Samsung to launch smartphone with curved display to take on Apple

Samsung's new curved phone

Source: Agfa, Philips and Holst

Hot on the heels of the iPhone 5S launch, Samsung has announced its next smartphone that is hotly tipped to feature a curved display.

At an event in South Korea, Samsung’s mobile business head of strategic marketing D.J. Lee said: “We plan to introduce a smartphone with a curved display in October”.

While Lee did not divulge more details, rumours suggest that users will be able to bend and pull the curved phone, which wouldn’t break when dropped.

The company has also recently applied for a patent for a smartphone that is curved along its vertical axis.

Samsung, which has already launched TVs with curved displays, unveiled prototype products with bendy and extendable screens in January this year.

“A curved screen isn’t going to radically change the user’s experience of a smartphone, but it does help Samsung differentiate itself in a crowded market where most phones are homogeneous, flat-screen rectangles,” Ben Wood, analyst at research company CCS Insight, told the BBC.

“My understanding is that these new phones will form part of Samsung’s Active range, so the curved screen is probably to do with making the phone more flexible and rugged.”