Huawei P8 review: Does Huawei's flagship ascend above all others?

Huawei P8 review: Does Huawei's flagship ascend above all others?

Robert Zak 2015-04-22T01:00:00Z1 week ago Robert Zak A tech aficionado since he first picked up a NES controller, Robert has written about technology, videogames, and film across a range of sites and magazines, including Den of Geek, Gamasutra, and Computeractive. At AndroidPIT, he'll be bringing you the latest Android news and reviews from the front line in the UK.

Huawei's confident march into western smartphone markets continues with the Huawei P8 - a top-end device that would be a guaranteed hit were brand recognition not so important to a smartphone's success. With the Ascend Mate 7 and the Ascend P7, Huawei proved that it can mix it up with the best phones from more established manufacturers, all the while donning lower price tags.

The Huawei P8 (not Huawei Ascend P8, as was previously rumored)?has made improvements on its predecessors in terms of both?design and power, while not making huge leaps with its software and UI. Read our Huawei P8 review to find out everything you need about this powerful phone's hardware, software, price, specs, release date, and more.

c ANDROIDPIT Good?? ?Sharp, super-slim design?Camera has some fun features?Long-lasting battery?Powerful processor among the fastest aroundBad?? ?UI doesn't take full advantage of Lollipop.?Colors on camera can be a bit washed out

The phone will launch in the UK and Europe throughout late April and early May, with no Huawei P8 release date planned for the US yet. The Huawei P8 price is set at 499 EUR?(359 GBP)?for the standard version and 599 EUR (431?GBP) for the premium version. Other prices are still to be confirmed, but we know that the Huawei P8 will have 32 GB of internal storage, with a microSD slot allowing for an extra 128 GB.

The Huawei P8 moves away from the all-glass design of its predecessor, the Ascend P7, taking things in a more metallic direction. The back and sides of the phone are made of aluminum, while the front is covered in Gorilla Glass 4 with plastic underneath. The mostly metal chassis gives?the phone a satisfying weightiness despite it being a mere 6.4mm thin - which makes it one of the skinniest flagship smartphones available.

The back of the Huawei P8, in all its 'Mystic Champagne' glory. / c ANDROIDPIT

The P8 follows the angular, slate-like design philosophy of its predecessor, which it also shares with the Xperia Z-series. Everyone loves a nice slim side-bezel, and the P8 does a great job in this regard. We received the 'Mystic Champagne' model of the Huawei P8, which is more a bright platinum color than the gold you'd expect from its name.? The phone is also available in Titanium Grey, which we think doesn't compliment the phone's design as much as the gold model.

We like the fine detail on the standby button, helping distinguish it from the volume rocker. / c ANDROIDPIT

The sides of the P8 have snappy tapered edges, which are glossier and more reflective than the rest of the chassis. Suffice to say they look fantastic.?On the back of the P8 is a 13MP camera with dual LED flash – offset in the top corner – and a thin plastic antenna strip running across the bottom. The camera sensor is surrounded by a glossy plastic strip, which helps further improve signal quality in the P8. Most crucially of all, in our opinion, the camera sits flush with the back of the phone, avoiding the protruding 'nipple' problems of the HTC One M9 and Galaxy S6.

On the aluminum back of the Huawei P8 is the offset 13MP camera, but no fingerprint sensor. / c ANDROIDPIT

The volume rocker, standby button, SIM card slot and microSD slot (which, interestingly, also doubles as a second SIM card slot) are all on the right side of the phone, leaving the left side completely smooth. We particularly like the small textured detail on the standby button, and the fact that there are small 'dips' in the chassis leading down to it. This helps distinguish it from the volume buttons above it, hopefully leading to less instances of mis-pressed buttons.

The Huawei P8 is a mere 6.4mm thick. / c ANDROIDPIT

On the bottom of the phone is a microUSB port and two speaker grills, while the top of the phone houses an audio jack.

The P8 has a very solid design -?a bit more understated than the HTC One M9 and Galaxy S6, both of which scream 'luxury'. Not everyone wants a phone that will draw 'oohs', 'aahs', and unwanted attention, however, and the P8 - while still very elegant - may be better suited to such buyers.

