This isn’t normally the way I like to approach a review. (Was that an “Uh oh” I just heard?) I say that because this review of the LG G Flex 2 is going to be short and sweet and we’re just going to get it out of the way, so that we can move onto the HTC One M9 and the Galaxy S6. This phone, in my week or so with it, hasn’t done anything to get me excited and it certainly hasn’t pushed me anywhere close to recommending that anyone go out and buy it. That sounds harsh, but that’s the reality I am dealing with here.
The G Flex 2 was supposed to be…shit, I don’t even know what it is or was supposed to be. Was it supposed to distract us from the M9 and Galaxy S6 until LG could get the G4 ready? Was it another chance to introduce us to curved displays, so that the G4 or some other ultra-premium LG device could curve all the things without confusing us? I don’t know. What I do know is that this phone hasn’t told me why I need a curved phone, its performance is the worst I have seen on an Android phone in three or four years, and it’s not premium enough to even be considered with what we know is on the horizon from Samsung. This isn’t the worst phone ever made by any means, it just is not good enough to compete with today’s top of the line phones.
This is my LG G Flex 2 review, and we are keeping it short.
The Good
Specs
LG crammed in a whole bunch of really nice things into the G Flex 2, all of which are fitted with a bunch of fun keywords. This phone features a 5.5-inch curved P-OLED (“P” for plastic) display with a 1080p resolution, 3,000mAh battery, 13MP camera with Laser Auto Focus and OIS+, 4G LTE radio, Snapdragon 810 64-bit processor, 32GB of storage (with microSD expansion), and Android 5.0 Lollipop.
That all sounds great on paper. I’ll say that again – that all sounds great on paper.
Display
The P-OLED display on the G Flex 2 isn’t bad at all. In fact, I am currently leaning towards it being good for the most part, outside of one little issue that I’ll touch on in a minute. It gets plenty bright, has excellent viewing angles, shows colors with punch that aren’t necessarily overdone, and has a high enough resolution this time around that the pixel density is plenty high. LG included three screen modes of Standard, Vivid, and Natural, that show you their differences on the fly, so that you can decide if you want more muted colors or those extra vibrant, punchy tones typically associated with an OLED display. It also weighs in at 5.5-inches, giving you an immersive video playback or gaming experience, but thanks to its curve, doesn’t feel that big in hand when you are using it. I tend to run really vibrant wallpapers on my phones and so, they all look really great on this phone.
My only complaint so far has been its brightness level at its lowest setting. If you are the type who uses your phone in bed at night or in the morning and also doesn’t want to light up the entire room while doing so or burn your eyes out, this will be an issue. The lowest brightness setting is so bright, that I had to stop using the phone in any sort of dark situation (putting my son to bed, checking emails in bed in the morning, etc.). You could potentially install an app that would allow you to drop the brightness levels lower.
Somewhere-in-the-Middle
Curve
I’ll give LG this – the G Flex 2 looks cool. That banana shape is great for photo shoots. Outside of that, they have yet to convince me why I need a phone that is shaped this way. It contours to my face during calls? Who makes calls anymore? It hugs my leg when in my pocket? Well, the phone is butt-shaped, not leg-shaped, so that’s not true. The video experience is similar to that of a curved TV? Well, I guess, except that I have no need for a curved TV because it makes absolutely zero sense from a viewing perspective. So what’s the point? Like the original G Flex, this is LG’s chance to show off their Plastic-OLED technology and try to sell the world on why they need it in their lives. Again, I’m not sure they have done that at all.
The only reasons I can see that make a curved screen beneficial are that it allows for a bigger display to feel less big, and it snuggles nicely into your hand. That’s about it.
Build, Design, Feel
As unapologetically plastic as the G Flex 2 may be, it feels mostly nice in hand. Well, sort of. There is a decent amount of weight to it, but it’s not exactly heavy, which means it doesn’t feel cheap. The roundness to both its body and edges allows it to lay nicely in your palm. The back is a pretty gross, glossy plastic, but it does self heal from minor scratches and isn’t exactly as big of a fingerprint magnet as you might think. The button placement on the back for power and volume adjustment is LG’s trademark, and I’d say that it neither bothers me nor gets me excited. It is what it is. It works.
