As reported on TechCrunch.
by JORDAN CROOK
Remember that leaked image of a curved display smartphone from Samsung? You should, considering it popped up under our noses just a few hours ago.
Well, in case you don’t, Samsung wants to remind you. The Korean firm has just sent out a press release announcing the Galaxy Round, “the world’s first curved display smartphone.”
With the curved display, Samsung can offer Galaxy Round owners a range of “exclusive experiences,” like a roll feature that will let them check date, time, missed calls and battery life with the display off. Users will also have the ability to tilt the phone to control things like music, pictures and videos.
To be honest, the press release isn’t very clear on what features the curved display brings about, or how they’ll work, but we’ve pasted the full presser below for you to peruse yourself.
In terms of specs, the Galaxy Round features a mammoth 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display, and weighs in at 154 grams with a waist line of 7.9mm. To deal with such a beastly screen size, the Galaxy Round will also include features like One-Hand Operation, letting a user put customizable controls on a specific, close corner of the display. Users can also run multiple applications in the same window, or run simultaneous multiple instances of the same application if they so choose.
The phone will run Android 4.3 Jelly Bean on a 2.3GHz quad-core processor, complete with 32GB or 64GB of internal memory under the hood.
The Round will also sport a 13-megapixel rear-facing shooter and a 2MP front-facing for video chat, as well as a 2,800 mAh battery.
As it stands now, the Galaxy Round is only going on sale in Korea, and will come in “Luxury Brown,” with more color flavors to follow. Exact pricing and availability were not disclosed.
It’s not clear if the Samsung Galaxy Round is the same phone we’re seeing in these leaked mockups (above and below), but the timing leads me to believe this is more than coincidence.
Here’s that press release we promised:
Samsung GALAXY ROUND Pioneers the Curved Display Smartphone Experience
New device presents world’s first commercialized full HD Super AMOLED flexible display
Seoul, Korea – October 9, 2013 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today introduced GALAXY ROUND, the world’s first curved display smartphone. Samsung has been a mobile display innovator by introducing color TFT-LCD, AMOLED, and Super AMOLED flexible display for its mobile product. With this pioneering curved display technology, GALAXY ROUND blends the latest smartphone screen innovations with unique design features. The sleek and thin Samsung GALAXY ROUND which equipped with a 5.7” Full HD Super AMOLED with 7.9mm thick and weighs 154g offers a comfortable hand grip feeling to user, and exclusive experiences of curved display.
As a result of its unique curved design, users can take advantage of round integration experiences like the Roll Effect that enables user to check information such as date, time, missed call and battery easily when home screen is off, and the Gravity Effect for creating visual interaction with the screen by tilting the device. For music, the Bounce UX enables users to control their music. When the GALAXY ROUND’s display is off while the music player is running, a short press to the left of the device will play the previous track while a short press to the right will play the next track. For pictures and videos, the Side Mirror feature enables users to gain access to list of the album content with a left and right tilt.
The large screen size of the GALAXY ROUND provides additional benefits to users. Useful One-Hand Operation features bring a user’s most desired controls closer to a preferred side of the screen. The device enables enhanced multitasking capabilities that allow users to fully utilize the larger screen through Multi Window, a feature that enables users to open more than one application on the screen, run simultaneous multiple instances of the same application or to easily share content between applications.
Samsung GALAXY ROUND is available in Korea with Luxury Brown, and more color will be available soon.
* All functionality, features, specifications, and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.