At 5.2 inches, the Huawei P8 display fits in the upper region of what seems to have become the sweet spot for flagship phone screen sizes.

The crisp default images on the lockscreen say to us "Who needs QHD?" / c ANDROIDPIT

The P8 has a 1920 x 1080 IPS-LCD screen, which gives it an ever-so-slightly fewer pixels-per-inch (424) than its smaller-screened?predecessor (445 PPI). It does, however, have a higher screen-body ratio of 78.3 percent.?

Picture quality is crisp,?colors?vivid, and viewing angles are?pretty much flawless. While there is a craving for QHD displays at the moment, we’re quite happy with the Full HD display on the P8, provided the phone comes in at Huawei’s usual just-below-flagship price.

According to Huawei, one of the big advantages of a Kirin chipset is the fact that it's designed with networking and connectivity in mind. To this end, one of the the Huawei P8 special features which impressed us can calculate network speeds of your nearby mobile data and WiFi networks, and lets you know if you can gain faster internet speeds by switching from one to the other. You can, of course, turn this feature off.

The Huawei P8 features two independently-operating antennae at the top and bottom of the phone. These mean that the P8 is exceptionally quick at seeking out and changing masts to make sure you're always receiving the best signal. So if you're in a train and moving fast between areas (and having your signal cut off in tunnels), the P8 is fast to adapt. We tested this out on a train journey ourselves, and can verify that switching mobile signal and data connection is faster than in the Nexus 6.

On the Huawei P8 software front, we tested it running Android Lollipop with EMUI 3.1, which will be very familiar to owners of the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 running Emui 3.0. It's a clean, slick interface that naturally contained Material Design touches – such as the navigation buttons, bright colors and sliders to toggle options – even when it ran on KitKat. The timeline running down the left side of the notifications menu is a deft touch.

The Huawei P8 EMUI interface looks similar to that on the Ascend Mate 7, and that's no bad thing. / c ANDROIDPIT

That being said, EMUI also doesn't use some of our favorite Lollipop features. Pressing the 'Recent Apps' button doesn't show apps in the neat card view, for example, and swiping down the the notifications bar twice doesn't bring up the quick settings menu. Smart Lock is more limited too, and doesn't let you choose locations where you don't need to enter a PIN code.

Some may be a bit thrown off by the lack of an app drawer, but this is something that isn't too hard to acclimatize to, particularly as you can grab free themes from Huawei's Themes app which let you bring it back.?

There are several handy software features on the P8, including some handy speech recognition. ?/ c ANDROIDPIT

Huawei is great at keeping its interfaces bloat-free, and continues this trend with the P8, which has a pleasant lack of superfluous apps, and features a few that are actually quite handy. The 'Speech awareness' feature, for example, is Huawei's answer to Google Now, letting you make phone calls with your voice. With this feature, you can also call out "Buddy, where are you?" for your phone, and it will start ringing and saying?"I'm here", sounding like some kind of malevolent doll in a horror film.

Running an octa-core 64-bit Kirin 930 chipset with Cortex-Ad53E cores clocked to 2GHz, the?Huawei P8 specs?mix?it up among the most powerful phones on the market. Our benchmark tests with AnTuTu had the Huawei P8 performance outdoing?the Galaxy Note 4, among many others. If the Ascend Mate 7 didn't already prove that?Huawei's HiSilicon chipsets can compete with the Snapdragons and Exynoses of the world, then the P8 definitely does.

The AnTutu benchmark tests show the Huawei P8 to be a powerful performer ?/ c ANDROIDPIT

We experienced a little bit of jerkiness with the Huawei lockscreen, but other than that we have no complaints about the Huawei P8 performance. Graphically demanding games like Dead Trigger 2 were liquid-smooth, and the P8 handled everyday tasks with flying colors.

It may come as a bit of a disappointment that, for our testing of Huawei P8 audio performance, there were no stereo speakers to speak of.?This is by no means a standard feature yet in flagship phones, so we're not too concerned. The P8 features a single speaker grille above the screen, and two larger ones on the bottom of the phone, so sound gets reasonably loud, if not exactly clear enough to make it a great music-listening device.

