Sunday, 6 October 2013
LG Electronics Inc. plans to launch a smartphone with a curved screen next month, opening a new front in its long-standing rivalry with Samsung Electronics Co.
Samsung said in September it plans to unveil its own curved smartphone this month. The race between the South Korean tech giants is emblematic of how smartphone makers are taking advantage of advances in display technology to win over consumers in a competitive market.
LG's new phone, dubbed G Flex, will have a six-inch screen using organic light-emitting-diode technology, a person familiar with the matter said. The handset itself is slightly concave, according to sketches of the prototype viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Details of Samsung's own curved phone have yet to be disclosed, but a design patent filed in South Korea suggests the handset's curve runs side-to-side.
Sales for the new curved phones are unlikely to be significant, and they might come with a hefty price tag. But Samsung and LG are using them to demonstrate progress in developing manufacturing technology that could spawn more wearable gadgets.
For the Flex's curved display, LG employed what the company refers to as a "plastic OLED" screen, using materials that are more flexible than conventional liquid-crystal-display screens, said the person familiar with the matter.
OLED displays are thinner, lighter and allow manufacturers to experiment with different shapes because they don't require backlighting like LCDs do. The one weak point for OLED materials, however, is their susceptibility to moisture.
Display experts say both Samsung and LG have a long way to go until they are able to mass-produce fully flexible screens, which in themselves could open up a vast market for a new breed of gadgets.
