The LG G Flex 2 Gets Elevated To Elite Status

Today at CES 2015, LG Electronics announced the G Flex 2, the successor to the unique, curved and flexible G Flex, whose premise is to match the natural curve of your hand and face for a more comfortable experience. Unfortunately for the original G Flex, the decision to use a 6-inch screen resulted in an unwieldy size and negated its primary design goal. Apparently, LG has been listening to customer feedback, however, because the screen size for the G Flex 2 is reduced to 5.5-inches, making it far more manageable. The smaller Plastic OLED (POLED) screen also gets a resolution boost from 720p to 1080p.

Beyond the smaller, improved screen, the G Flex 2 received several other improvements, many of them acquired from its cousin, the LG G3. The most noticeable carryover is the use of contrasting metallic textures applied to the plastic back, and rear mounted power and volume buttons. The dual-LED flash and laser emitter, required for the laser autofocus (also inherited from the G3) are symmetrically arranged around the 13 MP rear camera, now with OIS+. With all the camera features shared with the G3, it's likely the G Flex 2 also uses the same sensor.

Nestled between the display and the curved, fast charging 3000 mAh battery sits Qualcomm's 64-bit Snapdragon 810 SoC with four lower-power ARM A53 CPU cores and four higher-performance A57 cores. The G Flex 2 also includes an updated Adreno 430 GPU and interfaces with 2 GB of LPDDR4 memory with 25.6 GB/s of bandwidth. There are also options for either 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage, which is expandable via a microSD slot.

The Snapdragon SoC also provides all the latest connectivity options, including Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, and Cat 9 LTE.

One of the G Flex's unique features is the self-healing plastic back. Flex fans will be happy to know that this capability reappears on the Flex 2; scratches now vanish after a mere ten seconds instead of several minutes at room temperature. The screen glass is also 20 percent more durable thanks to a special DuraGuard coating developed by LG.

The G Flex 2 weighs 152g, only slightly more than the G3, and overall dimensions are 149.1 x 75.3 x (7.1-9.4) mm. The back and front of the phone have different radius curves, as do the sides and top-to-bottom edges. It's a very sleek looking phone in Platinum Silver and instantly recognizable, even more so in the optional Flamenco Red color (pictured above).

As a newly announced device, it's only fitting that it runs the latest version of Android, Lollipop. Additional software features include:

• Knock On -- which allows you to turn the screen on and off simply by tapping it;
• Gesture View -- which makes it easy to review that last photo;
• Gesture Shot -- which activates the front-facing camera's shutter with a hand gesture;
• Glance View -- for quickly displaying the time and notifications when the screen is locked.

While Korea will get the G Flex 2 by the end of January, additional markets will have to wait a bit longer. How much longer, LG didn't say, nor did they announce pricing for this new flexible phone.

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