The (non-stereo) sound on the Huawei P8 will come from these here speaker grilles. / c ANDROIDPIT

We were very impressed by the crystal-clear voice quality on the Huawei P8, even in challenging environments like the subway. When testing out call quality in a windy environment, the person I phoned actually thought I was at home, and wouldn't believe me when I told him that I was in the windy outdoors (don't worry, I convinced him in the end). Huawei certainly came good on its reputation here as a master of networking.

The 13MP sensor of the Huawei P8 camera is a solid combination of hardware and software that from our experience looks good, if not exactly world-beating. To help with low-light shots, the camera has a f/2.0 aperture, but also a 'Super Night Mode', which uses software processing to improve low-light shots (similarly to the Honor 6+).

The camera on the Huawei P8 is a 13MP offering with Optical Image Stablization and a 'Super Night Mode'/ c ANDROIDPIT

The P8 camera also features OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), allowing it to automatically fix shaky or wonky shots with up to 0.6 degrees of freedom. There is also a 360-degree panorama mode, as well as the handy 'Ultra Snapshot' that we saw on the Ascend Mate 7, which lets you double-press the volume rocker with your phone on standby to quickly take a picture without turning the screen on.

The Huawei P8 camera is of decent quality for a flagship. It does a great job of capturing low-light shots. While pictures tend to come out sharp and with little noise, we were a bit disappointed at the colors of the final images, which looked a little bit washed out.

There are some fun shooting modes to play around with on the Huawei P8 - including time-lapse, full panoramic mode, and 'Light painting' - which lets you capture light trails, car lights, and even star trails in the dark. We certainly had some fun with it.

The front-facing 8MP camera is also a solid offering. Vain selfie-takers will be happy to hear that Huawei's trademark 'Face Beauty' mode now recognizes the phone owners face, and can automatically 'beautify' it in photos based on settings that you choose.

Powering the Huawei P8 is a 2600mAh battery, which is in line with the recent tendency for flagship phones to come in below 3000mAh. While a year ago we would've said that this was too small to power an octa-core phone, we've seen with the One M9 and Galaxy S6 that this is not the case.

We were promised 1.5 days of normal-intensity use from the Huawei P8 battery before it needed recharging, and one day of heavy use. After our tests, we can confirm that the phone matched up to Huawei's promises. After twelve hours' normal use, during which I took several photos, spent an hour managing emails, surfed the web and even played some Dead Trigger 2, the battery remained above 65 percent. These are impressive figures for what on the face of it seems like quite a small battery.

${device-huawei-603} Dimensions:144.9 x 71.8 x 6.4 mmScreen:1920 x 1080 pixels (424 ppi)Android version:5.0 - LollipopConnectivity:HSPA, LTE, NFC, Dual-SIM , Bluetooth 4.1

Huawei did almost everything right with the P8: the processor is powerful, the price is reasonable, and most of the extra features are well-implemented and useful.?

The Huawei P8 is here, and it could well make an impact. Has it got your attention? / c ANDROIDPIT

We like how Huawei is looking to make the P8 carve out its own identity among flagship smartphones. With some interesting networking capabilities, a hybrid SIM/microSD slot, and a super-thin aluminum chassis to differentiate itself from its aluminum rivals, we think that the P8 is one to watch.

While we weren't blown away by the quality of the 13MP camera, it does a good job of making up for this by having some excellent features to play around with. The Huawei P8 falls just short of a five-star review due to its camera and UI that isn't always intuitive, but?it's still?a top choice for those wanting legitimate?flagship specs at a much lower price point than similarly powerful phones.

Has our Huawei P8 review swayed you to give this rising Chinese star of smartphones a go? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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LG G Flex 2 review: the new flexible flagship that's ahead of the curve

LG G Flex 2 review: the new flexible flagship that's ahead of the curve

Kris Carlon 2015-03-30T23:00:01Z1 month ago Kris Carlon Kris Carlon comes to the AndroidPIT Editorial Team via a lengthy period spent traveling and relying on technology to keep him in touch with the outside world. He joined the Android community while resurfacing in civilization back in 2010 and has never looked back, using technology to replace his actual presence in other people's lives ever since. He can usually be found juggling three phones at once and poring over G+ posts, Reddit and RSS feeds.

