LG G Flex: Curved Display and Battery, Self-healing Back

News
By
published

LG unveils its curved offering in all its glory.

After weeks of rumors, LG has finally made its curved smartphone, the LG G Flex official. The curved smartphone, which appeared in a hands-on video at the end of last week, currently doesn't have a North American release date, though LG's press release goes into great detail on the specifications and other aspects of the device.

 

Featuring a curved 6-inch display, LG is hailing this as a milestone in smartphone evolution and is calling the G Flex the first smartphone to follow the curve of the face. Though Samsung announced its own Galaxy Round weeks ago, this is technically true, as the round features a side-to-side curve as opposed to the top-to-bottom curve seen on the G Flex.

LG says the screen in the G Flex is the world's largest plastic OLED display developed and mass produced specifically for phones. The POLED and OLED nape are built on plastic substrates as opposed to glass, which allows for the curved shape as well as durability.

Of course, it's not just the display that is uniquely shaped. To make the G Flex possible, LG had to make a curved battery, too. The battery inside the phone was designed using LG Chem's patented Stack & Folding technology, which the company says reduces physical stress on the curved battery and improves stability and performance.

Having heard so much about this phone, we thought nothing would surprise us when LG made an official announcement. However, it seems the G Flex does have one more interesting feature that didn't crop up in any of the rumors over the last few weeks. LG describes the phone's back cover as 'self healing' in that it has the ability to 'recover' from daily wear-and-tear scratches and stay looking newer longer. This is done using an elastic coating and is something we can't wait to see for ourselves.

Under the hood, you're looking at a 2.26 GHz Snapdragon 800 (quad-core) with Adreno 330 graphics, that 6-inch HD 1280 x 720 curved P-OLED display we talked about earlier, 2 GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage, a rear-facing 13-megapixel camera with a 2.1-megapixel camera up front, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, LTE, WiFi, and a 3,500 mAh curved battery. The whole show is running on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The LG Flex will be available in Korea starting in November through all three major local carriers. LG promises availability in additional markets and will be announced thereafter.

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Jane McEntegart
12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • pbrigido
    I can't wait to see how the self-healing portion works. If anything, it will lay the ground work for phones that don't need cases to protect them from damage.
    Reply
  • Cryio
    Snapdragon 800 on a 720p display? People, I present you the new fastest device on the planet.
    Reply
  • s3anister
    Self healing paint isn't a new thing, originally it was designed to be used on automobiles. Lack of adoption has been due to the paint's max lifespan (estimated) of 10 years; cool to see this make its way to phones, though.
    Reply
  • daekar
    So... why bother with the curve? I mean it's a nice technology demo, but what do you GET for going through the trouble? The self-healing material sounds far more relevant to me, because it directly addresses a negative aspect of the current smartphone experience. The curve, though... never have I ever thought, "Man, I wish the phone companies would divert resources so I could have a slightly curved phone instead of making current production more efficient to lower prices."
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    11810852 said:
    I can't wait to see how the self-healing portion works. If anything, it will lay the ground work for phones that don't need cases to protect them from damage.
    Most "self-healing" coatings have limited recovery capabilities so this won't replace your case if you are concerned about anything worse than your phone sharing a pocket with keys or change.

    If you apply enough pressure (ex.: by dropping the device on a hard and rough surface such as sidewalks), the coating can split around the impact point and form a hole. So you would probably still want a bumper to protect edges and corners.
    Reply
  • BranFlake5
    11811003 said:
    Self healing paint isn't a new thing, originally it was designed to be used on automobiles. Lack of adoption has been due to the paint's max lifespan (estimated) of 10 years; cool to see this make its way to phones, though.

    In this application though... Who keeps a phone for 10 years?
    Reply
  • anferney_t
    The self healing material may not be a coating. There are self healing composites being developed. From what I understand they are carbon fiber with polymer and catalysts inside. When a crack happens the polymer and catalyst reacts and "heal" the material.

    http://www.techvibes.com/blog/concordia-students-want-to-test-self-healing-material-in-space-2013-10-27

    http://www.encs.concordia.ca/news-and-events/entry.php?a=2013/08/materials-that-heal-themselves-and.php
    Reply
  • Solandri
    11811324 said:
    11810852 said:
    I can't wait to see how the self-healing portion works. If anything, it will lay the ground work for phones that don't need cases to protect them from damage.
    Most "self-healing" coatings have limited recovery capabilities so this won't replace your case if you are concerned about anything worse than your phone sharing a pocket with keys or change.
    The old Thinkpads had a rubberized self-healing coating on the lid. I didn't learn about it until my Thinkpad was 2 years old and the lid was covered with scratches. After rubbing it for a half hour, the scratches were almost all gone. One really deep scratch was still slightly visible - that one took a couple months of occasional rubbing before it disappeared. I was impressed

    11811324 said:
    If you apply enough pressure (ex.: by dropping the device on a hard and rough surface such as sidewalks), the coating can split around the impact point and form a hole. So you would probably still want a bumper to protect edges and corners.
    The coating wore off one of the corners by the time the laptop was 4 years old. Otherwise, I'd say its durability is just fine for something as lightweight as a phone. I dropped the Thinkpad about a dozen times in 4 years, mostly onto non-carpeted floors. Sometimes it picked up scratches from the fall, but 15 seconds of rubbing and it was good as new. I never saw anything like a crack or split.

    I was disappointed they stopped using it (at least I think they did - the last couple Thinkpads I've bought haven't had it). Its texture was really grippy too, made the laptop easy to carry by hand.
    Reply
  • thecouchguy
    Now if someone could just make me a 4k 30 inch curved, colour acurate, high refresh rate, gsync monitor for all my gaming and photo editing needs, I'll be a happy man. Sorry to go off topic, great specs and sexy design. I'll hold one, before I make final judgment.
    Reply
  • rwinches
    Most users carry their phone in their back pants pocket so the curve makes sense for them. The curve is great for videos.
    I've read some pretty lame comments about inputting when on a desk or table, really? I never type/text on my phone like that, ever.
    This looks to be a great phone.
    Reply