All of my thoughts towards the “feel” of this phone may change shortly when HTC and Samsung release their new phones. Actually, my feelings are starting to change as I type this. LG is still using plastics on plastics on plastics. They are one of the last to do so, and that’s not really OK. That’s not to say that phones need to be made of pure metal. I actually don’t really like the way the HTC One series feels more often than not, but when you use nothing but plastic that is glossed up, you lose any ability to convince me that you are premium. When you buy a phone and are investing in it for a couple of years, you want to go in knowing that you spent your money well. When everyone else is using premium materials like metal and leather and wood, LG has a tough sell here.
Battery Life
My history with phones barely lasting throughout a day is slowly becoming well-documented with each passing review, so if a phone can get me into the late evening, I’d consider that to be a success. The G Flex 2 comes close to getting me there on its 3,000mAh of juice without needing a charger at any point. For me, that means 12-14 hours of use with 2-3 hours of screen on time. I should also point out that I left WiFi off almost the entire time that I reviewed this phone because with WiFi on, it failed to properly sync any of my important apps (more on that later). So to see it get 12-14 hours of use is actually quite solid. I did expect a bit more from a battery this size, but I’ll take a full day.
Camera
The 13MP camera on the G Flex 2 is capable. I think that’s the best way of phrasing it. In good light, with its Laser Auto Focus, it does just fine. In low-light, or indoors, it’s average at best. It won’t embarrass you if you need to share some photos, many of which will be just fine for sharing on Instagram or Facebook. This isn’t Galaxy Note 4 level camera work, but for the most part, it’ll get the job done when you need it to.
Thanks to a minimal approach to camera software, snapping pictures with the G Flex 2 is quite easy. You can quickly capture with a tap-to-shoot mode that leaves the screen open for nothing but picture taking, or you can step it up a notch and bring in your typical shutter button, with options for flash, mode switching, and a couple of other settings. There aren’t full manual settings here, though, so if you want that advanced camera experience, you’ll have to download a third party app.
Over the last couple of weeks, during testing, I can’t say that I was ever in a situation to shoot a bunch of impressive photos. I took plenty here and there of my son, some of food or beers, and then a handful around my house. At no time did I say, “Wow, this camera is blowing my mind!” But at no time did say, “Wow, this camera is awful!” either. Again, it’s plenty capable for most situations.
Full resolution: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
The Not-so-Good
Performance, Software, and the Reason This Phone is Bad
Now that you have read about all of the decent pieces of the G Flex 2, it’s time to dive into why this is a phone I couldn’t recommend to anyone, at least in its current state. But before we get into that, understand how I approached this phone. I set it up just like I would a personal phone, with a 3rd party launcher, all of my own apps, an icon pack, a lock screen alternative, apps syncing in the background, my own AT&T SIM, etc. You see, I know LG’s software and skin, which means I know how bad they almost always are, so I tried to make this phone as personal as possible to hopefully get the most out of it and to see if it could be a phone I would be interested in buying. Even with all of the personal tweaks I made, it just never got there. There are far too many issues here.
Lollipop and notifications
The phone ships with Android 5.0.1 Lollipop. Unfortunately, LG did little to adopt Google’s Material Design style along with Lollipop, so their software essentially just looks like an older LG skin that happens to run the newest version of Android. They didn’t even bother to include many of Google’s new Lollipop features, like new notification handling, adaptive brightness, or the new quick settings area – they instead managed to break some them. And this is where things start to go south for me.
In Lollipop, Google introduced notifications to the lock screen that can be interacted with. LG decided they weren’t ready for that, so not only can you not interact with notifications on the lock screen, but you can’t expand them either, which essentially makes a notification on your lock screen a complete waste. It gets worse when you swipe down your notification shade to hopefully find a more robust notification experience, only to realize that they gimped this area as well with an inconsistent experience on notification expansion and interaction. This is a major pain point that can’t be overlooked. Notifications act as the hub for how you interact with your phone and get things done. If that experience is completely broken, you become instantly less efficient when using your phone.
Performance is unbelievably terrible
I could potentially overlook some of the missing Lollipop features and broken system tools (that’s a lie, I probably couldn’t), but the level of jank and lag in this phone is something you just can’t avoid. I don’t know if LG had to throttle the hell out of the Snapdragon 810 to keep it from melting all of this plastic and so it just can’t keep up, or if Lollipop’s memory leak is to blame, but what I do know is that this phone is the worst performing phone I have used in probably four years. It stutters while swiping between screens. It also needs to be rebooted multiple times per day to function properly. It gets so bad some times that it can’t even load websites properly in Chrome without completely freezing up. I can’t even tell you the number of times that I got so frustrated that I went from hammering on back, home, and app switcher buttons to try to kill current tasks, to being moments away from throwing the phone against a wall. It simply cannot be understated how terrible this phone is to try to complete anything on.
