LG G Flex 2
LG G Flex 2
Intro:Introduction
It's been more than a year since we saw the introduction of the original LG G Flex. When LG announced the second generation this January we had already assumed that LG had decided to ditch the entire concept. Was it reports of iPhone 6 Plus bending in people's pockets that re-kindled the LG Flex affair over at LG HQ? Bad joke? Well, unlike us, LG are in no mood for joking. Their phone has stellar specs.
The LG G Flex2 is one of the best sequels we've seen. Most people must recall the original - after all it was the first of its kind - but it was seen by few and owned by fewer still.
Instantly recognizable, but tough sell nonetheless, the original LG G Flex didn't do that well in the market in spite of - or exactly because, it did have two features from the future. A curved, flexible screen and the self-healing coating at the rear.
Were they just gimmicks to trick you into buying another flagship-wannabe? The immersive P-OLED display was great for watching movies and games, but LG missed an opportunity to make it an inherent part of how you interact with the device. The self-healing finish of the battery cover had a point but still a long way to go to living up to the marketing promises. Both added to a pretty steep price tag and we still wouldn't call them gimmicks.
Anyway, LG is giving the Flex another try and doing it properly this time. The new LG G Flex2 brings a better display, allegedly better self-healing rear coating, the best chipset there is, an improved camera, an impressive connectivity package, the latest Android and a rich software bundle. The display was trimmed down to 5.5", but promoted to Full HD resolution for a clearly superior pixel density of 403ppi.
The G Flex2 is the first device we're about to test with a Snapdragon 810 chipset inside. The 13MP camera was treated to optical image stabilization and laser autofocus. That shouldn't have been too hard, pretty much what the LG G3 had a while back. But these are still welcome.
Key features
- Curved design build around a curved display, self-healing coating on the back panel
- 5.5" 16M-color 1080p curved P-OLED capacitive touchscreen with Dura Guard Glass (Gorilla Glass 3 enhanced in-house by LG)
- Android OS v5.0.1 Lollipop with Optimus UI
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset with a 64-bit octa-core processor - 2.0GHz quad-core Cortex-A57GHz and 1.5GHz quad-core Cortex-A53; Adreno 430 GPU;
- 2 or 3 GB of RAM depending on storage configuration
- 13MP rear camera, laser-assisted auto-focus, optical image stabilization, two-tone LED flash
- 2160p/1080p video recording @ 30fps, 720p@120fps
- 2.1MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
- LTE Cat. 6; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; GPS/GLONASS receiver; Bluetooth v4.1; NFC; IR port; FM Radio; SlimPort
- 16 or 32GB of built-in storage; microSD card slot up to 128GB
- Dual-window split-screen view
- microUSB 2.0 port with USB host and MHL 2.0, Fast Charging
- Standard 3.5mm audio jack
- Accelerometer and proximity sensor
- Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
- 3,000 mAh battery
Main disadvantages
- Rather pricey (sans carrier subsidies) that misses features such as stereo speakers, wireless charging, or an enhanced resistance to liquids or dust
- The 16GB model comes with 2GB of RAM
- Non-removable battery
Again, just like the last generation, the curved phone profile doesn't mean the phone is flexible in any way. Just on the contrary, it's quite sturdy and well built. The self-healing layer on the back of the phone is still unmatched and it has been improved in this version with even faster healing times.
Full Specifications:
| NETWORK | |
|---|---|
| Technology | GSM / HSPA / LTE |
| 2G bands | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
| 3G bands | HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 |
| 4G bands | LTE 800 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 (Bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 20) - H955 |
| LTE 700 / 850 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 (Bands 2, 4, 12, 25, 26, 41) - LS996 (Sprint) | |
| LTE 700 / 850 / 1700 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 17) - H950 (AT&T) | |
| Speed | HSPA 42.2/21.1 Mbps, LTE Cat6 300/50 Mbps |
| GPRS | Yes |
| EDGE | Yes |
| LAUNCH | |
|---|---|
| Announced | 2015, January |
| Status | Coming soon. Exp. release 2015, February |
| BODY | |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 149.1 x 75.3 x 7.1-9.4 mm |
| Weight | 152 g (5.36 oz) |
| Build | Curved body and display |
| SIM | Micro-SIM |
| - Self-healing back panel coating | |
| DISPLAY | |
|---|---|
| Type | Curved P-OLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
| Size | 5.5 inches (~73.5% screen-to-body ratio) |
| Resolution | 1080 x 1920 pixels (~403 ppi pixel density) |
| Multitouch | Yes |
| Protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| PLATFORM | |
|---|---|
| OS | Android OS, v5.0.1 (Lollipop) |
| Chipset | Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810 |
| CPU | Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2 GHz Cortex-A57 |
| GPU | Adreno 430 |
| MEMORY | |
|---|---|
| Card slot | microSD, up to 128 GB |
| Internal | 16 GB, 2 GB RAM/ 32 GB, 3 GB RAM |
| CAMERA | |
|---|---|
| Primary | 13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, laser autofocus, optical image stabilization, dual-LED flash,check quality |
| Features | Simultaneous video and image recording, geo-tagging, face detection, panorama, HDR |
