Gadgetory

at CES 2015 our excitement was more or less centered around one device an update to a curved phone that seemed to address many of the issues we had with the original after about a week of testing I've learned one thing about this iteration it's basically a few steps forward and one big step back well it's time to find out because it's Joshua Vergara from Android authority what's going on everybody and here is my full review of the LG G flex 2 the design of the G flex 2 focuses on one particular aspect the curved screen that makes for what some might call a banana phone but there are a couple more high points when it comes to this phones aesthetic the screen itself has been brought down from its original large size to an accessible 5.5 inches taking this phone into the territory of current flagship devices there are no buttons on any of the sides though the headphone jack and the micro USB charging port are found on the bottom the button layout instead now takes on the iconic LG placement on the back the volume rockers flank the power button and the whole thing is under the camera optics having the buttons here has already helped the previous phones for LG but the curve makes it feel even more natural as index fingers easily rest on that area the curve on the screen makes the entire phone perch up a bit when lying on its face but the point of this phone is that you can flex it flat without much fear of anything breaking and the backing has the self-healing material that is supposed to make superficial scratches fade over time the only real problem with this backing is that the sticky material is a real fingerprint magnet and will collect dust quite easily because of its static clean but the back is also removable giving access to the sim and microSD card slots the curve was already pretty well received in the original G flex but with this smaller 5.5 inch screen it's even easier to handle getting from side to side is not that difficult at all because of the thin bezels and then performing hand gymnastics is pretty easy because of how comfortably the phone rest of the hand and even though this red Edition might be a little bit flashy for my taste this brushed look on the back that goes from the button layout and spreads out adds to what is already a very attractive device if you are worried about the curve being hard to fit in a pocket it still fits nice and comfortably in all but the tightest of jeans so really it's not that much of an issue a 5.5 inch screen on the G flex 2 brings higher resolution than before to the quality standard of 1080p in this IPS screen the brightness is quite great even in broad daylight and the curve does make the experience that little bit more immersive seeing elements scroll along the curve is an effect that still hasn't gotten old though in real usage it is still subtle enough that you won't notice it all the time but without the phone being so close to your eyes the immersive experience is something I'm convinced is only true for huge high-resolution televisions and in house coated screen claims to have even more protection available compared to Gorilla Glass but thankfully there was a screen protector already installed because I found a scratch on the top right of it after a few days of usage nonetheless colors do tend to have an adequate saturation to them and this can be adjusted further in the settings but keeping this 1080p keeps sharpness constant compared to the over smoothing that was present in the LG g3 s quad HD screen all in all I've had a very good time with the G flex 2 screen enjoying media on the screen large enough to do so but also for handling all other tasks like text reading and navigation one of the surprises at the announcement was the processing package found within the LG G flex 2 is one of the first widely available phones to rock the snapdragon 810 backed by an Adreno 430 and up to 3 gigabytes of RAM everyone was expecting the performance to be off the charts and for the most part I can tell you that playing games and performing just about any in-app tasks is an absolute breeze even working with the dual window functionality works quite well with my typical combination of YouTube and Chrome working well enough for me to work and play comfortably it's also worth mentioning that issues with overheating when gaming for example were not observed in my testing the phone did get a bit hot but I never noticed any slowdowns and certainly no shut offs where I see the problems is in the operating system where LG took an updated lollipop and slapped it with their GUI and let me tell you the results are uneven at best where the G flex 2 was supposed to be a showcase of the Snapdragon 810 we get a choppy experience and even the most basic of tasks within the GUI multitasking what the recent apps screen will have a routine stutter and even when scrolling through various elements like the homescreen customization screens I noticed a lack of smoothness that many of us probably didn't expect with this next-generation processor I even went so far as to install the Google now launcher to see if things would change and sure enough I thought that the animations in it moved along a little smoother and I overall preferred that experience to the GUI now perhaps I'm being a little harsh on my review unit which came chock-full of bloatware that is typically installed on the Asian handsets with that in mind I will definitely check out a Western release of the phone when they come out and report back if anything has changed hardware on the G flex 2 brings the essentials and not too much more which does tend to be a good thing removing the back cover gets you access to the microSD card slot which allows for expansion of the 16 or 32 gigabytes of on-board storage and it should come as no surprise that the curved battery is not replaceable all of the connectivity options are available including NFC and Bluetooth though this review unit from Korea didn't connect to LTE networks on t-mobile for me call quality was pretty standard getting out of quickly loud on the receiving end with no complaints on the other side and the rear facing speaker is just about as standard as you can get though the upward curve on the bottom portion does keep it from getting completely stifled by the table that it's sitting on in battery life though there was mostly a standard affair with the 3000 milliamp hour unit installed my time with the G flex 2 over the last week brought me