LG’s software suite adds little
LG also includes their suite of add-ons, like QuickMemo+, which isn’t really any good without something like the S Pen you get with the Galaxy Note 4. They have a multi-window functionality built-in, but it’s pretty bare bones and works with roughly 11 apps, limiting its usefulness. I like their KnockOn and KnockCode lock screen features for the most part, but found that I needed to install AcDisplay to give me an experience similar to Motorola’s Moto Display. Speaking of that experience, LG included a lock screen peak functionality where you can pull down from the top of the display to see a sunrise-like view of the clock and if you have any notifications. Unfortunately, the feature is useless if you do actually have notifications to interact with, partly because of my previous gripes about LG’s handling of them, but also because you can’t do anything within that peak feature other than peak at info.
WiFi…
As I mentioned earlier, I had major issues with WiFi on this phone and ended up just turning it off in order to get the phone to function properly. Mailbox failed to sync consistently with WiFi on and connected, Hangouts messages would often never show up or notify me minutes later from other devices, and I almost always felt as if another important app was going to stop sending me the information I needed. An unreliable WiFi connection is completely unacceptable, especially in a day filled with small data buckets.
So here is the deal – LG can fix all of this stuff. At least they should be able to. This is all software-related and could be wiped clean with a massive update. Just keep in mind that LG is one of the worst when it comes to updating their phones, so should you buy the G Flex 2, it could be months and months before any of this stuff is finished annoying you.
Availability
The G Flex 2 is currently available at Sprint. That’s it. It will be available at AT&T and US Cellular at some point, but by the time it arrives at each, you will more than likely be able to buy the HTC One M9 or one of the Galaxy S6 variants instead. And trust me, you will buy those over this phone if it stays in this kind of shape going forward. Verizon and T-Mobile wanted nothing to do with this phone, probably because like me, they don’t understand why it exists.
Other Notes
- Rear speaker: I thought that rear speakers were going extinct in 2015, but LG went ahead and brought them back for another year. Thankfully, the speaker in the G Flex 2 is quite good. It gets plenty loud and produces perfectly acceptable audio. This isn’t BoomSound-level audio, but it’ll do the trick.
- Not waterproof: This phone isn’t waterproof. That doesn’t bother me, as I stay far away from water at all times, but it could be a deal breaker for some.
- Has a form of quick charging: The LG G Flex 2 is supposed to support Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 technology, a technology we absolutely love. LG claims that it can only be quick charged with the charger that comes in the box, though, which is odd. However, I was able to get some pretty quick charges while using a 3rd party Quick Charge 2.0 adapter.
- Headphone jack on the bottom: Your phone may be a janky piece of hot mess, LG, but that headphone jack on the bottom is a thing of beauty.
Gallery
Video
Unboxing
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The Verdict
If it wasn’t already obvious, then I guess I’ll say it again – I won’t be recommending that anyone go out and buy the LG G Flex 2. There is certainly potential here, but until LG proves that it can optimize software or not ruin some of the best features of Android by enforcing its own skin, then you would be better served looking elsewhere. This was a decent second attempt at trying to convince the world that it needs a curve in its life, but it failed miserably in the area that matters most – software.
I could not agree less with review, being myself owner of one. And for sure I’m not considering ever to replace my LG with “something” like Samsung or iPhone. 🙂 About “their software essentially just looks like an older LG skin” I just LOVE that. About curved shape, buttons on back, … this are now new standards for me for future phones. My next phone will for sure be LG Flex 3.
I have however few complains that are compatible with findings in review, even when setting display to lowest it is still too bright. And would like to have more brightness on very sunny day. But this are minor annoyances.
what is the damn wall paper Kellex !!??
Love that you guys are still using Minima 🙂
That’s all fine and dandy but what I want to know is how you really feel.
Stop this crap about Premium materials please…most prefer SD cards and replaceable battery instead of premium metal
I hope the G4 is a lot better than this. I was hoping to make it my next upgrade.
I’d bet money that it’ll be a turd.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they have the processor throttle back just like the G Flex 2. Also, I’ve read that the G3 which was a good phone turned to crap after it got Lollipop. I’ll definitely wait for in depth reviews.
