LG is a company desperately trying to carve out a name for themselves in the smartphone world. They don’t have the same recognition as Apple or Samsung and are in desperate need to have a smartphone that separates them from the pack. While phones like the LG G2 and Nexus 5 are very impressive, neither of those phones have that stand out hardware feature that will drive new customers towards them. That could all change with the LG G Flex.

LG may have a the most durable phones coming to the market. When one usually thinks of durability, images of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active come into mind. A phone with a reinforced shell and industrial design. The idea of making a phone more pliable hasn’t been tried yet. Imagine a phone that if you drop it, it’s perfectly fine. No damage to the screen and scuff marks that “heal”. Now I’m not saying that the phone will be indestructible, but a flexible design can potentially absorb the shock of a standing height drop better than a traditional phone.

I work for a high school. The vast majority of kids smartphones are broken. Screens shattered, back plates scuffed up. Their phones look like they’ve been kicked down the road. It’s safe to say that these phones were most likely bought and paid for by their parents. This is why I’m seeing a lot of teenage smartphones with Ottorbox and Defender cases now. But what if there was a phone that could take the punishment? I can just picture the TV commercials now; a teenage daughter drops her smartphone on the ground and shatters the screen, the next scene is her parents buying her an LG G Flex and before she makes it to the car she drops it again, only this time with no damage. The phone is really a parents and kids dream. A phone that doesn’t require an expensive and bulky case, and could last the teen their entire high school career.

This is not LG’s version of the Samsung Galaxy Round. The Round is not flexible, but rather just a curved phone. While Samsung has been showing off flexible displays at conventions like CES, it has yet to use one in a commercial phone. It seems that LG beat them to the punch and with good reason, they need a winner. I also don’t much care for Samsung’s design of the Round. Frankly it’s curved in the wrong direction. The Galaxy Nexus is still one of the nicest phones to hold against your head when making phone calls. It’s really a shame that Samsung has abandoned that curved design. LG on the other hand got it right. If a phone is going to have a curve then it should be from end to end, not side to side.

I am really interested in seeing how this plays out. I think LG can potentially drop the smartphone world on its head if it can pull this off. Smart marketing and getting demo units into the hands of consumers at electronic and carrier stores is the ticket to LG’s success.