Samsung unveils ‘Galaxy Round’ phone with curved display, innovates nothing, wants US$1,015 per unit

“Whereas Apple sticks to a core device design and ideal, Samsung creates as many different device designs as possible, from flip phones named after Irish alcohol, to phablets that are only fractions of an inch smaller than a traditional seven-inch tablet,” James Plafke reports for ExtremeTech. “Now, Samsung has unveiled the first smartphone with a curved screen, the Galaxy Round, confirming that there’s no reason to put a slight curve in a smartphone display.”

“While a too-long-to-invoke lock screen and changing between music tracks on your phone instead of with your headphone controls certainly aren’t the world-shattering curved display features we’ve been waiting for, the Round could perhaps act as a stepping stone toward actually useful mobile devices with curved displays,” Plafke reports. “It could also one day lead toward truly flexible mobile displays. The current naming of the Round, though, is a little misleading, as the curvature is so shallow that it’d take about 300 of the devices to arrange a circle. We hope if Samsung figures it all out, it continues with the grocery store meat naming conventions, and we’ll soon be writing about the Galaxy Ground Round, then the budget friendly Galaxy Ground Chuck.”

Samsung Galaxy Round phone in "Luxury Brown" (US$1015)
Samsung Galaxy Round phone in “Luxury Brown” (SRP: US$1015)

 
Plafke reports, “The Galaxy Round will be releasing in the ‘Luxury Brown’ color on October 10 in South Korea, for the ludicrous price of [US]$1,015.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: “Luxury Brown?” Zunetastic!

At Samsung, if you throw enough shit against a wall, you end up with a shitty wall.

80 Comments

  1. I think Samsung is being very clever (read “sneaky”) here.

    First with the watch, now the curved glass (both things Apple has been rumoured to be working on) they seem to rushing out any old crap just to be able to claim prior art in court.

    Who cares how well the work or how many you sell if you can stop others truly innovating.

  2. This is what Samsung “innovation” looks like. A $1000 price tag for a phone that is curved for no reason other than to say it is curved.

    The reality is that the Android OEM’s know they are screwed when Apple releases a larger screen with the iPhone 6. I personally don’t need a larger screen, but this is really the only feature that competitors can cling to and claim that they are innovating. Can’t wait… In the meantime, I am still loving my iPhone 5.

  3. Far be it from me to defend Samsung but there is one useful thing about this screen (I still don’t think it’s worth the money), if you drop it, you’re very unlikely to scuff or crack the screen. A curved piece of glass is stronger then a flat one and this one is also curved so the glass would not scrape the ground if it loaded face down.

    1. Samsung phones already break far more often than iPhones, so that’s not much comfort.

      So now if the phone lands on its face, and someone steps on it (“accidentally”, of course!), with no support it’s almost guaranteed to break (aww, too bad!).

      1. That would seem to follow. I don’t think it’s going to give them iPhone level build quality but it might make it less prone to break then other Samsung devices…unless someone steps or sits on it.

  4. Most people do not realize the reason why apple some time takes so long to get something out on the market is, they do it right not just slap shit together and say does it work?

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