There’s been a significant amount of speculation whether or not Samsung is on the verge of announcing a device with a curved display. We’ve been treated to leaked information from internal sources as well as the odd sneak previews of the device for good measure, but now we have official word that the smartphone does indeed exist. Samsung themselves have announced that the Galaxy Round is in production and will be released almost immediately in Korea.
Aside from being a pretty powerful smartphone, the Galaxy Round’s main commercial feature will be that it ships with a curved OLED display. Samsung’s PR and marketing departments will undoubtedly play on the fact that the Round will be the first smartphone to go to market with a full high-definition AMOLED flexible display. It’s easy to think that this latest Samsung announcement will be a one trick pony, but glancing over the specs sheet makes for rather pleasing reading.
The existence of the curved display on the device will more than likely be a polarizing feature, the benefit of which will be known when we see if it offers any distinct benefit other than flexibility for flexibility sake. The rest of the device however will certainly appeal to the masses. The Round comes in at an impressive 7.9mm in thickness, with a weight of 154 grams. That’s about 40 grams heavier than Apple’s recently released iPhone 5s, but still light enough to be used as an everyday device. The rear camera adds to the overall specification at 13-megapixels, with the device shipping with Android 4.3.
3GB of on-board RAM and a 2.3GHz quad-core processor should give the Round the power that users will be looking for, but the price and limited territory availability may stop a few from even considering the device. Samsung will make the device available for sale tomorrow in South Korea, with a 1.09 million won price-tag and a Luxury Brown external finish. Its hard to predict how consumers will react to the Galaxy Round. Purely from an aesthetic perspective, the phone looks absolutely sensational and it clearly has the technical specification behind it to match.
One thing that Samsung has neglected to mention is when, or even if, we can expect an international release of the Galaxy Round. Fingers crossed that the world’s largest smartphone vendor bring this to us all at some point.
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