LG G Flex 2 hands-on: LG tweaks its curved phone

LG has confirmed earlier rumours that it will be launching a new version of its curved and bendable phone, the G Flex, from the end of January in Korea with the rest of the world following after.

The company says that the main reason for designing a curved screen is aesthetic. Straight is about cost-effectiveness, not good design. What LG has done with the G Flex 2 is tighten up the design substantially from the first version. It's now smaller, at 5.5-inches, which LG told us is perfect for one-handed operation.

The company has also upgraded the handset internally. It now features an octa-core Snapdragon 810 running at 2GHz. There are storage options of 16 and 32GB as well as support for microSD cards up to 2TB. The phones will have either 2 or 3GB of RAM - if the Flex 2 is like the G3, the UK won't see the 3GB model, which is a bit of a shame.

The phone runs Android Lollipop too, with LG's customisations. There's something called glance view, which lets you drag down the screen, from the top, to see the time, date and notification messages. It's very cool. The G Flex 2 can also help with your selfies, the new gesture shot mode allows you to snap selfies automatically. You hold your hand up, make a fist with it and the phone will count down from three, then shoot. Even better, when you drop your arm it will auto-display the image you took, and if you raise it again the phone will switch back to camera mode.

There are other improvements too. LG says the G Flex 2 is tougher, with a screen that's 20% harder to break than any other Gorilla Glass handset. The phone also has a new self-healing coating, which allows you to scratch the case, but have it looking as good as new 10 seconds later. This tech is incredibly clever, and should keep your phone looking great for ages.

The screen has also been updated. The old G Flex was equipped only with a 1280x720 panel, but the G Flex 2 jumps up to 1920x1080. The firm apparently considered 4K, but decided that 1080 was the better option. The screen looks amazing too. Bright, vibrant colours and loads of detail come from the OLED panel.

We got our hands on the phone, ahead of its official unveiling, and we have to say the advance from the previous version is amazing. The phone feels great in the hand, it's got two colour options too one red, one silver, and they both look great - although the red is the more visually interesting.

Pricing is not yet announced, but expect this to be LG's most expensive phone. It will come in at more than the G3, so this one is for enthusiasts only.