Samsung has launched the Galaxy Round, a concave smartphone with a 5.7in curved screen.
Physically, the phone looks much like Samsung's Galaxy Note 3, but features a gently curved body and display. The 1080p OLED screen is a fixed display, meaning it isn't possible to actually bend the phone.
The phone also boasts new software functions that take advantage of the curved design. One is the "roll effect" which, when the phone lies on its back, lets you rock the device gently to display a screen showing notifications, date, time and battery life.
There's also the "gravity effect", which lets you tilt the device to control various features, such as what music you're playing.
The Galaxy Round will only sell in Korea for now, and it won't come cheap. Samsung hasn't revealed the price, but a "luxury brown" edition of the phone will cost around 1 million won -. That is slightly cheaper than the Galaxy Note 3, but more expensive than the new iPhone 5S. Samsung hasn't said whether it might bring the phone to other markets.
Along with the 1080p display, the phone also features a 13-megapixel camera, plus a 2-megapixel front-facing snapper. Physically, it's around 8mm thick and weighs 154g.
The Galaxy Round runs a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, expandable to 64GB with a microSD. The Galaxy Round runs Android 4.3 and features a 2,800mAh battery.
Curved screens
The Galaxy Round follows hot on the heels of LG's claim that it too would launch phones with curved screens, though not until next year. The company said it had started mass production of curved screens which are concave from top to bottom.
It said its new screens are less than half a millimetre thick and weigh only 7.2g, and could be used for wearable devices as well as smartphones.
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