<div>Sit down for this one: LG’s G Flex smartphone is officially a rupee short of Rs 70,000. You heard right. That’s more than my fridge and two ACs. It’s more than the 40-inch television I want. And it’s twice the cost of getting wooden flooring for my whole apartment.<br /><br />Now please peel yourself off the floor to see what it is the G Flex offers…<br /><br />It’s curved all right. Gently but surely. The components inside, including the battery, must be modified to fit. Even the packaging is curved. LG calls it the shape of innovation. But almost everyone else will likely call it the shape of confusion. Why does a phone need to be curved? That’s the one question I got from everyone I showed the G Flex to. Well, it doesn’t absolutely need to, but a curve might actually improve some things. <br /><br />First, it fits the face a bit better than a straight slab. That’s true enough, but not killingly important since we’ve gotten accustomed to yelling into those straight slabs by now. Second, it does something to the display and makes it cinematic and immersive. I don’t know if I’m falling for the marketing but I found watching videos really wonderful on this device as the scene wraps you into it. <br /><br />The screen, incidentally, is hardly top-notch resolution and it really should be at this price. Don’t expect razor sharp text on this one. But somehow, it is very nice perhaps because of the curve and the colours and the fact all angles check out beautifully clear. Still, at the cost of one and a half flagship phones, it should have had a screen to match.<br />The curve is also a flex, as you can see by the name. If there’s some weight on the back of the device, it’ll press down but bounce back to its original shape. There are videos of people stepping on it — but I’m not about to try and then end up handing over Rs 70,000 to LG. <br /><br />The back, which is unfortunately glossy and dangerously slippery, is supposed to “self-heal”, which means that small scratches will sort of disappear. A deeper scratch however will not and I can see that someone’s put one on my review unit.<br /><br />The G Flex is so much more than its curve though, so never think that you’re being charged that hefty sum just for the shape. It’s one of the fastest phones on the planet — and it shows. I didn’t manage to get it to lag although it got a little hot under the collar when benchmarking tests were on. Nothing alarming. My Note 3 gets hotter when it’s just had enough of me. LG has put its own skin or user experience layer on top of Android 4.2.2 and some people hate it, aesthetically. But no one can say it produces lag and stutter. The software includes a whole bag of tricks so it’s really enough to keep its rich user busy for quite a while. You have all these gestures and animations and smart features to play with. <br /><br />There’s LG’s multitasking QSlide apps and the notification area is stuffed with icons for quick access. Most famously, there’s the Knock Code feature that lets you switch the screen on when you tap on it. Otherwise, the power button is on the back right under the camera where many people do end up touching the lens.<br /><br />Talking of the lens, the camera on the G Flex is not special, but certainly it’s nice. That means it’s not in the league of the Galaxy S5, the iPhone 5s and definitely not the Nokia 1020, but it is still good for everyday photos and even handles low light fairly well although images are a bit soft then. There are many scene modes to spice up the pics.<br /><br />One of the best things on the G Flex is its 3,500 mAh battery and the fact that it lasts comfortably for the day.</div><div> </div><div>break-page-break</div><div><br /> </div><table width="600" cellspacing="6" cellpadding="6" border="2"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Lenovo Ideapad A10</strong></td></tr><tr><td><img width="200" height="200" align="right" alt="" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=5721d8c3-683f-4dd1-9b00-50f5420fc310&groupId=222861&t=1401110726709" />More than once I’ve wished laptops would turn Android, or better still, be both Windows and Android. Just for the ease of having it all on one device. That rarity does exist, but here we have the Lenovo IdeaPad A10 which is really an Android netbook. Now Android isn’t really a PC operating system so there will be many times when it doesn’t behave like the laptops you would have known, but for basic work, especially when travelling, it could be a good budget buy at Rs 19,990.<br /><br />The IdeaPad A10 gives you an instant netbook feeling when you take it out of its box. Its exterior is a matte-finish plastic and looks totally plain and straightforward — and yet good. Nothing cheap about it; just no-nonsense.<br />Open up and you’ll notice that the strong hinge is kind of stiff and rigid. The screen can be pushed back and it goes to the point where it strongly locks into a position you can use as a stand. That is, the keyboard is face down and the screen straight up and leaning back a bit. This doesn’t go all the way back and fold over the keyboard or detach from it.<br /><br />The keyboard is really make-do and doesn’t look classy, but it is a full-fledged one with some special Android keys such as for the Home screen. The trackpad is almost half the size that they usually are and it’s also a little temperamental. Still, it’s a workable keyboard.<br /><br />The 10.1 inch 1366 x 768 touch screen is a bit of a disappointment. It looks dull and washed out and any change in angle makes it more so. But again, it’s workable. Other specs include 10-hour battery life, 16 GB of SSD storage with a micro-SD card slot for 62 GB more, two USB ports, HDMI out and a charger with micro-USB, as in phones. But there’s no slot for a SIM and nor does it support a 3G dongle. The processor is 1.6 GHz quad-core from Rockchip and there’s 2 GB of RAM. It’s a little heavy for its size, but still very thin and portable. Overall a usable Android little laptop for a good price.</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br />(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 16-06-2014)<br /> </div>
BW Reporters
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.
