And the seemingly age-old war between LG and Samsung continues. This time the battle is centered around curved displays on smartphones — Samsung has already shown its hand with the curious Galaxy Round, and now some newly-disseminated images seem to indicate that LG is going to return fire in short order. Earlier this evening a handful of press renders obtained by Engadget (and later by The Next Web) showed off what appeared to be LG’s forthcoming G Flex smartphone… and the pronounced dip that marks its slim midsection.
This is no mere blatant knockoff of the Galaxy Round though. In a bid to outdo its rival, LG has apparently decided to pull out all the stops and develop a device that curves the opposite way — that is, the curve runs across the device’s waist. Engadget also reports that the G Flex will sport a hefty 6 inch display (a hair larger than the Galaxy Round’s screen), but other than that the G Flex seems to stick to the same sort of spartan design language that so prominently marks so many other recent LG devices. That curve looks rather familiar though — it’s almost a bit Galaxy Nexus-y, a bit of ironic design minutia that probably didn’t escape LG’s design team.
At this point there’s no firm word on what other components are nestled inside that slim frame, or what sort of software LG has cooked up to try and take advantage of that curvy screen. No, for now we’ll have just to debate the merits of the whole curved display craze as a whole, and I’m not convinced just yet. As visually alluring as these things can be, I can’t shake the feeling that this first batch of curvaceous smartphones is nothing more than a pissing match between two companies that have been jostling to out-innovate each other for decades.
That said I have to wonder if Samsung’s approach to design isn’t the smarter one here. Say what you will about the Galaxy Round (I still think it’s pure gimmickry masquerading as a game-changer), but it’s going to slide in and out of a pocket with ease. The G Flex is ostensibly meant to better fit the contours of a user’s face much like the Galaxy Nexus did, but that big ol’ screen may make that proposition a hairier one than LG had hoped. Either way, we’ll find out the truth soon enough — the G Flex is reportedly set to make its debut some time next month. And then, hopefully sooner rather than later, we’ll discover whether or not this whole curve-fuffle will have the sort of impact on the industry that both Samsung and LG clearly hope it will.
