2016: Samsung Flexible Phone prototype unveiled at CES + Samsung galaxy S8 or Note 6 prediction ?

Samsung is reportedly set to announce a curved display smartphone known as the Galaxy Round.

The new phone could be unveiled later this week, Korean news site Asiae reported Sunday. A Google translation of the story mentions October 10, but it’s unclear whether that’s the date forecast for the expected unveiling.

The phone would use a plastic display rather than one made of glass. The Asiae report follows a comment made by a Samsung executive in September confirming such a phone.

“We plan to introduce a smartphone with a curved display in South Korea in October,” D.J. Lee, Samsung’s mobile business head of strategic marketing, said at an event launching the Galaxy Note 3 smartphone, Reuters reported at the time.

Samsung has already filed for a trademark for the Galaxy Round name itself. The filing doesn’t reveal anything about the device, but recent reports claim the phone would offer specs similar to those found in Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3. A flexible display version of the Note 3 is rumored to be in the works as well.

LG is also gearing up a flexible display smartphone called the G Flex, CNET recently learned, though that phone may not surface until November.

What exactly is a flexible display smartphone? Those of you who envision bending and flexing such smartphones may be disappointed. The phone’s body itself is rigid. Rather, the display is curved although stationary. The curve allows the phone to fit more snugly around the contours of your face.

(Via Know Your Mobile)

Samsung unveiled its flexible phone prototype, running Windows Phone 8 and branded Youm, during a keynote at CES that also included former US President Bill Clinton. Great concept future phone

A flexible display is a display which is flexible in nature; differentiable from the more prevalent traditional flat screen displays used in most electronics devices. In the recent years there’s has been a growing interest from numerous consumer electronics manufacturers to apply this display technology in E-readers, Mobile phones and other consumer electronics.

The world’s biggest technology manufacturer said that Youm, the brand it has used for its flexible display technology since June, was a prototype that was not going to launch imminently. Samsung’s continued emphasis on the technology will worry its rivals, however, and indicates that the Korean company is continuing both to work on new display technologies and to reduce its reliance on Google Android. It pointedly demonstrated the phone running Windows Phone 8.
The true impact of flexible displays, however, is likely to be hampered by the size and rigidity of vital processing and memory technology. The demonstration unit featured a flexible display attached to a small processing box.
Analysts say the first uses for flexible displays are most likely to be in devices that are more durable than glass because they can absorb force rather than crack under it. The new technology is also likely to be used, Samsung said, to wrap displays around devices and allow them, for instance, to show information on their edges.
Eric Rutter, Microsoft’s Chief Technology Strategy Officer, said that it was clear that displays did not need to be rigid. On stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the prototype phone was shown being flexed and bent without any conspicuous colour distortion, with other pre-recorded demonstrations shown on film. Referring to people who have talked about Apple’s marketing creating a “reality distortion field,” he claimed “we’ve actually built one”.
Corning, the maker of Gorilla Glass, which is widely used across mobile phones, is also working on a flexible glass product called Willow. It is likely to be available in time for use on devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the forthcoming iPhone, but will not offer the flexibility of plastic. Subsequent mobile phone releases, therefore, may not use as much glass and may instead move to flexible displays.

Samsung has been working on flexible displays for a number of years, but its latest demonstration was the first to prove it has already talked to other companies about how it might implement flexible displays. Previous rumours have, however, suggested that it has also spoken to Google about a version of Android for such devices.
Samsung’s keynote also featured former American President Bill Clinton. He reiterated his observations on the transformative power of technology for the developing world, and also said he had seen how much medical technology had moved on during his wife Hillary Clinton’s recent hospital stay. He also added his voice to calls for stricter gun control in America

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