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Watch LG's new flexible phone heal itself after a knife scratch

Watch LG's new flexible phone heal itself after a knife scratch

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g flex knife screenshot
g flex knife screenshot

When LG announced its curved smartphone, the G Flex, it boasted that the handset was coated with a "self-healing" material and even compared it to Wolverine from X-Men. LG later released a promotional video showing off the tech in action, but it's only now that someone has put the company's claims to the test. In YouTube personality / video producer Marques Brownlee's hands-on with the device, he checks out the self-healing coating with a number of tests.

First up is a set of keys, which Brownlee creates some light scratches with. As you'll see in the video, the LG G Flex essentially "heals" the scratches made. It doesn't completely remove them, but apparently makes the marks almost invisible to the naked eye. He then carves out a deeper scratch using a knife, which "half heals," appearing far less visible than it would on a regular phone.

Brownlee has what seems like a sound theory for why the results weren't perfect, though. LG's promotional clip was filmed in a controlled temperature environment with the thermostat set to 81 degrees Fahrenheit, and he believes the coating isn't as effective in cooler climates. While it might not work exactly as advertised, LG's new coating looks to be a pretty big step forward for the everyday durability of our phones. Let's hope it comes to models that LG plans on selling outside of Korea sometime soon.