LG has unveiled its own curved-screen smartphone, the G Flex, which sees the firm taking on Samsung's Galaxy Round handset, which was unveiled earlier this month, v3.co.uk reports.
The G Flex is an Android 4.2.2 Jellybean-powered device and it boasts a 720p HD 6in screen that curves around the horizontal axis – rather than the Galaxy Round's vertical axis – giving the phone a distinctive banana shape.
LG claims the device's shape is "optimized for the average face", touting better voice quality due to the microphone's closer proximity to the users' mouth when making calls. In addition to the curved screen LG has also fitted the device with a curved 3,500 mAh battery that it claims can last all day.
Like LG's most recent flagship smartphone, the G Flex lacks physical buttons on the front or side of the device, relegating the home and volume buttons to just below the rear-facing camera, v3.co.uk says.
The firm claims the rear of the handset is coated in "self-healing" material which has the ability to recover from smaller scratches incurred from regular everyday use.
While Samsung's Galaxy Round was able to demonstrate some unique use cases for its curved screen, LG's device features very little software functionality which takes advantage of the physical properties of the device.
The device will be powered by a 2.26 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM and will feature a 13 megapixel rear-facing camera coupled to a 2.1 megapixel sensor on the front. The device will go on sale in Korea in November, with other markets announced at a later date.
As the price of components come down and the high-end smartphone market begins to focus on the physical properties of handsets, both LG and Samsung are looking for ways to differentiate their products from rivals, hence the current fad for curved screens.
The technology is still in its infancy and, as yet, there is no proof of great user demand for curved screens, v3.co.uk says.
