Not to be outdone by compteitor Samsung, South Korean electronics giant LG, recently announced it has started mass producing OLED smartphones screens for phones to be launched on the market by 2014, according to reports by BBC, the Verge, Engadget and other media. Although, Samsung will be launching its new OLED phones later this month, LG is close behind with its new smartphone.
The new 6-inch OLED smartphones replaces conventional glass substrates with plastic, which allows the wide bendable design of 700 mm radius of curvature, according to a report by the Verge. Benefiting from the lighter material, the phones will only weigh about 7.2 grams. LG claims the phone is unbreakable and completely flexible, but this was met with much skepticism by Extreme Tech writer Sebastian Anthony:
“While LG claims that its display is unbreakable, that’s obviously a lie, and bending it by more than its large bending radius of 700mm would result in a whole lot of dead pixels.”
The practicability of curved screen OLED smartphones continues to be questioned by those in the industry. Anthony’s article “LG is making ‘bendable and unbreakable’ OLED display, for useless curved smartphone,” pointed out while curve designs might be better for talking on the phone, it can be difficult to fit in a pocket, and a pain for playing games and viewing videos. Analysis by others in the industry noted LG’s release of curved smartphones is a move to prove its innovative abilities, but is unappealing to consumers, according to a BBC report. Most reports noted the bendable OLED display would be a much more interesting application if it was used for smart watches.
Still, a PCmag report noted OLEDs appears to be the next big trend for smartphone manufacturers, as companies including Apple have applied for a wraparound AMOLED screen display with face tracking and a flex-screen smartphone for numerous applications, such as media player, personal data organizer, handheld game console, or camera.