The first phone to be curved and flexible, the original LG?G Flex?suffered from a few issues like a weak camera, low resolution display with ghosting problems and a high price tag. While the price tag may have come down?in the new LG?G Flex 2, lots of other things have improved and the G Flex successor is a force to be reckoned with. Find out just how much in our LG G Flex 2 review.

c ANDROIDPIT Good?? ?Curved and flexible design?First phone with 64-bit Snapdragon 810?Full HD P-OLED display?Improved cameraBad?? ?Smaller battery than original G Flex?Specs not much better than the LG G3?Thermal throttling of CPU under load

The LG G Flex 2 release date was staggered as usual, with South Korea getting the device on January 30, 2015 and Singapore taking pre-orders as of February 27, followed by Hong Kong. Some US carriers are now?making the phone available and Vodafone in the UK?is also taking pre-orders.

The unlocked LG G 2 Flex price has?not yet been officially confirmed, but US Cellular has an up front LG G Flex 2 price of 630 USD. Sprint has the LG G Flex 2 available outright for 504 USD. AT&T?is taking pre-orders but there is still no?word from?Verizon or T-Mobile

The first thing you notice about the?G Flex 2?is its curved form factor, which LG claims provides an immersive viewing experience just like watching a curved TV, with a 5.5-inch phone at 30 cm apparently matching a 55-inch curved TV at three meters. In reality it feels pretty much the same as a regular phone, even if LG does have the science to prove it.

A superior audio experience is also promised thanks to the ergonomics of the phone, in relation to the curvature of the face, as well as the fact that the curved back allows the speaker audio to avoid being muffled when placed on a flat surface.

The LG G Flex is, of course, a curved and flexible phone. / c ANDROIDPIT

Call quality is improved by 2 dB over the original G Flex because the curve brings the mic a centimeter or so closer to the mouth. It’s hard to judge as significantly better than other phones, but when receiving a call from the G Flex 2 it does sound clearer with less interference.

The rebounding sound waves from the speaker also come out louder and crisper than with other rear-mounted speakers. But ultimately, the G Flex 2 is a curvy, bendable phone that looks cool and is an instant conversation starter.

The rear-key setup returns on the LG G Flex 2, slightly modified from the LG G3. / c ANDROIDPIT

On the back, the rear-key set-up has changed a little from the LG G3, but not by much. The central power button feels a little loose to me, and almost like you could pull it off, but the button layout, size and usability has greatly improved since the original LG G2.

Like the LG G2 and original G Flex, the back of the G Flex 2 is a monstrous fingerprint magnet that shows up all kinds of greasy markings right from the get-go. If you’re gentle on back cover abuse, the G Flex 2 should stay looking new for much longer, but I wouldn’t count on it.

You can see my scratch test on the back of the G Flex 2 didn't go so well. / c ANDROIDPIT

On the front we’ve got a typically luscious LG display with minimal bezels (but nothing too revolutionary) coming in at 5.5 inches. The G Flex 2 once again brings a P-OLED display for improved durability, along with a custom treated Gorilla Glass panel to produce LG’s proprietary Dura-Guard Glass, but this time the display is much better than the original G Flex.

Dura-Guard is apparently 20 percent?stronger than Gorilla Glass 3 and features much better strength and shock absorbency at the edges, where drops are felt most. I can’t say I’ve gone out of my way to drop the G Flex 2, but when it has taken a tumble it has been no worse for wear. The removable back cover reveals a non-removable battery and microSD and SIM card slots.

The SIM card and microSD card slots are stacked on top of each other. / c ANDROIDPIT

There are two color options for now: Platinum Silver and Flamenco Red which are tinted more at the edges and look quite good, even if they are a little glossy for my tastes. The front of the device looks pretty much like an LG G3 and the rear color doesn’t make its way onto the front of the device at all.

