First look at the curved, powerful LG G Flex 2

Scorpus

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A brand new smartphone landed on my desk today: the LG G Flex 2. The flagship, curved handset from LG was launched at CES 2015, includes a Snapdragon 810 SoC under the hood, and features a 5.5-inch curved P-OLED display with a resolution of 1080p. Check out my first impressions of the device in the video above, and look out for a full review in the coming weeks.

When LG’s first G Flex smartphone came out, it was more or less a public experiment with its self-healing capabilities and curved display. The G Flex 2 follows up with a much improved screen, bumped specs, expandable storage and borrowing from the LG G3, the 13-megapixel camera includes laser auto focus and OIS+ as well as a dual-LED flash. The self-healing back cover has returned albeit with some improvements. Where it used to take about three minutes to heal on the original, the G Flex 2 can pull off the same feat in around 10 seconds at room temperature.

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I think to some extent Smartphone SOCs have hit the point where speed bumps and extra cores are mostly resulting in improvements in synthetic benchmarks and niche applications. Hence why we're seeing more and more gimicky edge/curve/eInk second screen/Larger display/Higher Resolution type devices popping up as performance is no longer a strong differentiator between devices.
 
I think to some extent Smartphone SOCs have hit the point where speed bumps and extra cores are mostly resulting in improvements in synthetic benchmarks and niche applications. Hence why we're seeing more and more gimicky edge/curve/eInk second screen/Larger display/Higher Resolution type devices popping up as performance is no longer a strong differentiator between devices.

Something I discovered about 9 months ago.
I was "waiting" like everyone else for the invite from OnePlus to get one of their so called flagship killers,
and a couple people on their user forum section were talking about some of the mid spec devices from China. I looked up the specs and said to myself, no way, that thing will be slow. Couple people got them, said how good they were, then a few more, so I thought what the heck...I can always send it back to Amazon if I don't like it. About an hour out of the box, the light bulb went on. You DON'T need a super duper processor, 2k/4k screen to have a good user experience with devices these days. Yes, some of the "off brand" stuff out there is JUNK, but if you find a good one, that has optimized the SOC with the screen & the OS, and in my case a HUGE battery (Huawei Mate2), for 300 (U.S.) dollars, you soon find out that a bump in specs, tighter screen resolution, more gimmicks is just a way for companies to get you to continue to cycle your phone every year.
 
I think to some extent Smartphone SOCs have hit the point where speed bumps and extra cores are mostly resulting in improvements in synthetic benchmarks and niche applications. Hence why we're seeing more and more gimicky edge/curve/eInk second screen/Larger display/Higher Resolution type devices popping up as performance is no longer a strong differentiator between devices.

Something I discovered about 9 months ago.
I was "waiting" like everyone else for the invite from OnePlus to get one of their so called flagship killers,
and a couple people on their user forum section were talking about some of the mid spec devices from China. I looked up the specs and said to myself, no way, that thing will be slow. Couple people got them, said how good they were, then a few more, so I thought what the heck...I can always send it back to Amazon if I don't like it. About an hour out of the box, the light bulb went on. You DON'T need a super duper processor, 2k/4k screen to have a good user experience with devices these days. Yes, some of the "off brand" stuff out there is JUNK, but if you find a good one, that has optimized the SOC with the screen & the OS, and in my case a HUGE battery (Huawei Mate2), for 300 (U.S.) dollars, you soon find out that a bump in specs, tighter screen resolution, more gimmicks is just a way for companies to get you to continue to cycle your phone every year.

I realized this with the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 chips inside Windows Phone 7's when everyone else was on dual core. Those things were FAST! It's all about getting the hardware and software working together instead of against. Apple phones are the other great example.

It's too bad it's all about selling you something after the initial purchase by manufacturer and carrier bloat coming pre-installed, the number of apps you have on offer, and thinking grander specs alone make a better phone.

The problem imo is with Android being open source and how it's too easily accessible to anyone with an idea. Getting every phone on the latest version of the operating system helps, but that has proven to only solve part of the problem.

I love my Note II and will probably get Android again, because I can root it and customize the hell out of it, but that doesn't solve the problem as a whole. Open source software is great if done correctly, but if it's not it can also bite you in the butt.
 
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The problem imo is with Android being open source and how it's too easily accessible to anyone with an idea. Getting every phone on the latest version of the operating system helps, but that has proven to only solve part of the problem.

I love my Note II and will probably get Android again, because I can root it and customize the hell out of it, but that doesn't solve the problem as a whole. Open source software is great if done correctly, but if it's not it can also bite you in the butt.
The widespread fragmentation of the Android OS is brutal, and arguably one of the bigger problems it faces.
 
The widespread fragmentation of the Android OS is brutal, and arguably one of the bigger problems it faces.

I admit it is getting better. I was surprised my Note II got updated to 4.4.2 a few months ago with rumours of it getting Lollipop in the future.
 
I think to some extent Smartphone SOCs have hit the point where speed bumps and extra cores are mostly resulting in improvements in synthetic benchmarks and niche applications. Hence why we're seeing more and more gimicky edge/curve/eInk second screen/Larger display/Higher Resolution type devices popping up as performance is no longer a strong differentiator between devices.

you soon find out that a bump in specs, tighter screen resolution, more gimmicks is just a way for companies to get you to continue to cycle your phone every year.

They still have to convince people that the new phone is much better than what they have. I'm still using an HTC M7, I never got an M8, because my phone works fine. Look at the generations of phones that have been 'good enough' - I would say they started in 2013 with the HTC M7, Samsung S4, LG G2 and iPhone5. (I think those were all 2013 phones.) They all sold better than the ones that game out the following year. (M8, S5, G3 and 5S). Now look at what the iPhone 6 just did... it sold great (being bigger helped), but Samsung just announced record pre-orders for the S6, LG has some cool looking stuff, and we'll have to wait and see on the M9.
I expect this pattern to continue - the 2016 phones won't sell as well as the 2015 or 2017 phones.

And even if the upgrades are minor, batteries wear out after 18-24 months and most phones don't have replaceable batteries. that sort of forces an upgrade. My phone is 21 months old and needs to charge often. It actually beeps 'low battery' at 14% and then shuts off in two seconds.
 
Meeh, not so powerful because of the overheating issue caused by the SnapDragon 810 chip. With thermal throttling and severe lag, LG is gonna have a helluva time selling this phone. Just read an article saying that they will need to reprice this phone at $399 NOW if they wish to compete with the S6 and M9.
 
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