LG G Flex2 review: A new angle

Performance

The LG G Flex2 is the first smartphone we meet that utilizes the latest available Snapdragon 810 chipset. Its processor comprises of four Cortex-A57 cores clocked at 2.0GHz and another four Cortex-A53 cores running at 1.5GHz. All eight cores have 64-bit support and the new ART runtime compiler within Android Lollipop is able to fully utilize their potential.

The Snapdragon 810 chip also introduces a new Adreno 430 GPU, which should provide better performance compared to the Adreno 420 accelerator in the Galaxy Note 4's Snapdragon 805. Combined with the 1080p display, it should provide blazing-fast experience compared to any QHD-screen touting flagship.

Finally, LG G Flex2 comes with 2GB RAM for the 16GB model and 3GB RAM within the 32GB flavor. LG has been doing this separation since the LG G3 and while we don't approve it, there is nothing we can do. Our review unit is the 16GB variety.

Even before we got our LG G Flex2, the news broke that the Snapdragon 810 chip was having issues with overheating and Qualcomm is working on a newer version of the chip. This may have even led Samsung to drop Qualcomm as chip supplier for the upcoming Galaxy S6.

Unfortunately, the LG G Flex2 being the first adopter of the S810 hardware, would be a prime example of the new chipset pros and cons.

Our impression is that the LG G Flex2 got really warm while running a game, or even a benchmark app, for that matter. We also noticed, that when running benchmarks, its performance dropped after the first run, suggesting there is some sort of CPU performance throttling taking place when the temperature rises. The performance penalty amounted to about 20% and it restored back to normal only after the phone had the chance to cool off.

We contacted LG on the matter and here's their official statement:

"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. We remain confident that the G Flex2 will deliver great experiences to our customers with a tremendous blend of multimedia, performance and industry-leading design."

In their response, LG further specified this update should be released in time for the worldwide launch of the phone, so the users won't have to worry about waiting for it. What this means is that they expect to release a software update to change the automatic CPU throttling trigger levels - at least in benchmark scenarios, hopefully making the benchmark results from different runs more consistent.

Having all that in mind we proceed with our benchmarks. To speed up the cooling off period we resorted to placing the G Flex2 inside our office in-between the individual runs. All benchmark results listed below were obtained after such cool off period in order to assess the maximum performance of the new chipset and avoid reaching the overeager automatic CPU throttling trigger levels.

So, the first test we use is GeekBench 3, which estimates the multi-core performance of the octa-core processor. Apparently, the LG G Flex2 aced our chart, doing a hair better than Meizu MX4's MediaTek MT6595 chip. Back at the G Flex2 unveiling event we also had the chance to do a GeekBench 3 run back then it did even better at about 3,950.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  3604
• Meizu MX4
  3556
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  3394
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  3386
• Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
  3287
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  3120
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  2923
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  2884
• Sony Xperia Z3
  2860
• Oppo N3
  2704
• LG G3
  2370
• LG G Flex
  2254

Next, we put the LG G Flex2 through the compound AnTuTu test, which gauges not only processor, but graphics and memory performance as well. The new Flex2 did excellent, but not enough to beat the Meizu MX4 Pro and the Lollipop-running Galaxy Note 4. Both of this competitors feature higher resolution displays and slightly lesser chipsets, so this is our first clue LG has to work more to improve the performance.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  49273
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  48489
• LG G Flex2
  47680
• Meizu MX4
  46922
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  45530
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  45348
• Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
  44258
• LG G3
  42038
• Sony Xperia Z3
  40393
• Oppo N3
  39245

The new BaseMark OS II 2.0 is another compound test, which in addition to CPU, GPU and RAM, calculates web performance and storage speeds. The LG G Flex2 topped our chart doing much better than all other smartphones we've tested so far.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  1726
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  1267
• Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
  1255
• Oppo N3
  1241
• LG G3
  1189
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  1186
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  1160
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  863
• Meizu MX4
  666

Unfortunately, the single and multi-core performance of the new processor isn't the one contributing for the great overall score. The CPU is performing less than expected, probably because LG has trimmed down its performance for a while. The scores are still great, but not as great as all of us expected them to be.

Basemark OS 2.0 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  6165
• Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
  5674
• LG G Flex2
  5597
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  5557
• LG G3
  5396
• Oppo N3
  5341
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  5235
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  3118
• Meizu MX4
  2219

Basemark OS 2.0 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  21140
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  19237
• LG G Flex2
  18856
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  18386
• Oppo N3
  16774
• Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
  16543
• LG G3
  16485
• Meizu MX4
  12671
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  12080

LG G Flex2 is the first smartphone to feature the new Adreno 430 GPU. It also comes with a 1080p display instead of a QHD one, which should give it a computing advantage over devices like the LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4. We ran both offscreen and onscreen tests of the GFX Benchmark, here is how the LG G Flex2 did.

Quite expectedly, the Adreno 430 turned out the best GPU we've tested so far and aced both offscreen tests. It is 20% more powerful than the Adreno 420 in the Snapdragon 805 chip and the PowerVR G6450 in the iPhone 6 Plus.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  49
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  44.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
  42.4
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  40
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  28
• Sony Xperia Z3
  27.7
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  27
• LG G3
  26
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  26
• Meizu MX4
  22.7
• LG G Flex
  22

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  22
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  18.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
  18.3
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  18
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  13
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  12
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  12
• Sony Xperia Z3
  12
• LG G3
  11
• Meizu MX4
  7.9

You bet the onscreen results turned as impressive as we'd expected them to be. The Adreno 430 is an impressive leader, but part of this lead is due to the fact that competing devices utilize higher QHD resolutions.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  48
• LG G Flex
  33
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  30
• Sony Xperia Z3
  29.3
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  28
• Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
  26.5
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  26
• Meizu MX4
  21.3
• LG G3
  20
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  17

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  22
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  13
• Sony Xperia Z3
  12.7
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  12
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  11
• Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
  9.9
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  7.8
• LG G3
  7.7
• Meizu MX4
  7.4

Oddly, the BaseMark X GPU benchmark put the G Flex2 on the second place, a whisker lesser than the Lollipop-running Galaxy Note 4.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  20043
• LG G Flex2
  19369
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  18297
• Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
  17108
• Sony Xperia Z3
  12637
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  12257
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  11798
• LG G3
  10580
• Oppo N3
  10168
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  9111
• Meizu MX4
  8324

Next, we've put the LG G Flex2's default web browser through the Kraken JavaScript test and it beat all devices we've tested so far.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• LG G Flex2
  4621
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  4650
• Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
  5109
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  5181
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  5968
• Sony Xperia Z3
  6355
• Oppo N3
  6460
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  7023
• LG G3
  7632
• Meizu MX4
  9408
• Meizu MX4 Pro
  10193

The LG G Flex2 browser might be great on JavaScript, but its overall experience turned out only the second-best, outdone by the iPhone 6 Plus and the Lollipop-running Galaxy Note 4.

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  3389
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  2232
• LG G Flex2
  2086
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  2066
• Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
  2056
• Sony Xperia Z3
  1533
• HTC One (M8) Lollipop
  1460
• LG G3
  1453
• Oppo N3
  730
• Meizu MX4
  720

Is the Snapdragon 810 chip better than the previous generation? It definitely is, especially its Adreno 430 GPU. Sure, the S810 chip has issues but we expect those to be overcome very soon. Even with throttled down performance, it still does an amazing job and we can't wait to see the S810 in its full glory. The LG G Flex2 is a true flagship, with blazing-fast performance. Under stress, we often found it to heat up in top left corner, but we've never seen it overheat.