It looks like a monitor, yet it is a TV.
The similarity, however, is intentional. Or rather, it is the result of a specific strategy: LG OLED Flex born to please gamers. How? With very high image quality, menus dedicated to gaming, a pedestal with RGB LEDs included, the ability to connect a mouse and keyboard and, above all, a 42 ″ screen that folds to become curved.
The preview of LG OLED Flex
Let’s start with the most disruptive feature of LG OLED Flex: the panel flexes.
We therefore do not have a flat or curved screen but a display that can bend you, as we please, with a radius that reaches 900R.
All this at the touch of a button.
So you don’t have to fold it yourself, by hand, hoping it won’t break. In fact, on the back of the screen there are two arms that handle the folding, with the remote control that allows you to choose from over 20 levels of curvatureso you can easily adapt it to your needs.
What is the point of this absolutely unique feature? Guarantee greater immersion.
Let’s give you some practical examples based on our short test of LG OLED Flex.
Think of a game like Forza Horizon 5, a driving game that allows you to get behind the wheel of some of the most incredible, unique and performing cars in the world, allowing you to roam freely around Mexico. Fully folded LG OLED Flex helps you focus solely on racing, reducing distractions and eye movements.
We can do the same with FIFA, with the curvature that also in this case favors immersion and concentration.
With films, or with video games with a more cinematic cut, we instead appreciated the flat mode – flat – because it allows you to appreciate the images more, while maintaining a greater distance from the TV.
In short, the versatility dictated by the possibility of bending the panel is a particularly interesting plus. And it’s not the only one.
LG has decided to equip this TV with all the comforts, including the image scalability. In fact, among the controls dedicated to gaming we find an item, easily reachable, to go from 42 inches to 32 and finally to 27. Of course this means that you will have huge black bands on the sides but the image is reduced to avoid having to shift your gaze too much, which is particularly useful for competitive games where quick reflexes and responses make the difference.
The settings also allow you to change whites and blacks, to activate or deactivate VRR, to choose the mode, to activate the Game Audio AI … In practice you have settings similar to those of a gaming monitor, included i LED RGB on the back of the monitor, which you can customize and which can also animate to the beat of the music or adapt to the colors shown on the screen.
The base also allows you to adjust height and inclination and contains all the necessary inputs, from HDMI to USB ports to which you can connect mouse, keyboard and headphones. With a button then you can use the same accessories on the PC connected to the TV via HDMI. We also point out the presence of an integrated microphone, so you are not obliged to have an external one to communicate with any playmates.
Always in the base we find the speakers, 40 W, pointed directly at the viewer. The yield is really good, with a very high volume and a very well balanced sound.
Gaming, however, is only one of the activities you can do with LG OLED Flex. We are still faced with a Smart TV which, as such, allows access to dozens of streaming applications and services, as well as digital terrestrial. The yield is incredible but from an LG OLED we did not expect anything less: the contrasts are deep, the black is perfect and the color rendering is impeccable. Perhaps the brightness drops a little compared to other TVs of the Korean giant but the “fault” – if we want to call it that – is of the anti-reflective treatmentan addition that helps reduce distracting elements such as reflections from windows or other lights on the panel.
Not missing then it Multi View, that is, the ability to view content from two different sources at the same time, selecting the audio you prefer to listen to. For example, you can play with the console and have the smartphone projection on the side to follow the comments on Twitch. In the future then the Multi View should evolve as a sort of multitasking so you could for example have the Netflix app open on one side and a game on the other.
Some technical specifications
Ok the experience but the specifics? Let’s do a quick summary.
LG OLED Flex monta a 42-inch OLED evo 4K panel and boasts an update rate of 120 Hz it’s a response time of 0.1 ms, with support for the VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), an element that makes it the perfect companion for PCs as well as for PlayStation 5 and Xbox X | S Series.
Under the body we have the fifth generation α9 processor with artificial intelligence, compatibility with NVIDIA G-Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium and support for Alexa and Google Assistant.
There is no shortage of HDR, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.
LG OLED Flex preview: conclusions
Our two hours in the company of LG OLED Flex really flew by. LG OLED Flex is undoubtedly an interesting and performing product, dedicated however to a rather specific niche. The size and aesthetics certainly make it suitable for gamers who want something that can fit on a desk, so as to allow easy passage from “monitor” to TV; a monitor, however, devoted to gaming because its 42 ″ may not be particularly manageable for daily work at close range. It is then necessary to consider the cost: 2.999 € they certainly do not make it accessible but it could still appeal to a particularly demanding public.