Dude, he said rear speaker is going extinctinct and Lg brought it back as if its an insult. When did Samsung use front speakers? Fuk this Review guy. G2/G3 and this camera has been top camera because of ois and Samsung just copied it with note 4 and all of a sudden its only average? Gtfo. Your short honest review is garbage.
Since when has Droid Life not bitched about rear speakers? The Note 4 is a copy of the G2/G3 camera? Do you even know how Android smartphone cameras work? They’re all Sony sensors in the flagships and it’s really about how many software licensing agreements they get with the top camera companies to optimize their image processing, that’s why Samsung cameras have been rated higher than other Android phone cameras for YEARS now. This is nothing new and certainly nothing unique to this review.
wow , i wasted my time clicking on the title , it was all written right in the main page XD .
good job man
Which icon pack have you used on your screenshots? That looks f*cking good!
Wallpaper please? Looks awesome!
Congratulations lg! Two pieces of garbage in a row, the g3, now this.
I love my LG Flex even with 4.4.2. My LG G2 has only one big problem after update to 5.0.1, the battery life. What I mostly like, is the UI after the update 🙂
I’d really love for people, especially those doing reviews, to understand that none of these phones are waterPROOF. The maximum submersion IP level of 8 is NOT waterproof.
And thats why i will not buy LG.
Never!
Im Glad I’m still on 4.4.2 if rumors are right ,plus they’ll take all the bad from this and fix the g4,so maybe that’ll be the out come,u notice Verizon doesn’t have this,the g4 will be the g4 and gflex2 fixed all in one,we hope.
Great, HONEST review!! Kudos for telling it like it is and not sugar-coating the review.
The SnapDragon 810, which they should’ve named SnapDinosaur, is hideous here. With the 810 overheating and causing thermal throttling and SEVERE lag, the G Flex 2 is simply a DUD! There is no real way for LG to fix this, short of swapping out the processor (and the screen, please, the graininess is unacceptable for a 2015 phone). LG “could” try to do a software optimization, but…I wouldn’t hold my breath. LG best lower the price on this phone, below $400, if they want to entice niche buyers; otherwise, they will be sitting on mounds of stock by the time summer rolls around. Nice try, LG, better luck next time.
I keep thinking, reviewer liked M9 and S6 so much that it was bothering him to use this phone. but I really liked honest review 🙂 Next I want to hear he be bashing M9 for its worst camera 😉 and heat issues. but do not know why I’m certain he won’t be bashing Sense 7 or performance in real world usage. but what about battery. looking forward to read M9 review. what about S6. well I guess its the best android phone as far as I’ve heard. Great Camera, Decent Battery, Awesome Display, Great real world performance. It seems S6 do not lack much(except Memory card slot and removable battery). M9 review will be more interesting then S6.
-1 Ismail
You can’t have it both ways, man. First you say you like the honest review, then you attack the reviewer by saying he’s a ‘basher’ for being honest. Nope, you can praise someone then denigrate them for the same thing at the same time.
probably choice of wrong word ‘bashing’, I meant would be hearing hard realties 😉 about M9 too
So many comments that its hard to know if someone else already mentioned, but… the whole software fail thing? yeah, the G3 has it too. 4.4(.2) was great, and as many know, DL loved the phone. The 5.0 update brought pain, oh so much pain, and I dislike LG more and more each day because of it. Broken Notifications being the #1 thing, and completely unforgivable.
Man, I’d hate to see the long version of this review! Also, I suspect that in six months when Verizon launches the phone it’ll be big news around here. I can see the headline now: “LG G Flex 2 launches on Verizon running Android KitKat 4.4.2 with big, dumb Verizon 4G LTE logo on the back–phone of the year!” Comments are then filled with rampant excitement over their precious Verizon making everything better.
Umm….ok?
The phone is LOL.
I appreciate the honesty in the review.
I own the gflex 2 and have had extremely good luck with it the screen is great the performance is top notch and it does fantastic for me also i get the strongest reception signal of any phone ive ever tried and ive had all of the top tier phones made US wise atleast and i rank this as my 2nd favorite behind the g2 as my number 1 favorite yes there are a few glitches but thats the beauty of software updates because its not the hardware on this phone that has its funny moments its the sosoftware. Need i bring up ios8 when it first dropped! This phone is deffinitly reccomendable and im not bieng brand loyal because ive had them all. But i can honestly say that this phone is a winner in my book and i think LG has a winner on thier hands with this one. I encourage people to atleast go out and try it before you make an assumption because i am happy i didnt listen to all the reviewers and got one because no phone ever has a perfect review but i can say this form your own opinion instead of bieng a sheep and following others!!
