The long rumored curved-screen smartphone just became a reality with Samsung's debut of its Galaxy Round. The smartphone features a 5.7-inch full HD super AMOLED curved screen and will go on sale Thursday in Korea for 1.09 million won, or about $1,000, without a contract. At this time, the company isn't saying when, or if, the phone will come to the U.S. market.
 |
|
(Image source: Samsung Tomorrow) |
Samsung executives have been talking about curved displays for several months. At the Consumer Electronics show in January, Samsung's Stephen Woo, president of the company's components business, showed off a prototype smartphone with a flexible display.
At that time, Samsung said it would sell flexible OLED displays under the Youm brand. Besides making components for its own smartphones, the company also sells a wide range of electronics components to other manufacturers, including Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).
Earlier this week LG announced that it is starting mass production of smartphones with curved screens and an executive indicated the company would launch a smartphone with a curved display in November.
Samsung said that it believes the curved design will enable users to more easily do certain tasks, such as use the "Roll Effect" that enables users to check information like date, time and missed calls when the home screen is off. In addition, the company said the screen size will help with one-handed operation features and enhance multitasking.
Samsung said the Galaxy Round initially will be available in "luxury brown" but other shades are planned for the future.
For more:
- See this press release
- See this AllThingsD article
- See this Verge article
Related articles:
LG, Samsung likely to launch curved-screen smartphones in Q4
Samsung shows off flexible OLED phone displays, dubbed Youm
Inside Samsung's push to develop its Galaxy Gear smart watch
Samsung mobile exec Packingham departs company