New Delhi: LG showcased its first curved display smartphone, the LG Flex, in India, within two months since its global debut in October. While the phone has been announced for the Indian market, it will not hit store shelves until February 2014. The company has not yet revealed the price, but has hinted that it could be an expensive deal. LG says the phone could be priced somewhere between Rs 60,000 and Rs 65,000.
I got my hands on the curved phone at the India event and here's what I think about it:
Taking the first mover's advantage, the LG G Flex becomes the first curved smartphone to be released in India. Though Samsung snagged the crown of bringing the world's first smartphone with a curved display when it had introduced the Galaxy Round in early October, LG has trumped the other Korean tech giant in bringing a curved smartphone to India.
Much of the time I used the phone was spent in figuring out where its curved design scores above what what could soon be referred to as flat smartphones. Holding the phone in my hand, it naturally fit in the curvature of my palm making it comfortable to grip. Also, when I placed it on my ear, I found it to be closer to my mouth, unlike a flat smartphone which stays at a distance when it is on one's ear. This suggests that users may experience better voice quality while talking on a curved smartphone. While watching a video in the landscape mode, I was holding the phone with both hands, and because of the natural curvature of human hands, it was quite comfortable to hold. The entire experience was good, but not something that can lure me to crave to own one.
What is surprising about the LG G Flex is that it can withstand maximum of up to 40kg of weight, or at least that's what LG claims. During my hands-on experience, I kept the LG G Flex on a table and pressed it from the back until it went flat. I removed my hands, and it got back into its original shape. This flexibility is the first step towards bendable smartphones.
The phone has a non-removable, self-healing back - which means that the material used to make its back makes it scratch-resitant. Featuring a 6-inch display, the phone looks quite big and wouldn't fit in the pocket of my jeans. With the growing popularity of large-screen phones, I doubt that its giant size is going to affect sales of the LG G Flex. The phone comes in Titan Silver, and has simple looks and neither looks elegant nor cheap. The G Flex's display produces good colours and its screen is highly responsive. Also, it offers great viewing angles.
I could only get to test its camera in low-light conditions and found the results to be satisfactory. The phone is equipped with a quality front camera, which is apt for selfies and video calling. The 32GB model offers user-accessible storage space of 24.08GB. The event venue was very noisy, but its speakers managed to produce audible results.
The phone's design is similar to that of the LG G2. The LED light embedded in the button below the camera lens at the back facilitates the camera experience when capturing a photo with the camera timer on. After the timer is set and the shutter button is pressed, the LED light flashes and turns red 2-3 seconds before any frame is captured.
Besides the Q Slide function that helps you multitask, the LG G Flex includes a new feature named "Dual Window" that lets you use two apps at the same time. All you have to do is to touch and hold the back button to use the Dual Window feature. However, this is not anything new, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 also includes a similar feature.
I am yet to test its camera, voice quality, display results and performance in different conditions, but its high pricing, even though it stands out in terms of design and has a totally new display technology, could mar its sales in the price-aggressive Indian market.
Key specs: LG G Flex
- Chipset: 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (MSM 8974)
- Display: 6-inch HD (1280 x 720), Curved P-OLED (Real RGB)
- Memory: 2GB LP DDR3 RAM / 32GB eMMc
- Camera: Rear 13.0MP / Front 2.1MP
- Battery: 3,500mAh (embedded)
- Operating System: Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2
- Size: 160.5 x 81.6 x 7.9 - 8.7mm
- Weight: 177g
- Connectivity: BT 4.0 / USB 3.0 compatible / WiFi (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac) / NFC
- Colour: Titan Silver
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