Can this phone be worse than the HTC Evo 3D, HTC Thunderbult, and the Droid Bionic O_o ? I never thought I’d see that day come again @kellex:disqus.
Whoa. So is lollipop this bad on the G3 too then?
Wallpaper on your home screen? I love it. Apologies if somebody has asked already.
Man, I’ve been hoping LG would be at the head of the mobile pack.. but I feel like they haven’t improved much. In terms of design, the G2 was (and still is) the absolute best combination of size and… screen size, available. The G2 running the G3 software is a dream, root allows you to run literally any apps in dual window, making it very useful (as opposed to the 11 standard lock) and the floating transparent windows are awesome for watching kpop videos and live performances slyly on the bus while reading.. heh. Battery is absolute beast, but I’m kind of surprised LG hasn’t been able to fit a 3500mAh into something, even if it’s sealed. My ideal phone would be the G4 with a 5.3′ screen, footprint same as the G2, making it the same size as the iPhone 5 (or a mm bigger) with a somehow bigger (3000-3500mAh) sealed battery, but also an sd card slot on the side. I don’t really mind IPS vs OLED, as long as battery life is good (and none of this only 1 day with 3-4 hours screen on time.. I’m talking 45-50 hours with 6-8 hours screen on time like my G2 at it’s best), and then they need to optimize their damn software. The G3 software was great, but I don’t like their lollipop update. notifications look ugly, aside from whatever functional issues they have.. I’m going to stick it on 4.4.4 until I see a good reason to upgrade. And I don’t need the strongest chip, I need the most efficient, most practical chip.
Over at the Sprint forums most are not having heat issues. Some are though, but having a actually U.S. version vs the Korean version seems to make a difference
G3 running LP with some slight beoating runs like BUTTER…QHD screen resolution and all. Long as the g4 has removable battery and sdcard slot, its a done deal.
Kellen, maybe your WiFi chip was the issue and you had a dud unit?? I hope you can be proven wrong but other reviewers site slower performance as well. Someone mentioned a software fix but who wants to wait around for that considering the current and upcoming alternatives?
That’s really too bad to hear, considering I’ve told many people to hold off upgrading to the Sammy GS6 until LG had their next G4 offering. I hope the flex 2 isn’t an indication of how the G4 will perform. If so, this is going to drop LG a peg or two. I have higher expectations for the next G4 considering how awesome the g3 turned out. LG, I hope you’re paying close attention to these reviews.
I have a G3. I very much like this phone. Certainly nothing about it bothers me so much that I want to throw it against the wall. That being said, I have no illusions that I am holding the peak of what LG could bring to the table if it wants to. From the G2 to this phone, it is certainly on the right track but the distraction that is the Flex 2 has me worried LG has lost what mojo it was starting to build up.
The G4 must be remarkable if LG wants any chance of continuing its forward momentum. And my God is SwiftKey on this phone amazing 🙂
What widget is that on the Homescreen?
I’ve seen TL;DR used a lot around here. What does it actually mean ? I’m thinking it means too long;didn’t read but I am not sure.
you are right, TL;DR = too long didn’t read
So pretty much, the same has every other reviewer… Damn LG, you better not f up the lg g4 like you did the g flex
If they end up going for the 810, it’ll have the same problems.
It blows my mind that there is no quality control before manufacturing thousands of the same device. The fact that more than one manufacturer is having identical issues with the chip is something else that is also mind blowing!
Lets hope they went with a different chip set
Thanks for helping me avoid this phone and reconfirming my decision in buying a OnePlus One
🙁 I feel like I’m the only one that makes calls now @kellex:disqus lol.
Anyone know where I can get that wallpaper? Wife saw it and absolutely wants it….
Ugh… Maybe this phone is for LG what the Note 4 Edge was for Samsung; a test device for what they want to do with the G4. The Note Edge ended up giving us the S6 Edge, maybe the G4 will be some new hotness that’s makes good on the best parts of the Flex 2.
Oh please gods of mobile let this be so.
I just hope the performance issues aren’t related to severe underclocking of the processor. I know the M9 was “featured” in that benchmark video with the IR camera, but hopefully that’s due to pre-release software. I don’t really have any experience with LG phones, so I don’t really know how they perform in terms of smoothness and ease of use.
This gives me some relief! I have Sprint and was just about to get it on a lease. I guess I’ll just stick with my Moto X (1st Gen) while I wait for a Lollipop build.
