Samsung Galaxy Round curved smartphone officially revealed

Samsung has officially revealed the Galaxy Round, the first smartphone with a curved OLED display. Following weeks of rumours, the company announced the phone in its native South Korea late last night.

With a 5.7in, Full HD flexible display, curving horizontally inwards, the Galaxy Round is designed to sit flush with your hand. According to early reports, it’s more comfortable to hold than similarly-sized smartphones and phablets, although we’ll withhold judgement until we get to hold one ourselves.

Never one to miss out an opportunity to add a new software tweak, Samsung has introduced a “roll effect” which reveals the time, date, weather and notifications simply by rolling the phone towards you when it’s resting on a desk. It appears to be running the latest 4.3 version of Andoid, underneath Samsung’s own TouchWiz UI.

Inside, the Galaxy Round essentially uses the same hardware as the Galaxy Note 3, with a 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, 3GB of RAM and a 13-megapixel rear camera. It also shares the same faux leather backing plate.

There’s currently no mention of an international release, with Korean prices starting from 1.09 million won (about $1,000 or £630) and the phone going on sale from tomorrow. Hopefully Samsung will reveal official UK pricing and availability soon – if and when it does we’ll be sure to update this story.