| Video | 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, HDR, stereo sound rec., check quality |
| Secondary | 2.1 MP, 1080p@30fps |
| SOUND | |
|---|---|
| Alert types | Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones |
| Loudspeaker | Yes |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes |
| - Dolby mobile | |
| COMMS | |
|---|---|
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot |
| Bluetooth | v4.1, A2DP, LE, apt-X |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS |
| NFC | Yes |
| Infrared port | Yes |
| Radio | Stereo FM radio with RDS |
| USB | microUSB v2.0 (SlimPort), USB Host |
| FEATURES | |
|---|---|
| Sensors | Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass |
| Messaging | SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM |
| Browser | HTML5 |
| Java | Yes, via Java MIDP emulator |
| - Fast battery charging: 60% in 30 min (Quick Charge 2.0) - DMB TV tuner (Korean model only) - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - MP4/DviX/XviD/H.264/WMV player - MP3/WAV/FLAC/eAAC+/AC3/WMA player - Photo/video editor - Document viewer | |
| BATTERY | |
|---|---|
| Non-removable Li-Po 3000 mAh battery | |
| Stand-by | |
| Talk time | |
| MISC | |
|---|---|
| Colors | Platinum Silver, Flamenco Red |
Final words
LG kicked off 2015 with a bang... or rather with a new flex. The LG G Flex2 is the first smartphone to unleash the latest Snapdragon 810 beast-of-a-chipset on the market.
The curved OLED display is still one of its key unique selling points. This time around it's also got a special edition strengthened Gorilla Glass 3 at front and an updated self-healing coating on the plastic back. It has borrowed the great camera of the LG G3 along with the optical image stabilization and laser-assisted autofocus.
The rear control deck is at its most comfortable edition ever and the curved shell provides for an amazingly comfortable handling - especially since the new phone has a smaller footprint thanks to the reduced screen size.
We could go even further lamenting its qualities but we think everybody should have gotten the idea by now. LG G Flex2 is a flagship that stands out. A smartphone that's not afraid to innovate.
.jpg)
- It offers great build quality, unique curved design, nice handling.
- The back features improved self-healing coating that will recover quickly from the occasional small scratches though deeper scratches will stay, but the coating itself looks like a see-through sticker and you can notice where it ends around the edges of the device
- The P-OLED screen is amazing and looks great from any angle. It is bright, with best in-class contrast and sunlight legibility.
- With a rated battery endurance of 62h, battery life is some 30% lower than on the original LG G Flex. Solid call, video playback and stand-by battery endurance numbers are spoiled only by the inadequate web browsing battery life.
- Android Lollipop with Optimus UI is fluid and responsive, with great features such as dual-window, QRemote, QVoice
- The Snapdragon 810 chipset offered great benchmark performance on first runs after the phone's allowed to cool down; LG has agreed they use an aggressive CPU throttling setting, which potentially could be lifted once they iron out the software. Even at this stage it is as fast as the Snapdragon 805, but offers faster multi-core CPU performance and better GPU scores thanks to the new Adreno 430.
- Video player has greatly varied video decoder support, as well as seamless 4K video playback
- Audio output quality is very good
- Camera performance is very good, with sharp and detailed images, great dynamic range and controlled amounts of noise. Built-in HDR mode rivals Samsung's for the top of the class leading. Image quality however is not as good as on the LG G3 even though the two cameras look identical on paper.
- Videos recording quality is a mixed bag - it produces great UHD videos, not-so-good 1080p videos, and plain ugly 720p@60fps videos
If you are after the latest and greatest chipset in the business, then there's hardly any alternative to the LG G Flex2 and its Snapdragon 810. At least not until MWC comes along this March and delivers a truckload of new flagships.
The MWC is where the Galaxy S6 will be unveiled, as well as the HTC One (M9) and the Sony Xperia Z4. And who knows - LG G4 might be just around the corner. All of these will be utilizing the Snapdragon 810 chipset or similar and will create the usual diversity on the market.
Of course, the LG G Flex2 is destined to remain a niche device unlike those mass market flagships. It's a proof of concept meant to fortify the brand recognition above anything else. And just like the original G Flex, it will serve the purpose of showcasing LG tech in stores quite successfully.
It's much like the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge. If you are after a limited edition smartphone, the Galaxy Note Edge seems like a proper alternative for the lack of a more recent comparison (we're looking at you Galaxy Round). It is slightly bigger, though not as elegant, with a QHD display plus some extra screen estate on the right edge. The 5.6" Galaxy Note Edge runs on the Snapdragon 805 chip, offers additional S-Pen stylus support, as well as a gimmicky heart-rate sensor and finger-print scanner. At around €700, the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge price is much more reasonable than back in the beginning and you may find it suits you better than the LG G Flex2.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
No comments :
Post a Comment