Does 60FPS look fake to ANYONE except me?
What’s with the “uh oh” thing? Did I miss something?
but seriously..who makes calls? Everyone! Thats what phones are for primarily. No one uses twiter or email if you can make a call faster
Sure, everyone makes calls. I used 30 minutes of my 400 minute bucket last month. But, I used my phone for hours at a time most every day last month, doing all the other things that our phones can do. We really need to change the name of these devices to Nano-computer, or something more catchy, because many people primarily use their phone to do other things than just make calls. I know. I will call mine George, and I will love him and pet him and take care of him.
To be honest, I would throw all these functions out if I could get free calls worldwide in a compact package. When I read FLEX I was hoping this phone would bend into a smaller phone like we had before smartphones. You know, the ones that you woudnt break or care about as much as you do now? The ones you could carry in your pocket…It would be nice for it to change into a tablet when you wanna post stuff on insta or check email, but if I were to choose, I think no one needs their email on the fly and apps arent really important either. You can use a laptop for that.
What a letdown. Wallpaper is dope, though.
Yes where can we get it please?
” but what I do know is that this phone is the worst performing phone I have used in probably four years ”
WOW! Definitely not considering this phone any more! I usually agree with your opinion on most things, so I believe that comment. Nice looking phone too, so sad.
OTOH, I LOVE my G2 running CM12, love it!
Are you using JPC’s alpha build right now?
No, I’m using Rashed97 build. I believe it was the first one out months ago.
It can’t be worse than the HTC Thunderbolt… can it?
watch pocketnow’s review of the lg g flex 2…the performance is HORRIBLE…worse than my dad’s s2
What doesn’t make any sense is that the G3, a phone not even a year old from LG, running the same 5.0.1 runs just fine.
I am unrooted, using Nova Launcher Beta and Zooper Widgets and things are what I would say are 95-97% fluid. Occasionally it hiccups but nothing that gets in the way of usability.
I’m running stock 5.0.2 (39A update) on my Verizon G2, and it’s pretty piss-poor = Regretting that, and I might restore back to KitKat. Such poor battery life (although the battery life isn’t too good on KitKat either, it is truly just showing it’s age at this point), and massive memory leaks. It gets frustratingly slow…
i have a G3 on 5.0.1 (23B) and it has no lag, wifi issues, or trouble opening pages in chrome.
could be LG trying to port to 64-bit CPU janked things up a bit cause, in theory, Flex has a more powerful CPU . . . oh wait, it’s the cr@p-tastic 810
Yeah this review is BS and really makes me never click on another droid life article again.
I have it and I think reviewer was on something strong when doing review. This review is total BS. As for me … this is one of best phones ever and usually I spend to much money on phones replacing them usually every year or two. And it is not coincidence LG is increasing and Samsung decreasing sell numbers.
HTC – 3d failed
LG – curved failed
gimmicks don’t sell phones
Phones with the Snapdragon 810 are cursed I tell you!
We need an old priest, and a young priest….
Wallpaper please
I really like the brutal honesty of this review. Gives me a reassuring feeling that you will call it as you see it, rather than being an apologist for Oems, like some other sites seem to be.
What I don’t get though, is that the camera is said to be ported from the LG G3, which many still claim to be one of the best Android cameras out there. The UI is also almost identical to the 5.0 update for the G3. It seems that many points were taken from this phone when the G3 was praised.
The G3 was praised when running 4.4.2. The G3 has really only just got 5.0, and believe me, it’s exactly as described here. Broken notifications, lag, failing sync, daily restarts, page load fails – everything mentioned here is 100% applicable to my (completely stock) G3 on Lollipop.
Maybe, but the camera on the G3 is straight beast mode. Does this phone have the same camera as the G3 or not? Because if it does, I don’t see how it could be average.
It’s not. This review guy is lying his ass off cause he’s a Samsung fan.
➫➫➫➫➫➫➫➫➫➫ Make over 13k/M0NTH@af31:
Going Here you Can
Find Out,,,
►►► http://WorkOnlineUSA.com/profitable1/2015…
It’s also a biased review against LG and inaccurate.
Except I feel that Samsung and Moto always get a break on their flaws….kind of swept under the rug, while LG does not seem to get much credit. At least LG is the only OEM left that’s trying to give consumers what they want (like SD cards & removable batteries). Other OEMs, including Google Nexus, are giving devices how they want them.