The G Flex 2 is 15 percent?lighter than the original G Flex at just 152?g?and only has a marginally larger footprint than the G3, measuring 149.1 x 75.3 x 7.1-9.4 mm. Of course, the G Flex fits your palm, pocket and face like no other device around but the curve is ultimately secondary in importance (in my opinion) to its flexibility and ruggedness.

The 5.5-inch P-OLED display on the G Flex 2 is a vast improvement. / c ANDROIDPIT

The G Flex 2 features a Full-HD, 5.5-inch plastic-OLED display with an acceptable pixel density of 403 pixels per inch. Making the phone more pocket-friendly and bumping up the resolution will please those who didn’t like the original G Flex’s size or screen quality, but the absence of a QHD screen may be a barrier for others. I’ll remind you though that the use of an HD display on the original G Flex was due to technical limitations – not choice – and the same may well be true here.

The display itself is pretty great – no visible artefacts or ghosting that I could see and good deep blacks, nice saturation and bright colors. The sharpness may not be there when compared to the LG G3, but for me it seems more satisfying, most likely due to the properties of the OLED display. The brightness has also been beefed up compared to the G3 and it is easily readable under direct sunlight.

Colors are bright and vibrant, with good saturation and contrast (and a slight blue tint). / c ANDROIDPIT

While I’m not always a fan of overly-saturated and contrasty displays, it’s hard not to like the G Flex 2’s display, especially when compared to the original G Flex. Our test unit did seem to have an overly cool tint at first, but switching to the Vivid color setting and turning off the “Auto-adjust screen tone” setting brought it closer to white (although it was still a bit cool).

As far as the display glass goes, the Dura-Guard coating is chemically bonded to Gorilla Glass via a rather complicated gas burning-in process that improves on Gorilla Glass’ existing strength in the center of the display panel by providing additional durability around the edges, making the entire device even more indestructible than the first G Flex.

LG's Dura-Guard coating improves on Gorilla Glass by strengthening the corners. / c ANDROIDPIT

LG has introduced a more advanced second generation self-healing material that is supposed to repair scuffs and scratches in just 10?seconds, as opposed to the three-to-10 minutes of the original G Flex. In my experience, the self-healing back of the G Flex 2?doesn’t live up to the hype.

It’s all a bit complex, but micro-capsules inside the material burst when scratched and fill in the gaps to reproduce an uninterrupted surface. In my very first scratch test though, I irreparably gouged the surface and I wasn’t even pressing hard. The key was admittedly sharper than most, but it was indeed a regular key that lives in my pocket.

The flexibility is not just about bending, but shock absorption too. / c ANDROIDPIT

Internally, the entire chassis is quite elastic, including a flexible battery, and the whole device bends just as easily as the original G Flex. This elasticity means that you have nothing to fear from sitting on your phone or dropping it, thanks to superior shock absorbency. This is the real jewel in the crown of the G Flex 2.

The LG G Flex 2's home screen and drop-down notifications shade. c ANDROIDPIT

The G Flex 2 software is?Android 5.0.1 Lollipop?out of the box with LG’s?Optimus UI. Everything on the software side from the LG G3 has been ported over to the G Flex 2 along with a couple of nice new additions.

The best of these features is undoubtedly Glance View, whereby you simply swipe down on a darkened screen to bring up a preview of the time, date and any notifications you may have.

Android 5.0.1 Lollipop comes out of the box on the G Flex 2 with LG's Optimus UI.! / c ANDROIDPIT

Unfortunately you can’t see anything other than icons in the status bar, but the idea is a good start. It would be nice if you could incorporate a two-finger swipe for expanded lock screen notifications, for example.

Of course, Knock On and Knock Code unlocking options remain as security features, but Glance View provides the opportunity to more intuitively – and more quickly – check the time and your notifications without the need for fully unlocking your phone.

All my selfie dreams have been fulfilled. It even works from 1.5 m away. / c ANDROIDPIT

When it comes to other LG G Flex 2 features, the phone is also selfie-friendly, with Gesture Controls for snapping selfies from up to a meter-and-a-half away (selfie sticks, anyone?). Simply hold the phone up to take a selfie and close your fist to start a timer.

