Samsung Galaxy Round announced as the world's first curved smartphone

Bend me shape me any way you want me (credit: evleaks)

Update: Samsung official announced the Galaxy Round, straight-up declaring it to be the world's first smartphone with a curved display.

It's anything but straight, though. The concave phone has a unique 5.7-inch AMOLED screen, which makes it the same size as the recently launched flat Galaxy Note 3.

At 7.9mm thick and weighing 154g, the Galaxy Round is described as offering "a comfortable hand grip feeling to user, and exclusive experiences of curved display" by to the official Samsung Tomorrow blog.

Of course, even if you're due for a Galaxy handset upgrade, Samsung has thrown a bit of a curveball when it coming to buying the Galaxy Round. So far it's only going to be available in the company's home territory, South Korea, on Oct 10.

Until Samsung announces the Galaxy Round for other regions (if it ever does), the rest of the world can be memorized, or perplexed by this video of the phone's wobble effect.

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Samsung's curved smartphone may be around the bend, as new high-resolution promotional photos allegedly show what the rumored Galaxy Round smartphone looks like.

The unconfirmed handset we see here appears similar to company's Galaxy S4, judging from the two images from evleaks. The only (major) different is the display sports a noticeable inward curve on its vertical axis.

This backs up recent comments from Samsung executives that teased a curved smartphone set to be announced in October.

It also correlates to the SM-G910S mystery device that was discovered to have gone through testing a week ago.

What a curve could do for you

Nobody seems to be holding off on buying devices like the iPhone 5S and Galaxy S4 because of their flat high-definition screens. So what's the point of a curved display?

Well, Samsung could make a virtually unbreakable screen in a world where countless smartphone owners have had to replace or live with cracked screens.

T-Mobile even based its upgrade twice a year Jump plan advertisements around consumers getting stuck with broken devices for the duration of a two-year contract.

A curved screen, never touching the ground even if the handset falls face-down, could decrease the number of busted phones out there.

Samsung also has reason to make its curved phone concept a reality sooner rather than later. LG is producing curved OLEDs too and is rumored to be launching the LG Z1.

• Read our Galaxy Note 3 review. It's flat but built for Samsung power users.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/rumored-samsung-curved-smartphone-looks-like-a-broken-galaxy-s4-1187706

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