I said it back in the post about the G4 leak and I’ll say it again here … LG’s software is absolutely horrible and to add insult to injury, they’re some of the slowest to update their devices (if they ever do). This is a beautiful piece of hardware and I’m sure the G4 will be too, but they will both be absolutely ruined by LG’s poorly designed software. I wasn’t the least bit surprised when I read this article.
Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder, because this is far from a beautiful piece of hardware.
It looks sleek. The front is sexy, the back is nice, the red one is soooooo beautiful. Inside it though, an ugly devil.
Thought you were describing a woman at first!
lol you may have a point there … it’s not bad though. I mean, nearly all smartphones are 5″ – 5.7″ rectangular screens with small bezel at this point (except HTC of course, the master of bezel) and this achieves this like any other, but of course the ugly software just makes it hideous completely. Like trying to date a 7 whose IQ matches her rating.
Hey Kellen, when mentioning what you do when you set up your phones, you mentioned alternative lock screen…what do you use??
Withs phones that don’t have Moto Display, I’ve been using AcDisplay to emulate the experience.
Awesome thanks. Giving it a shot.
I notice it doesn’t have the “breath” effect with notifications. Other than that seems pretty nice. It lit up when I pulled my phone out of my pocket so we’ll see how it does with battery life.
Maybe the US version with Sprint has better software?
I have a Turbo, and before that the Maxx. Does the AcDisplay recreate the Moto Display better than Lollipops lockscreen notifications? I thought that was one of the things that Android took from the Moto boys and cooked into the new OS.
I think I see the problem here. You used an icon pack instead of a “Hot” icon pack.
That’s it! Dammit.
Your icons weren’t flat enough, obvi!
Wow. This phone sounds horrible. Other Android websites didn’t like the G Flex 2 either.
good job LG for preserving all the G3 issues, I am sure you will do the same for G4.
Name some? I’m looking forward to your answer.
terrible Performance, poor software, thermal throttling…
Interesting. Because a lot of sites including Droid Life loved the G3. As did I. And suffered none of that.
i like my orig moto x over my g3 if that says anything lol
It doesn’t. Moto X makes me LOL 🙂
I’ve gone through 3 phones and the all heated up and slowed down. Its fact. Just deal with it. Hell even with my rooted G3 with lollipop resurrection mod downgraded to 1080p still heats up but definitely much faster
You must be a gamer then? Playing more than the simple games?
I haven’t had heat issues with my G3. Been a solid device with above average battery life actually.
For you G3 owners… do you still feel like your phone is relevant for 2015? With the flagships of 2015 that are coming out I see myself drawn to the G3. The price point for it now is looking really nice too considering that the new phones are going up in price…. 700 is getting high for me… mostly just don’t see myself spending money on something like this when last years models are more than adequate enough to do everything that is needed. For me I guess its more of the principle than anything else.
I have the G3 and the G2. Performance is better on the G2 and the screen colors are much cooler where they are really warm on the G3. I never had a single issue with the G2 and it’s battery life is better too. I love LG and either phone is a good choice but the G2 is a great phone, the G3 is a very good phone. (Obviously this is my experience, others may disagree).
Get the moto x 2014
Do you (did you?) have the G3 when running LG’s stock Lollipop? Coz it’s godamn awful, and every issue mentioned here is word-for-word my current experience of my (stock) G3 running 5.0. Hate it, hate LG as a result. I feel let down as a customer, given how much I liked it on 4.4.2.
Don’t understand the problems people talk about with the G3 on Lollipop. I’m totally stock on lp with Nova laucher and much as I liked my g2 this thing beats it in almost every way
I had the Verizon variant of the g3, and it was slow, bad battery life, and washed out screen. It was running 4.4.2.
the only Lg devices I ever liked were the LG G2 and Nexus 5.
agree with G2, even today it’s one of the best phone if you want a medium sized phone.
>medium sized
yeah….
To todays stats it’s medium sized. If you at least consider the Nexus 6, right? 😀
Yeah I guess… My girlfriend has a g2 and it still just seems so big to me with my og moto x
May be true 😀
It’s amazing how much more I like my G3 running CM12.
This phone’s software looks like a cartoon. The on-screen buttons looked like they’ve been put under a microscope. The phone looks really cool from about 10 feet away with the screen off. Then you notice the plastic screen (which, to me, looks and feels like a Fischer Price “Baby’s First Cell Phone” toy) and the software is crap. I don’t understand the logic of putting garbage skins over Android. If you’re Samsung, it’s to differentiate yourself with neat, commercial friendly features. LG isn’t marketing this phone around software features, it’s marketing it around the curve and the feel. If software is only going to hurt the phone, then put stock bloody Android on it.