As you bring the phone down, the G Flex 2 knows the next thing you want to do is check your photo, so it automatically enters a photo preview and then resumes camera mode if you raise the device again. You can also disable this feature if you don’t like it.

Screen Mode lets you modify the vibrancy of the screen and dual-window mode is useful. / c ANDROIDPIT

Dual Window screen sharing is on board, so you can open two mini-apps at once for faster multitasking. You’ve also got Smart Notices (a kind of LG-specific Google Now for phone maintenance, reminders etc), Smart Tips to help you get the most out of your phone and resizable and adaptive Smart Keyboard.

There’s not too much else on the software front you wouldn’t already know from the G3 other than seamless?Android Wear?integration via stock mini apps, but LG seems to have learned that gimmicks for gimmicks’ sake are best left on the drawing board.

The LG G Flex 2 is a beast compared to the original G Flex. / c ANDROIDPIT

The LG G Flex 2 specs are pretty impressive: packing a 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 810 clocked at 2.0 GHz, the G Flex 2 promises to ride high on the specs front for all of 2015. Backed up with 2 or 3 GB of RAM depending on whether you opt for the 16 or 32 GB version (like the G3 before it), the G Flex 2 has all the power you’re likely to need.

With greatly improved performance over the Snapdragon 805 – and better battery management – the 64-bit 810 is the next level in mobile CPUs. One thing that needs to be mentioned though is the issue of thermal throttling.

Despite thermal throttling, the G Flex 2 dissipates heat quite well. / c ANDROIDPIT

While the issue of the Snapdragon 810 overheating seems to have been blown out of proportion, LG has confirmed that the CPU’s performance may be throttled back when under load to avoid overheating. I can’t say I noticed this in my time with the G Flex 2, but it is a consideration if you are likely to be using the phone for processor-heavy tasks like hi-res gaming.

Of course, this is nothing new either: the Xperia Z2 has a nasty habit of shutting down after shooting a short amount of 4K video due to overheating, and so does the Z3. The G Flex 2 actually dissipates heat quite well, and while I did get some irregular heat warnings while benchmarking, the device itself was certainly not hot enough to warrant a heat warning. LG had this to say on the matter:

“The devices sampled are representative of final industrial design and user experience but are continuing to undergo additional optimizations to enhance benchmark performance. We expect our upcoming software releases to provide further improvements in this area.”

The Snapdragon 810 houses an Adreno 430 GPU for speedy pixel pushing and tri-band Cat. 6 LTE for 300 Mbps data speeds. Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and USB 2.0 round out the specs sheet. Here are some benchmark results that put the G Flex 2 at the top of the pile, exactly where you’d expect it to be.

AnTuTu and Geekbench 3 benchmarking for the G Flex 2. / c ANDROIDPIT

In practice, the phone is generally very fast and responsive, but I did experience the occasional glitch or hiccup when trying to force problems with rapid multitasking, app switching or swiping at speed. Returning to the home screen occasionally produces a noticeable delay as on-screen elements are redrawn. It's nothing too serious, but not what you'd expect from a 2015 flagship. On the other hand, Real Racing 3, our standard gaming performance app, performed very well and looked great too.

Some other minor performance issues worth noting are a little bit of lag in switching between the front and back-facing camera, which is very slow. Apps don’t always launch as fast as I’d like them to either. Swiping down the notifications shade also seemed marginally slower than it should be. But these are very minor issues: the G Flex 2 is one of the fastest phones around right now.

The camera interface on the G Flex 2 is very similar to the LG G3. / c ANDROIDPIT

The LG G Flex 2 has a rear-mounted?speaker that produces crisp and loud audio. The LG G3 had a 1.5 Watt speaker but for the life of me I can't find the output of the G Flex 2 speaker anywhere. Nevertheless, it does sound a bit louder and better than the G3, which wasn't a particular slouch in the audio department.

