"Is that... curved?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

That's how the conversation starts every time I pull out the LG G Flex, a six-inch monster of a phone that is, inexplicably, curved from top to bottom. The conversation usually peters out there, because no one has an answer for "why"—the G Flex just is. The screen is curved because it could be curved. It's clear the "w" word is not something that was considered when making the G Flex.

And the G Flex is curved. Before it arrived, I expected an only technically curved-phone, similar to how the Galaxy Nexus was originally pitched as curved. That feature was promptly forgotten about once anyone outside of a marketing department saw the device. In the "curved" department though, the G Flex delivers—it's curved like a funhouse mirror.

In theory, a curved screen is neither a benefit nor detriment. It would just create an oddly shaped device, and most owners would forget about it after a week. The problem with the LG G Flex isn't that it's curved, though—it's all the concessions LG had to make to create that curve. If a curved device was some kind of killer feature, maybe the compromises could be forgiven. But LG sacrificed many of the important attributes of a smartphone just so it could implement the gimmick.

Before we really get started, we should point out that this is a review of the Korean version of LG G Flex, so don't be alarmed if a few oddities pop up. Despite being set to "English," you will probably spot the occasional Hangul character in the screenshots, and there are even a few typos and broken English that will need to be cleaned up before the US release. This version is from SK telecom, a carrier that is apparently very fond of crapware. There is also a giant, telescoping antenna for South Korea's nation-wide Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) standard. If we were in Korea, the G Flex could pick up terrestrial radio and TV service. This is a pretty normal feature for phones in Korea, but it won't be making it to other countries.

The curve is certainly eye-catching, but it doesn't really do anything. A well-implemented curve might be a little more ergonomic for phone calls, but this is only a 6-inch device—it doesn't exactly conform to your head or face. LG also calls the device "flexible," meaning you can mash it flat on a hard surface. This seems really dangerous and abusive, and again, doesn't really serve a purpose, but you can do it.

Specs at a glance: LG G Flex Screen 1280×720 6" (245 ppi) P-OLED touchscreen OS Android 4.2.2 "Jelly Bean" CPU 2.26GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 RAM 2GB GPU Adreno 330 Storage 32GB Networking Dual Band 802.11b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS FREQUENCIES SUPPORTED CDMA (800, 1900 MHz); GSM (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); UMTS (850, 1900, 2100 MHz); LTE (850, 1800, MHz) Ports Micro USB 2.0, headphones Camera 13MP rear camera, 2.1MP front camera Size 160.5mm x 81.6mm x 8.7mm Weight 177g Battery 3500 mAh Starting price Not announced Other perks It's curved! Also USB OTG, RGB notification LED

The G Flex is a close cousin of the LG G2 and has even kept the trademark rear buttons. The power and volume buttons are on the back of the device just below the camera. While on the G2 the rear buttons were usable but a little awkward, the G Flex is a much larger device. When holding the device normally, the buttons are impossible to reach without readjusting your grip.

The buttons are a lost cause, but thankfully, the LG has implemented the G2's KnockOn functionality—just double tap the display to wake it and double tap it again to put the phone to sleep. Unfortunately, the G Flex's KnockOn is slow, taking about a second to wake up. The buttons are so far away, though, that fumbling to reach them is still slower than just tapping and waiting.

Also on the back are the 13MP camera, camera flash, sim slot, and (bizarrely) the IR blaster, which is the black square just to the left of the camera. LG includes a remote control app with the device, and (surprisingly) it's not awkward at all to point the back of the phone at the TV. We were expecting the IR blaster to require a weird "picture-taking" stance to work, but remember, the device is curved. The IR blaster has line-of-sight in a surprisingly natural position.

The back is the usual glossy plastic. This particular variant of plastic feels a little squishier than normal, probably to help with the "flexible" party trick. We're getting tired of deriding Android phones for using such terrible plastic, but all the usual complaints apply: it's chintzy and it cheapens the feel of the entire device.

The rear of the G Flex is coated in an extra layer of scratch-resistant plastic that LG claims is "self-healing." The extra coating doesn't go all the way to the edge of the device; in fact, you can see it in the above photo. It looks like a big, clear, plastic sticker that stops just before the top and bottom seam of the device, with cutouts for the headphone jack, microphone, and USB port. New devices are always covered in protective plastic stickers, so I initially thought this was just another sticker and tried to pick it off with my fingernail. The extra plastic layer is securely attached, though.

