Ever looked at your smart phone and thought “I sure wish you weren't so flat!”? How about, “I sure wish I could spend $1,013 on a version of you that is curved!”. No? Well, despite what people are actually wanting right now, Samsung dove right into the flexible screen technology market which will, one day, become the norm. It is important to know off-the-bat that the Galaxy Round, as they call it, is not flexible itself. The screen is curved, and so is the display. Differing from what many of you might be thinking of, the Nexus S was not the first to do this, as the only thing curved about that phone is the glass. Beating rivals to the punch, Samsung may be the best-selling smart phone maker in the world, but the Round lacks lure and is barely different than the Galaxy Note 3.

The curved screen is said to assist with a variety of every day phone tasks. One-handed use should become simpler because the way the phone sits in your hand. Features were also created to take advantage of the curve, one being the “Roll Effect” where you can check your notifications just by tilting the screen. Secondly, “Gravity Effect” allows you to tap the left and right sides to trigger the phone's “Bounce UX”, its music center. Finally, tilting the phone right and left while in a gallery switches to the next or previous photo or video (dubbed “Side Mirror”). I am not sure I am understanding how that last feature couldn’t be irritating. Those being the list of “compelling” features, the display itself is 5.7 inches of Super AMOLED, with a 1080p resolution and slight horizontal curve. Weighing less than the Note 3, packed inside is a 2.3GHz quad-core processor, 32 GB internal storage, 3GB RAM, 13Mp rear camera, 2,800mAh battery (which is not curved) and Android 4.3.

Did you notice something? The specs mentioned are almost identical to the Note 3, and you better believe it has the faux leather back and S Pen Stylus. Not sure what is so special about this besides some small advantages of having a curved display. Some one-handed operations could be improved by having more room to go back and forth between areas of the screen. It conforms, in a way, to your body, perhaps creating more comfort while in your pocket (?). Shattering could also become less of a threat if accidentally dropped. Besides these concepts, I am at a loss of what else could sell this. Well, technically nothing at this point, as the Galaxy Round is to launch in South Korea only and with no plans of global release. If anything this could have been a waste of time for Samsung. However, considering there is a market for everyone and everything, I call it a precursor to the ultimate goal of flexible displays in the future. Researchers say the “global flexible display industry is predicted to grow rapidly in the next few years”, with the market being worth nearly $1.5 million by 2016. Despite the statistics, this could mean absolutely nothing for the fate of this particular model by Samsung.