Samsung Creates Phone With Curved Display 219
iONiUM writes "Samsung today unveiled the Galaxy Round phone with a curved 5.7" display. It comes with a hefty $1,000 USD price tag. This is a follow-up to the 55" curved TVs it began selling in June, and is most likely an intermediate form in the development of fold-able phones. Considering the recent LG announcement of mass OLED flexible screen production, it seems we are getting close to flexible phones. One question I wonder: will Apple follow suit? So far there has been no indication they are even attempting flexible/bendable screens."
Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Easier to hold.
You have surely noticed your hand is not totally flat.
Re:Why? (Score:2, Insightful)
Also easier to put in your pocket, a normal 5.7 inch screen would jut out more, whereas this would follow the curve of your leg.
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Most people use the phone in their hand more than place on a flat surface. I don't think they're marketing this as a suitable-for-every-single-goddamn-person phone so much as a suitable-for-people-that-this-would-work-for phone.
Re:Gimmick (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know about you, but my thumb is a fixed length, and it pivots at a joint. As such, if I have my hand at a fixed location on a flat surface, my thumb can only touch about a thumb's length of that surface. If the surface were curved, however, my thumb could touch much more of the surface area, since more of it would be within reach of my thumb. That would also allow the screen to be larger (and thus have more content) without sacrificing the convenience of being usable with one hand.
But that's just me. Maybe you're just a regular Inspector Gadget with telescoping thumbs and whatnot.
Re:"Apple, Apple, Apple"! (Score:4, Insightful)
My answer is: Apple doesn't have a design patent on rounded corners and never claimed to have one
D670,286 [google.com]. Dotted lines are not part of the claimed patent. The only solid lines in that patent are: 1 rectangle with rounded corners. 1 rectangle inside the rounded one for the screen.