LG G Flex 2 to be powered by Snapdragon 810

LG G Flex (pictured) will soon be replaced with a more powerful and compact successor.

LG's next-generation flexible smartphone will also use Qualcomm's new octa-core SoC.

Andrey Konstantinov, Published 01/01/2015

As we have previously reported, LG is working on the next smartphone in its G Flex lineup and plans to introduce it at the CES 2015 exhibition. With the assumed date of the reveal drawing near, more details about the device's specifications are surfacing: according to the South Korean magazine Naver, LG G Flex 2 will be equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810, just like the competitors' upcoming flagship smartphones. Apart from eight 64-bit capable processor cores, the new SoC includes powerful Adreno 430 graphics and support for LTE-A.

The most intriguing feature of LG G Flex is, of course, its flexibility: it allows the smartphone to easily bend and restore its shape once the pressure is removed. This is useful, for example, if you want to carry the phone in your back pocket - we verified this in our test. The case's back is coated with a self-healing polyrotaxane surface capable of repairing small scratches and dents by itself, given a couple of hours. According to some previous rumors, this coating will be improved in the second iteration of the smartphone, hopefully becoming able to regenerate faster and from larger scratches.

The flexibility of the phone is mostly attributed to its POLED (Plastic OLED) display, which is similar to regular AMOLED panels found in Samsung smartphones but made of plastic instead of glass. While the brightness, colors and viewing angles of the G Flex's 6-inch screen could convince us, its 1280x720 resolution simply didn't feel sharp enough. LG is allegedly looking to rectify this by both increasing the resolution to Full HD (1920x1080 pixels) and reducing the screen size to 5 – 5.5 inches. This should provide a very sharp image without needlessly straining the GPU like QHD (2560x1440) screens of many other modern flagship smartphones do.

LG is expected to officially present G Flex 2 during the CES 2015 exhibition in Las Vegas next week, which means it should be available much sooner than the LG G4, set to be announced only in March.