The problem is that LG thinks that their software ‘enhancements’ are a good thing.
This could be a really interesting year for cell phones if the 810 really runs as hot as reported. I could see the G4 being delayed so LG can figure out a solution.
I think they may be pushing their own chip.
That’s what I was thinking, but all reports are saying their chip won’t be ready. We’ll probably (sadly) see the 810 in the G4, and the Odin, or whatever they’re calling their in house processor now, in their more premium phone coming later in the year.
The G4 will be their top of the until the other one is released. I don’t see the G4 being non-premium.
With the bad publicity the M9 is getting and will get once it’s released, any Android phone using the 810 will be DOA.
The 810 is certainly developing a stigma that’s for sure.
I’m sure it will be premium, but if the 810 is the best Qualcomm has to offer them I don’t know what else they’d use, unless they go to Samsung for a cpu, which would be odd, but very possible.
That’s actually what I was hoping for 🙂
Looks like the 810 shouldn’t be ready for prime time yet. If it can’t handle everything that’s thrown at it without overheating, maybe manufacturers should rethink using it. At least Samsung had the brains to not use the 810 in the S6.
They’re just moving away into their own thing. Tizen isn’t far off now.
there is zero chance for a 3rd mobile OS, if MS and Blackberry couldn’t do why do you think Samsung will be able to do?
I think Samsung probably thinks they can because they became the Apple of Android by being the anti-Apple. I don’t think he’s saying they can, but that he thinks they think they can.
I think it would be great if Samsung forked off from Android and went full ahead with Tizen. Because I truely believe that they will lose at least half of their customers if they did that. True, many people are sheep when it comes to being knowledgable about their phones. But… people Will realize that they are not getting the full Android experience when they can’t use Google Apps on their device, and when all the apps they have purchased and used with all their previous Andoid devices no longer are available on this new Samsung phone. I think if Samsung moves completely to Tizen, they will in essence be taking a full on Taco Bell crap and then giving Themselves a swirly in it. I kinda hope they do because of their part in causing Google to sell off Motorola.
It’s not like Samsung is paying Google to use Android. Not directly at least. Sure their devices must come bundled with Google Services vs Samsung services, but who are we kidding? No one wants to use Samsung services over Google services. No one buys a Samsung for Samsung services.
They will not be going Tizen any time soon on any of their flagship devices.
And the two first impressions I read about the S6 said performance screams.
whoa… TL;DR droid-life home page!
So who do we blame? LG or Qualcomm?
Qualcomm, they screwed HTC too
That’s not released and I’m awaiting more than one article.
They need to say the chip is great…its not about Qualcomm paying them to. All of these big android players except for samsung have no where else to turn for ships…not like they are going to drop Qualcomm to run a mediatek chip. The 810 was the chip they had to use…especially with the hype around it. If you remember LG has said they are also working on an in house chip now. probably because of the hell they went through with Qualcomm this latest round
I hadn’t heard that LG was designing a chip in house, but if true, it makes me wonder what took them so long to get to that point. Also if Qualcomm really did screw up that bad, I wonder if Intel will start stepping in more.
That’s because Qualcomm has been reliable with their processors until the 810, and all the OEMs except Samsung blindly followed Qualcomm down the hill.
The 810 showed the market that it’s bad to rely on just one company to make all your chips. This is the start of the end of Qualcomm’s monopoly.
Well Intel/Mediatek/etc all suck. And this is one chip. I ain’t scurrred.
What about nvidia?
If they can figure out LTE- maybe
But their Shield Tablet has LTE. Is it connection issues?
What about hisilicon? Have u used a kirin 920(honor 6 etc) or higher chip yet? Awesome lag free performance. Same with the newer mediatek 6795s. Hell even the exynos that powers the alpha and similar note 4 are bomb. Lots of options out there these days not just from good old Qualcomm.
I am hoping that Intel does get more into the mobile processor market. Competition is always good, and as we are seeing, it is a good idea that OEMs are able to have an alternative if one chip has inherent problems.
Just face it; even if the M9 was a totally new design the 810 would have screwed the phone anyway. The only software fix is to throttle the crap out of it.
LG has a track record with G3 with a well proven performing SD801 chip..
More like the LG Flex Poo, am I right?!