LG G Flex Video Review - the Curved and Bendable Android Smartphone

Smartphones are smartphones; generally they all look alike. So LG decided to throw us a curve ball with the LG G Flex. This is a curved and flexible phone, though the curve is gentle and there's little flex in this Flex. LG said they could've made it more bendable, but customers might equate a Gumby phone with cheapness. The G Flex is a phablet with a 6" plastic AMOLED display. Don't worry; you wouldn't know it's not glass when looking at it, and plastic is what allows it to be flexible. Inside the G Flex is filled with flagship specs: a 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad core CPU, 2 gigs of RAM, WiFi 802.11ac, NFC and high megapixel cameras. The price, at least on AT&T and Sprint is higher than flagship: $299 with 2 year contract rather than the usual $199. That's a $100 curve. T-Mobile will also carry the LG, but they price things using monthly payments, which in the case of the G Flex will be 24 payments of $28 ($672 total).

The one spec that isn't flagship? Display resolution. It's a 720p (1280 x 720) display rather than the usual full HD 1920 x 1080. The technology just isn't there yet to make a full HD flexible display. 720p isn't horrendous, but on a phone with a bigger than average 6 inch screen, we noticed text wasn't quite a sharp as we'd like. The 245 ppi display also has a minor blue color bias that's more pronounced at the top. 

I had my doubts about curved phones, be it the LG G Flex or the Samsung Galaxy Round. But once I used the G Flex for a few hours, I found it more ergonomic and the screen produced fewer reflections that flat phones like the 6" Nokia Lumia 1520 smartphone. The 700mm radius curve isn't just there to fit the curve of your face, it also makes sense in the back pocket of your jeans (particularly if you have a 700mm curve to your bottom). I found videos more enjoyable on the curved display, even though there's no clear reason why this should be so: after all, it's not a 60" TV where a curve makes more sense to replicate big screen viewing at a movie theatre. Does the curve make this otherwise big phone feel easier to handle or more hand-friendly? I'd say yes (note, I do have large hands).