LG G Flex Curved-Screen Hardware & performance

Like the G2 and other premium smartphones, the G Flex has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB of RAM. Unsurprisingly, our benchmark results are almost identical to those we saw from its smaller counterpart.

Geekbench 3 yielded a score of 2273 points; GFXBench 2.7 came in at 28fps; and we recorded 1103ms in SunSpider. That's almost up there with the impressive HTC One M8. With almost every smartphone manufacturer boosting performance for benchmark apps, we're much less bothered about numbers.

From a realworld user perspective the G Flex o ffers decent performance. That Snapdragon 800 has proven to be a formidable force and is very capable of dealing with most requests.

Storage

There's only one model of the G Flex and it has 32GB of internal storage. That's a decent amount, given that most phones in this price range have half that. However, the device doesn't have a microSD card slot, and it's not like there isn't room for one.

Infrared and wireless

As with the G2, the G Flex has an infrared transmitter for taking control of devices such as your TV. There's a Quick Remote section of the notifi cation bar, which you can toggle on and o so you don't even need to launch the app to change channels or adjust volume.

You'll need to hold the phone upright for it to work properly, though, since the sensor is located on the back, next to the camera rather than on top like a traditional remote. As for other wireless options, you get pretty much what you'd expect from a top-end device.

There's Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy, dual-band Wi-Fi up to 802.11ac, NFC, GPS and support for 4G LTE networks. What we're still not seeing is wireless charging. It seems that only top-range Nokia and Google Nexus devices have this feature as standard.

Cameras

It's good news that the G Flex wields the same camera technology as the G2. That means it's got a 13Mp rear camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS). There's no dedicated camera button but, like most smartphones, you can use the volume buttons to snap away.

The RearKey location makes this pretty tricky, though. Our main complaint is that the autofocus takes a little while, certainly compared to the latest flagships such as the Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8.

However, if you can be patient, the G Flex can take decent photos. You'll typically get the best result if you use the HDR mode and we also found the phone coped well in low light – if you have a steady hand.

A range of shooting modes includes Burst Shot, Sports and Night. We're not so bothered about Beauty Shot and Dual Camera (a selfi e slapped over a regular photo).

The G Flex can shoot full-HD video at 30- and 60fps, and can even turn its hand to 4K recording. A front-facing 2.1Mp camera o ers decent quality for selfi es and can shoot video in full-HD.

Prev...
LG G Flex curved-screen smartphone review