Samsung revealed a curved-display smartphone early Wednesday, the first of its kind. Though its name, the Galaxy Round, may suggest something closer to a half cylinder, this smartphone is gently curved, just enough to cup in your hand, and to sit up ever so slightly when it's on a table and you press down on one side.
We say "phone" but with a 5.7-inch full HD Super AMOLED screen, it's way more of a "phablet," like the new Galaxy Note 3. Maybe that's Samsung's answer to its ever increasing screen sizes — start curving them inward and they won't feel so darn huge.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Samsung phone without a handful of weird little tricks, these ones playing off of the namesake curvature. If you're lying in bed and roll the phone towards you by pressing down, quick info like time, date, battery life and your missed calls fade into view.
When playing music, a press on the left moves to the previous track, while a press on the right advances to the next song. There's a "side mirror" feature that lets you scroll through photos and album art in a similar way.
The new phone's specs are dialed up across the board: a cranking new 2.3GHz quad-core processor and 3GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel camera, and the latest version of Android.
But don't get too excited, Samsung nerds: This phone is only available in Korea for now, in "luxury brown." More impressions and pictures here on Samsung's official blog.
Wilson Rothman is the Technology & Science editor at NBC News Digital. Catch up with him on Twitter at @wjrothman, and join our conversation on Facebook.
