Samsung Unveils Curved Galaxy Round Smartphone
Samsung on Tuesday night unveiled a curved smartphone, dubbed the Galaxy Round, which sports a 5.7-inch display.
As its name suggests, the Galaxy Round is rounded on both sides of its Full HD Super Flexible AMOLED display, allowing it to rock back and forth while on a flat surface. In fact, similar to the Moto X's active display, Galaxy Round owners can gently rock their Round smartphone to one side or another - known as Roll Effect - for a quick view at the time and alerts (see it in action in the video below).
The Galaxy Round will debut in Korea; Samsung did not mention the possibility of an international launch.
Given that its 5.7-inch phablet size will make one-handed surfing a bit cumbersome, Samsung said the Galaxy Round will include "one-handed operation features" that position certain controls on a preferred side of the device's screen. That large screen can also take advantage of Multi Window, which allows for more
than one app to run at the same time.
Samsung also talked up the Bounce UX for music: when the display is off, press on the left side to return to the previous track and on the right to hear the next song. A Side Mirror feature also provides access to a list of album content with a left and right tilt.
The Galaxy Round will run 2.3GHz quad-core processor and Android 4.3, (so it might eventually be able to pair with the Galaxy Gear smartwatch). There's 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, expandable up to 64GB via microSD.
The Round sports a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and 2-megapixel front-facing shooter. All the usual camera features from Samsung are there: Drama Shot, Sound & Shot, Animated Photo, Eraser, Best Photo, Best Face, Beauty Face, HDR (High Dynamic Range), Panorama, Sports, Golf, Surround shot, and Live effect.
For easy access, the Round also supports Air Gesture and Air View for hands-free previewing of texts, emails, and more.
The Galaxy Round will initially be available in "luxury brown," with more colors coming soon. SK Telecom will reportedly carry the smartphone.
News of a curved Samsung smartphone first emerged last month when D.J. Lee, Samsung Mobile's head of strategic marketing, said during the Galaxy Note 3 launch in Seoul that Samsung would introduce a curved phone in October.
Samsung rival LG then announced yesterday that it will begin mass producing what it says is the world's first flexible OLED smartphone panels.
Though Samsung said the Round features a "super flexible" display, it does not appear that the user can actually bend it back and forth like the "Youm" flexible display prototype Samsung showed off at CES 2013.