through full days of work with few problems getting down to power critical levels before bedtime the power usage day where I took a lot of pictures and then played quite a bit of GTA chinatown wars remains my main example allowing me just over three and a half hours of screen on time which is pretty good considering that lowered usage will get you pretty far if you are a little bit more frugal with it I won't go as far as to say that the LG G flex 2 is an overachiever in the battery departments not by any means but having the screen kept at 1080p resolution something a little bit more conventional makes this even out its longevity when compared to the LG g3 which had quad HD resolution though the camera experience in the G flex 2 has gotten a bit of an update in mostly speed quality seems to still be on par with other high-end competitors the app is quite simplistic taking on a minimal interface that requires you to tap the point of focus and once it's focused well you get your shot this is due to the laser-guided out-of-focus that makes this one of the fastest cameras to use in the market today unless you have a subject running around the frame you'll get your picture in seconds flat with little issues other modes include a burst mode that is triggered by holding down the shutter button panorama mode a dual shooting mode that uses both cameras in the same shot and HDR that does enhance backlit subjects and puts a little bit of extra color into the phone the biggest subject to the camera experience centers around the self-portrait taker who will be able to use the 2.1 megapixel front-facing camera to quickly and easy review the shop by moving the phone downward in the natural curve picture quality though is pretty uneven considering the lighting in one scene in my camera shootout I found that while there were good shots captured in broad daylight going indoors already showed a big change in the detail capture and even the color saturation subjects that were supposed to have very vivid colors tend to get washed out for example as the scene loses lighting the pictures get noisier making this a less than ideal companion to have in lower light indoor situations like at parties despite os+ helping with the general jittery movements in photo and video it and the laser guided autofocus are about all that differentiates this camera from others considering its mostly standard quality as I already mentioned before it's the software on this phone that seems to make up the performance issues with the G flex 2 even though it had been updated to lollipop it just doesn't seem as though the GUI has really been optimized to its fullest potential on the Snapdragon 810 that said there have been a few changes to the way it looks because of lollipop the recent apps screen has been changed to a Rolodex lollipop style and the notification drop-down now uses cards but seeing the original style and the quick settings atop those notifications already alludes the GUI is biggest detractor that it is still mostly the same inside and out the app drawer has the same style now very cluttered by the sheer amount of extra applications that were installed on my version of the phone the settings area is tabbed and it houses the many different options that you can turn on to tweak the experience one-handed usage some gestures and a section to mess with the NOC code are available speaking of the NOC code it returns and is still a pretty nice way of unlocking the phone from the prone position really the main enhancement here is the addition of the quick peek activated on a turned off screen by dragging one's finger down the screen to see the time and the notification bar if you're already a veteran user of the GUI and some of the aspects like the dual window really speak to you then you're probably going to have a pretty good experience with the G flex 2 what gets me is that despite some of the aesthetic changes that did happen with this new version of the GUI we didn't get that many optimizations to really showcase the Snapdragon 810 and as it stands now this is simply not the right place for the Snapdragon 810 to really show itself and to me that's the biggest bummer in the software section so though the LG G flex 2 is now on pre-order with Sprint in the States we have yet to see where and at what price the phone will be available on other carriers in the West the off-contract price on Sprint for the moment is listed at around $500 though the LG G flex 2 has proven that curved displays can definitely work for flagship smartphones the only competitors will the curve displayed thus far is the Samsung Galaxy Note edge and whatever edge device we might see from them at the upcoming Mobile World Congress at Barcelona and so there you have it the LG G flex 2 the updates to this phone's design and the somewhat faster camera experience are quite nice to have but the day-to-day usage of this phone is too uneven to call this a true winner while I'm pretty sure that more localized versions of the phone will probably fare better in my testing I still think that the GUI is just a bit too cluttered for its own good and doesn't really show the performance that the processor is capable of as I always say when you keep it simple you keep it fast and in the G flex 2 that just doesn't seem to be the case this is still one of my favorite form factors available now with it's much easier handling due to a smaller screen and the curve is not only different but proves it's worth as a design choice I will not go as far to say that this isn't a worthy phone for daily usage but without some real optimizations in the software it's pretty clear to us that this phone goes a few steps forward but loses footing in where it counts most as always thank you guys very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed this review of the LG G flex 2 despite the steps forward that it takes in its design unfortunately in key areas especially in the software and the performance of it given the Snapdragon 810 it takes one big leap backwards and unfortunately that's why I can't really give this phone the high rating that I was expecting to give him when it was first announced at CES 2015 but nonetheless hopefully the more localized versions of the phone will fare a little bit better but until we get our hands on those keep it tuned to Android authority for all of the best coverage and don't forget to check out our channel 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