If you want best-in-class audio, get the HTC One M9 and if you want the loudest speaker on the block you're looking for the Galaxy S6. If you're happy with a middle-of-the-line speaker with good peaks and decent enough bass (for a smartphone) that gets plenty loud enough then the G Flex 2 is perfectly satisfactory.?Its positioning on the curved back does create a nice echo effect that amplifies the sound even further.

The G Flex 2 has the same camera module from the LG G3 but with improved software. The exceptional laser auto-focus module reappears too, along with OIS+. The same 2.1 MP camera appears up front and the camera interface is all very familiar, with just three preset modes: dual-shot, panorama and auto.

Color on the LG G Flex 2 is very accurate. / c ANDROIDPIT

Shooting options are up to Full-HD video up front with 1 MP or 2 MP still photos, and the main camera has a range of shooting options up to 13 MP for stills or UHD video. The G Flex 2 also supports 120 fps slow motion and HDR.

Detail is very impressive on the G Flex 2's 13 MP camera. / c ANDROIDPIT

The camera interface is very straightforward and intuitive to use. Camera detail is very true-to-life in terms of resolution and accuracy of detail. Low light performance is?exceptional, thanks to the laser-auto-focus module and OIS+. Representation of color was very accurate,?skin tones are very?natural and HDR mode is excellent.

Low-light performance is outstanding, but the shutter speed seemed a little slow. / c ANDROIDPIT

On the down side, shutter speed seemed?surprisingly slow, considering the G Flex shares the G3's super-fast shutter. This created some?difficulties when?timing shots properly, especially moving subjects. Launching the camera app and switching between cameras was also slower than expected and it's?also really easy to smudge up the lens seeing as it's so close to the volume up button. All in all, though, the camera results were outstanding.

The non-removable 3,000 mAh battery has been optimized by Lollipop and the CPU. / c ANDROIDPIT

The G Flex 2 specs include a 3,000 mAh non-removable battery under the back cover – a step down from the 3,500 mAh battery in the first G Flex. Nevertheless, the software and hardware optimizations of Android Lollipop and the Snapdragon 810 mean that the G Flex 2 does not suffer on the battery life front.

Fast charging technology also means the G Flex 2 can charge up to 50 percent?capacity in less than 40 minutes. The G Flex 2 also makes use of stepped charging technology;?where standard battery charging comes in at 1.8A, the G Flex 2’s stepped charging is capable of 2.6A.

Under the pressures of test conditions the G Flex 2 was making it through a day of heavy use quite easily. The combination of a good-sized battery, Full-HD display, battery-saving OLED screen, Android Lollipop’s power optimizations and the energy-efficiency of the Snapdragon 810, the G Flex 2 should have no troubles getting you through a normal day of usage.

The LG G Flex 2 has flagship specs in a unique design. / c ANDROIDPIT Model:Sorry, not yet available! Dimensions:149.1 x 75.3 x 7.1 mmScreen:1920 x 1080 pixels (401 ppi)Android version:5.0.1 - LollipopChipset:Qualcomm Snapdragon 810Connectivity:HSPA, LTE, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1

The LG G Flex 2 is a very impressive phone that requires a lot of hard work to find flaws in (not including performance, which will hopefully be rectified soon with a software update). So much so that it almost feels like nitpicking. LG listened to feedback on the original and improved critical areas that needed attention like size, camera and display quality, while doing even more on durability and not loading up with new gimmicks simply for the sake of it.

Some may feel that LG didn’t go far enough: after all, the G Flex 2 has a very similar specs sheet to the original G Flex, with a much improved SoC coming at the cost of the larger battery, one of the original G Flex’s greatest strengths. But the improvements in hardware make that additional battery capacity unnecessary. The G Flex 2 also shares a lot of DNA with the LG G3, but considering how good the G3 is, this is hardly a bad thing.

The LG G Flex 2 does something the original G Flex couldn’t: it puts forward a convincing argument for the possibility of a premium device with serious hardware backed up by all the benefits of superior durability, flexibility and ergonomics. As a normal phone the G Flex 2 would be great, but adding a near-indestructable build quality makes it truly outstanding. Stay tuned for a finalized review rating in the near future.

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