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LG Electronics Inc. plans to launch a smartphone with a curved screen next month, opening a new front in its long-standing rivalry with Samsung Electronics Co.
Samsung said in September it plans to unveil its own curved smartphone this month. The race between the South Korean tech giants is emblematic of how smartphone makers are taking advantage of advances in display technology to win over consumers in a competitive market.
A sketch of LG's prototype phone with a curved screen, obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
LG's new phone, dubbed G Flex, will have a six-inch screen using organic light-emitting-diode technology, a person familiar with the matter said. The handset itself is slightly concave, according to sketches of the prototype viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Details of Samsung's own curved phone have yet to be disclosed, but a design patent filed in South Korea suggests the handset's curve runs side-to-side.
Sales for the new curved phones are unlikely to be significant, and they might come with a hefty price tag. But Samsung and LG are using them to demonstrate progress in developing manufacturing technology that could spawn more wearable gadgets.
For the Flex's curved display, LG employed what the company refers to as a "plastic OLED" screen, using materials that are more flexible than conventional liquid-crystal-display screens, said the person familiar with the matter.
OLED displays are thinner, lighter and allow manufacturers to experiment with different shapes because they don't require backlighting like LCDs do. The one weak point for OLED materials, however, is their susceptibility to moisture.
LG has used OLEDs in its products before, but the Flex signals a new push into the technology, which is expected to be used increasingly by electronics makers betting on wearable devices. LG mainly uses liquid-crystal-display screens for its smartphones. Samsung, meanwhile, has been applying OLED technology on its phones since the launch of the Galaxy S smartphones in 2010.
Display experts say both Samsung and LG have a long way to go until they are able to mass-produce fully flexible screens, which in themselves could open up a vast market for a new breed of gadgets.
"We do not think transparent and rollable phones will remain confined to concept products forever," Jae H. Lee, an analyst with Daiwa Securities, wrote in a research note. But, the analyst added, "the challenge of launching flexible displays has been its extremely low production yield due to difficulties in encapsulating OLED displays, since organic materials need to be protected from air and moisture."
Earlier this year, Samsung and LG sought to outdo each other in the television market—launching 55-inch curved TV sets that they said would enhance viewing experiences from all angles.
Write to Min-Jeong Lee at min-jeong.lee@wsj.com
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