Samsung released the first commercially produced smartphone with a curved display: the Samsung Galaxy Round.
Unveiled in October 2013, the Galaxy Round curved inward along its length, creating a bowl-like shape rather than bending around the phone’s side edges. It was based heavily on the Galaxy Note 3 and was sold exclusively through SK Telecom in South Korea beginning October 10, 2013. Samsung’s design made it an early commercial showcase for flexible-display technology.
The Galaxy Round used a 5.7-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. Its curved shape was intended to improve ergonomics, reduce glare, and enable features such as Quick Glance, which displayed information when one side of the phone was lifted.
A common mix-up involves LG’s G Flex, which was announced shortly afterward and also featured a curved body and flexible OLED display. LG’s phone became more widely associated with flexible smartphones, but Samsung’s Galaxy Round came first as a commercially produced curved-display smartphone. Later Samsung phones, including the Galaxy Note Edge and Galaxy S6 Edge, curved the display toward the sides instead.