However, if there is any "self-healing" aspect to the back of the G Flex, we were unable to see it. We purposely scratched the back of the device very lightly with a set of car keys, and the scratches are still there a few days later and don't seem to be any lighter. Rubbing the scratch doesn't work, and we even tried a hair dryer in the hopes the heat would make something happen—still nothing.

There's not a lot going on in the front: the usual front facing camera, earpiece, and not much else. Thanks to the buttons on the back, there's really nothing going on at the sides either.

The P-OLED Display: first gen is worst gen

The display is not one of LG's typically fantastic LCDs, but rather a new type of panel called a "P-OLED." The "P" in "P-OLED" stands for "polymer" (aka plastic) which is the secret to the screen's flexibility. In other OLED applications, like Samsung's AMOLED, the display substrate is glass—a hard, inflexible material. P-OLED uses thin, flexible plastic as the substrate, thus allowing the curve in the G Flex. P-OLED is a relatively new, experimental technology, and while it has lots of potential for future applications, for now, P-OLED displays have myriad compromises on display quality.

The specs are an immediate red flag—at a massive six inches, it dwarfs even the 5.8-inch Galaxy Note 3, but the resolution of the G Flex is only 1280×720. That gives it a worst-in-class 245ppi. For reference, the original Motorola Droid—released in 2009 and shipped with Android 2.0—had 265ppi.

Low pixel density is only the beginning of the G Flex's display problems. The G Flex seems to have the most trouble displaying a solid, uniform color, of which you can see a comparison above. This is the corner of the LG settings screen, which is supposed to be a solid gray color. The LG-made Nexus 5 does a decent job, displaying a mostly uniform shade of gray. The G Flex display, however, randomly displays green, red, and blue pixels, resulting in a grainy, noisy image. The color deviation from one pixel to the next is out of control—all of these pixels are supposed to be displaying the same color.

It's not just randomly colored pixels that hurt the image quality. The lighting on the G-Flex is so ridiculously uneven that we initially thought LG had put a horizontal gradient on many UI elements. In the above photo, the G Flex and Nexus 5 are displaying a full-screen single-color dark gray image, and the artifacting and unevenness on the G Flex is astounding. The right side of the display is much brighter than the left, and the bottom right corner is so bright that it turns the dark gray input color into light gray. The display is also full of lines and "dirty" areas.

The full-size version gives an accurate picture of all of the bizarre artifacting present in the display—you can see the per-pixel color deviation, JPEG-like artifacts, and significant horizontal banding. All of the grain, compression artifacts, and other display oddities are not from the camera used to take this image or the input picture—this is an accurate representation of the display in person. It is really this bad. The awfulness is less noticeable on brighter colors, but LG primarily uses this color gray in their skin. There is constantly a level of "fuzz" and inaccuracy between you and your content.

Image retention is also a huge issue. Depending on the color, it's not uncommon to see shadows from the last screen on top of the current screen. In the above screenshot, you can still make out the keys from the keyboard that was closed a few seconds before the image was taken. Items don't need to be on the screen for a long time to show shadows either. Image retention is regularly visible while flipping through phone screens.

A flexible display would be fine as a "free" addition—it would be a gimmicky feature that would help the device stand out in a sea of flat slabs. The required P-OLED technology is so raw, however, and so inferior to normal LCDs and AMOLEDs, that the whole device is harmed by it. Chasing a gimmick is fine, just not when it requires sacrificing everything any normal person would want in a display.

All technologies have pros and cons, but the key to making a good device is applying the technology in a way that takes advantage of the strengths and weaknesses. The only positive thing about P-OLED is that it is flexible, but LG put its flexible display in a smartphone—something that is not flexible and doesn't need to be flexible. There are many exciting applications for flexible displays, like smart watches and car wraps, and in those applications no one would be complaining about the sub-par display quality. For smartphones, however, we have much higher quality, much more appropriate display technologies. It's great that LG is experimenting and trying something different with a display technology, but P-OLED belongs in a lab somewhere, not on a shelf asking for money from consumers just yet. When your new display technology doesn't even compare favorably to a 2009-era LCD, that is not the time to base a consumer product around it.