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Phone manufacturers have been pushing the envelope in terms of size, and when this massive beauty landed at our office, we had an instant debate on whether to call it a phone or phablet. Consensus was we should call it a phablet, and so, the LG G Flex was classified.
Anyone who's used the LG G2 would notice the similarities right away. The sides sans buttons, the power/volume switches at the back, the speaker at the bottom half of the back cover - essentially, the G Flex feels like an oversized G2.
But its curved form factor and gigantic six-inch screen makes it stand out in the crowd. The G Flex nestles very well when held next to your face. But, the big size actually takes away a bit of the advantage of a curved device - the sheer girth made us tread on the right side of caution. LG claims conversations can be heard better because of the curved body but we didn't notice too much of a difference. In fact, thanks to its girth, one is sometimes not sure if one has placed the earpiece over the ear or not.
| LG G FLEX |
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Price: Rs 69,999 Screen: 6-inch, 720x1280 p at 245 ppi Weight: 177g OS: Android JellyBean 4.2.2 RAM: 2GB Processor: 2.26 Ghz, quad core Memory: 32GB internal, non-expandable Camera (rear/front): 13MP with LED flash/2.1MP Battery: 3,500 mAh |
Despite its girth, the G Flex is surprisingly light and one has to thank its all-plastic construction for that. Below the 13-megapixel (MP) back snapper, a direct graft from the G2, are the volume buttons, topped with metal nubs, so one distinguish them easily by touch. The power button also houses a notification LED, so if the phone is kept on its back (the screen stays off the surface), the LED discreetly alerts the user. The bottom of the phone houses the microUSB port and headphones jack while the edge houses the microSIM.
Turn on the phone and one is met by the familiar Android Jelly Bean interface - a big disappointment, as many flagships these days come with KitKat out of the box. More disappointing is that an update for the phone software hasn't been released. Play a high definition (HD) video and you know something's the matter. The G Flex doesn't support Full HD video, despite a price tag of nearly Rs 70,000. What a waste of screen estate.
The familiar LG Optimus 3 interface resides over Android and, sadly, there's no way to revert to stock Android. Like the G2, the Quick menu and QSlide apps reside on the top of the screen (in portrait mode). Below these two layers are two vertical bands to control brightness and sound. Unfortunately, this takes up most of the screen, leaving very little space for notifications, so if one hasn't checked in a while, be prepared to scroll. A quirky thing, at least on the review unit, was it always "woke up" in portrait mode, even if one held it sideways but quickly switched to landscape mode once we got into an app.
While it's very easy to type on landscape mode, the default keyboard isn't very user-friendly and had us downloading an alternative one. For one-handed operation, one can shrink the keyboard to a side of the screen but typing becomes very cramped on it.
The back of the phone is claimed to be self-healing, meaning it 'heals' scratches etc, thanks to its flexible nature. While we didn't see any scratches, it did prove a dust magnet and the slippery grip kept us on our toes all through the review.
Like the G2, the G Flex supports "knock on" gesture features. Tap twice on the screen to wake it up and tap on the edge to send it to sleep. Pulling two fingers outwards on the screen in landscope mode (one felt as if drawing out the curtains!) brings up QuickTheater - access to photos, videos and a link to YouTube. The capable hardware along with the curved plastic OLED display makes consuming media on the G Flex a pleasure (even in direct sunlight) but the experience is slightly marred by the low resolution of the screen.
LG has added a full-fledged video player to the interface, as well as a very capable music player, and it enhances the experience. The on-board speaker is loud as well but can get muffled if one accidentally keeps one's fingers over it while holding the G Flex in landscape mode.
A look at the technical specifications reveals the G Flex mirrors the G2 in essential hardware. It is in fact a very capable device and we faced no lags with several windows open. But heavy consumers of media should note the G Flex doesn't have expandable storage, and only 24GB is available to the user (of the 32 GB, 8 GB is taken up by Android). Gaming was fun as well but again the screen resolution turned out to be the Achilles' heel.
The 13MP back camera focuses as fast as the one on the Samsung Galaxy S4 and outdoor photography, especially for everyday shots, is quite good. Its only when there are mixed light conditions or is dark that the quality of shots become iffy. The
G Flex doesn't have a dedicated shutter button but the buttons at the back work as the zoom/shutter buttons. There are options galore in photo and video modes and amateur photographers won't be disappointed. A caveat: With the buttons being so close to the camera, one can inadvertently introduce one's finger into the shots.
The G Flex comes with a massive battery and with heavy usage, including lots of gaming, videos and music, we could get through a day with only half of the battery being exhausted after a full charge.
The LG G Flex (which can arguably be straightened, but we didn't dare try that trick) has top of the line features and an interesting concept, let down by a low resolution screen and an old OS. While the OS works fine, one expects it to be state-of-the-art, especially when one is paying close to Rs 70,000 for a device.
