Introduction
The LG G Flex just arrived at our country at the beginning the year and about 5 months later we shall have the arrival of the OnePlus One – a new flagship from China with top-notched specs sold at a reasonable price. The LG G Flex has a few unique features that make it an interesting device to compare against the OnePlus One. There are not too many similarities between these two devices – the displays are close in size, but different – the processors are different, yet similar. Neither device has room for a microSD card for internal memory expansion and both main cameras are much a like, but the front-facing cameras are very different. Please check out the specifications below and make your comparisons, then we will look at what makes these two smartphones different from one another, and then with all of that in mind we will pick a winner in this comparison.
Specifications
OnePlus One
The China upstart company, OnePlus, is about to release its first flagship device, the One. They teamed up to run Android 4.4 KitKat, but with a touch of CyanogenMod running on the device with their UI called Cyanogemod 11S. They are offering a high-spec’d device at a very reasonable cost – even more value than Google’s own Nexus series of pure vanilla Android smartphones. These two devices are fairly dissimilar – the One has a slightly smaller display, but offers Full HD or 1080p versus the HD or 720p of the G Flex. The One offers the most up-to-date processor so far this year – the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 clocked at 2.5GHz, coupled with 3GB of RAM (1GB more than the One), and either 16GB or 64GB model with no room for expansion (also like the G Flex). The 6-lens main camera should take better pictures than the G Flex, but the 5MP front-facing camera really outshines the 2.1MP on the G Flex for video chatting and selfies. The dual speakers on the bottom end of the device are also better placed than the one speaker on the back of the G Flex. Pricing is only $299 for the 16GB model and $349 for the 64GB model.
LG G Flex
The LG G Flex just arrived after the first of the year, and a few weeks later, it was announced as a Rogers’ exclusive in Canada. The G Flex’s 6-inch display is slightly larger than the OnePlus One’s 5.5-inch display. A couple other things to take note – the G Flex has an ever-so-slightly curved display from top-to-bottom and is only an HD display, meaning the resolution is 1280×720 with 245ppi, a step down from the One’s Full HD display with 401ppi. The curved display may make it easier to slip into your jeans’ back pocket or more interesting if you are viewing a movie in the landscape mode – but really offers no other benefits. The device itself offers a ‘self-healing’ feature should the back of the device get a scuff mark or scratch in it – it does work…to an extent, but is still rather gimmickry. It uses last year’s processor, the Snapdragon 800 quad-core clocked at 2.3GHz and only has 2GB of RAM versus the 3GB that the One offers. It has 32GB of internal storage, but no room for expansion. The G Flex has a slightly larger battery at 3500mAh versus the One’s 3100mAh – we already know that the LG devices get excellent battery life. It is still shipping with only Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with LG’s Optimus UI overlay – although finally starting to receive its updated to 4.3 KitKat. It also suffers in the price department when buying it off-contract when compared to the One.
…and the Winner is…
Summary
This was more of an easier decision than the LG lovers would like to think – and of course, I know I will hear lots of flak from giving the win to the OnePlus One rather than the LG G Flex. The G Flex has a curved display (no win there), self-healing back (not a winning feature), and great battery life (a win)…nothing to make it outstanding from the OnePlus One. The One has a better display and processor, more RAM, a 64GB model, dual speakers placed at the bottom of the device, competing main camera and better front-facing camera, and cheaper pricing. Another pet-peeve of mine (hey, I’m allowed to have them too) is that, like the iPhone, LG insists on putting their headphone jack on the BOTTOM of the device, not on the top – where I think it belongs…hey, I said it was a pet-peeve. The strike against the One right now is availability, but hopefully by June that will be a non-factor.
So please let us know on our Google+ Page what you think of these two devices…remember we are comparing the specs for these two great devices…as always, we would love to hear from you.