the G Flex 2, but there’s still plenty of detail present and hardly any noise

^ Switching to HDR mode didn’t improve matters, but it did help brighten up darker areas of shadow

LG G FLEX 2 CONCLUSION

Our main concern is the price. At £529 SIM-free, the LG G Flex 2 is one of the most expensive handsets you can buy today, topping the LG G3 by almost £150. This wouldn’t be so bad if the G Flex 2 had all the makings and build quality of a proper high-end flagship handset, but its slightly cheap-looking plastic chassis is nowhere near as smart as the G3’s faux-metal finish, and the imminent arrival of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9 blow it out of the water.

There’s better news if you’re after a new contract, as both Carphone Warehouse and Vodafone are currently bundling in either a free LG MusicFlow P7 Bluetooth speaker or LG G Watch R smartwatch. Carphone Warehouse has the cheapest contracts for the G Flex 2, with prices starting at £34.50 per month with no upfront cost for 1GB of 4G data, unlimited texts and 600 minutes of calls, but Vodafone’s cheapest Red 4G deal, which is £39.50 a month with an upfront cost of £19 is arguably better value in the long term, as you get unlimited minutes and texts and 4GB of 4G data on top of six months of Spotify, Now TV or Sky Sports Mobile TV.

These are pretty good deals, particularly if you’ve been hankering after a smartwatch that doesn’t contain the word ‘Apple’, but that shouldn’t distract from what’s ultimately a good but fairly average-looking handset. Right now, we feel it’s a little too over-priced to really contend Samsung and HTC’s incoming handsets, and we’d sooner pick the cheaper G3 over its slightly underwhelming curved cousin. If you’re looking for something completely different, our regularly-updated best smartphone guide will help.