Best of CES Day 3: A tale of two cellphones

Participants wander about 2015 CES on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

There was a time, not long ago, when cellphones kept getting smaller and smaller.

Today, that doesn’t seem to matter as much. At this year’s Consumer Electronic Show, it was all about two android devices totally focused on features other than size, one curved and one sealed:

LG G Flex 2

A man photographs the LG G Flex 2 during a media preview before CES International Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015, in Las Vegas. The phone has a curved screen, as the name implies.

A man photographs the LG G Flex 2 during a media preview before CES International Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015, in Las Vegas. The phone has a curved screen, as the name implies.

How many times have you put your phone in your pocket only to retrieve it later and find a fresh scratch? We’ve all been there — and we’ve all tried protective covers to little avail.

When LG released its new G Flex 2 smartphone, it touted a coating on the phone’s body as a “self-healing” polymer meant to prevent just those kinds of scratches.

LG representatives at CES demonstrated the phone’s tough body by using a wire brush to try to scratch the phone’s surface, but amazingly the brush didn’t leave a mark. LG folks said the phone heals itself within 10 minutes — or about “18 times faster” than the original, nonpolymer model.

With a 5.5-inch display, the G Flex 2 is a smaller, improved version of LG’s larger G Flex and features the newest Qualcomm 810 processor.

The phone also has a curved body, allowing for more comfortable pocket storage and bringing its microphone closer to the user’s mouth.

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge

Galaxy Note Edge by Samsung on display at CES 2015 in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday, January 7, 2015.

Galaxy Note Edge by Samsung on display at CES 2015 in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday, January 7, 2015.

Samsung’s newest phone had some otherworldly mascots to catch the eyes of CES attendees: life-size models of Marvel’s Thor, the Incredible Hulk and Iron Man.

The fantastical crew was fitting for the oddly built Galaxy Note Edge.

The phone features a novel, curved display that almost resembles the ticker from the bottom of ESPN channels, showing everything from notifications to app icons to voicemails, text messages and photos with a quick thumb swipe.

Aside from the phone’s curved display, the device resembles Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4, which also included a stylus for jotting down notes.

Verizon reportedly added this Galaxy Note 4 Edge to its lineup for a whopping $800.

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