Bending your prized electronics has never really been an advisable idea, but you might be tempted with the LG G Flex, set to go on sale in the UK from the start of 2014.
Whilst Samsung’s Galaxy Round made headlines as ‘the world’s first curved smartphone’, the G Flex looks to be the first of these curved Korean handsets to make its way to Blighty, and this unique piece of mobile engineering offers a little more than just an unusual shape.
The G Flex is undoubtedly a big phone; it features a 6-inch P-OLED display, the ‘P’ standing for plastic, but it’s this fundamental component choice that allows LG to give the handset its distinctive rounded display. Typically larger screens and lower resolutions don’t bode well, but despite the G Flex’s significant surface area, the 720p HD display looks impressively sharp, and as we’d expect from LG, it’s very bright too.
The curve of the screen not only feels nice to run your finger over, but helps distort external reflections such as ceiling lighting or window lighting, making it easier to view content on the display and therefore ideal for movie watching on-the-go. The curve also follows through to the rest of the bodywork too, with the integrated battery and the rest of the phone’s circuitry arranged to grant the G Flex some serious points on durability front.
Whether you intend to put the G Flex in your back pocket or you accidentally sit on it, the entire body of the phone can flex to a near-flat position without harming the internals, it’s an impressive piece of engineering and one of the elements LG hopes will set the G Flex out in front of the Galaxy Round in the eyes of consumers.
Aside from the display, the body of the G Flex is covered by a layer of faux brushed metal and coated in an elasticised polymer, reminiscent of Samsung’s Hyperglaze finish, however, as their official video demonstrates, this plastic coating can actually recover from minor scratches and scrapes, effectively ‘healing’ itself. Although this concept isn’t new, the G Flex is one of the first mobile devices we’re ever come across to feature such a material.
Move beyond the distinctive looking hardware and you’re greeted with a more familiar interface, reminiscent of the G2’s, albeit with cleaner, more modern iconography. In addition to this tweaked visual look, LG has included optimisation for one-handed use, appreciated considering the size of the handset in the average user’s hands. As with the company’s flagship, there’s also plenty in the way of customisation and flexibility thanks to features like the dual-app multitasking, letting your run two apps side-by-side simultaneously.
Whilst we didn’t get as far as testing the camera out, it again borrows from the G2 with a 13-megapixel OIS-capable module that sits above a centrally positioned volume rocker, this time with more tactile keys, and a multi-colour backlit power/lock key.
Until it hits retail, you can get some hands-on time of your own with the G Flex at a one of EE’s primary stores throughout the UK.
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