flexible

Following a translated report yesterday claiming that LG was planning to introduce its first smartphone with a flexible OLED display, The Wall Street Journal chimes in today with more details on the device. According to the report, LG will launch the “G Flex” smartphone next month featuring a 6-inch curved OLED display:

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.

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.

The WSJ was also able to grab the image above showing a sketch for a prototype of LG’s curved device. 
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Samsung Gear Patent Filing

Following a report from SamMobile last week sharing some specific specs coming in Samsung’s much rumored Galaxy Gear smartwatch, today GigaOm reports on a few more details from developers with prototypes of the device. On top of confirming a Sept.4 unveiling at Samsung’s events scheduled to take place in Berlin and New York, the report claims Galaxy Gear will include a 2.5 inch OLED display, dual core processor, an accelerometer, speakers, and built-in NFC:

It is said to be around 2.5 inches diagonally (and 3 inches diagonally including the case), is powered by a dual core processor and should have pretty decent battery life. In addition, we are told the watch has a camera that is integrated into the strap and even has tiny speakers in the clasp of the watch, plus built-in NFC to allow for bump-to-sync and authenticate. The watch uses Bluetooth 4.0 LE to connect with smartphones for connectivity… In addition, the watch has a built-in accelerometer that makes it possible to switch it on when it is moved up towards the eye. It could be a great way to wake the watch and also the apps and manage battery power. The watch screen will support the usual touch, swipe and select type gestures but will likely not have text-input.

The report adds that watch will work with a Samsung watch manager app on a smartphone and utilize apps from the Samsung App Store, not Google Play. GigaOm also claims that Galaxy Gear will support Facebook and Twitter integration at launch. The Samsung App Store integration could mean the device will only be available for Samsung device users:
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=f4AhTiQkWwk]

Samsung today released the video above showing off a flexible, transparent, concept device that might be the company’s own take on Microsoft’s recently released Productivity Future Vision 2011 concept video.

Judging by a rough translation of the Korean video, the device would be a flexible, foldable, 3D capable sheet of glass (approximately 10-inches) with context sensitive UIs. Of course we’re not likely to see anything close to Samsung’s concept in the first batch of flexible displays, which are expected from the company sometime in 2012. However, the concept is yet more proof that Samsung is, at the very least, strongly considering bringing a flexible device to market. Samsung originally showed off their flexible AMOLED tech at CES 2011 with the 4.5-inch displays seen in the clip below:

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