South Korean tech company LG plans to begin mass-production of smartphones with curved screens as early as next year, BBC News reported.
LG said it will be the "world's first flexible OLED [organic light-emitting diode] panel for smartphones," a technology that has been reserved for television sets. LG's announcement came about a week after Samsung made a similar one.
Both LG and Samsung use OLED technology on their TVs and it is used to better prevent breakage. In theory, the screen is flexible, but mounted in fixed shells so the owner cannot change their shape in any way.
According to LG, the screens are "bendable but unbreakable."
"The new display is vertically concave from top to bottom with a radius of 700mm [28in], opening up a world of design innovations in the smartphone market," LG said in a press release.
Samsung intends to release a special edition of its Galaxy Note 3 later this month. The Note line of smartphones are part of a "phablet" line of products, smartphones that have calling capabilities, but are large enough to be tablets. LG's new phone, the one that will debut the new OLED screen, seems to fit this category.
"What's more, it is also the world's lightest, weighing a mere 7.2g [0.25oz] even with a 6in screen, the largest among current smartphone OLED displays," the release read.
David McQueen, an expert on mobile devices for tech consultant Informa, said he is not sure LG will deliver on what it hopes to with the new smartphone.
"What's more, it is also the world's lightest, weighing a mere 7.2g [0.25oz] even with a 6in screen, the largest among current smartphone OLED displays," he told BBC News. "But I don't think consumers are going to be that interested by a slightly curved design."
This technology seems to be similar to the planned flexible screen introduced by Samsung. In its original patent filing, Samsung designed its Galaxy Gear smart watch to have a flexible screen, but could not develop in time for the device's release.
"We do think there will be interest if flexible screens are used to offer different form factors," McQueen said. "For example a device that you snap round your wrist or a traditional shaped smartphone whose screen wraps around the sides onto a bit of the back so that the edges become touchscreen rather than hard buttons."
