The first smartphone that Samsung ever released with a curved display was awful and pointless. It was called the Galaxy Round and it had a screen with concave curvature for absolutely no reason whatsoever. As I’ve had to explain time and time again recently, Samsung’s mobile division is so bad when it comes to first-generation products. They are the physical embodiment of a YouTube comment that shouts “FIRST!” Samsung often decides that it needs to be the first company to launch a phone that touts some new technology, and it puts the cart before the horse every single time. For the most recent example of this recurring phenomenon, look no further than the disaster that is the Galaxy Fold.
Once Samsung gets a few generations into a new product line, the company actually starts focusing on making a product that’s great instead of making a product that’s first. Just look at how fantastic the company’s Galaxy S and Galaxy Note flagship phones are now that both series have matured. The Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10 both have curved displays, but they’re nothing like the Galaxy Round from 2013 because the curves are there for a reason. Apart from looking fantastic, the glass edges fit the curve of one’s palm perfectly. Since smartphones have gotten so huge in recent years, those curves make the S10 and Note 10 infinitely more comfortable to hold while still allowing Samsung to minimize the bezels on either side of the displays.
The design is fantastic and it has become a signature feature of Samsung’s flagship phones. That might not be the case for much longer though, if a new leak turns out to be accurate.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is an old expression that we hope Samsung decides to heed if the company really is considering the design change that just leaked on Friday morning. The company’s Infinity Display design is so terrific, to the point where rival smartphone makers have actually stopped copying Apple’s iPhone and begun to copy Samsung’s designs instead. And no, the irony isn’t lost on us that Samsung grew to become a smartphone behemoth by literally writing the book on copying the iPhone, and now it has become the copied instead of the copier.
As great as Samsung’s current flagship smartphone designs are, the company might be toying with the idea of revamping at least some of them. According to an emerging leaker who already has a pretty good track record, Samsung might be working on a new Infinity Display that completely changes the design in the worst possible way. Instead of having curved edges on the sides of the phone, this new Infinity Display would have flat sides with curved edges on the top and bottom. Ugh.
I am not sure about this one. But this could be Samsung's New Infinity Design, which will launch soon.
Sides Flat, Top & Bottom Curved! pic.twitter.com/HF3hnATwM2— Sudhanshu (@Sudhanshu1414) August 16, 2019
Here’s a closer look at that concept render:
Needless to say, curved edges on the top and bottom of a phone would serve no purpose. The curves on Samsung’s current phones are so great because they not only look good, they allow a huge phone to actually fit comfortably in the user’s hand. A phone with the design shown above wouldn’t look good or be comfortable to hold. It would be the Galaxy Round all over again.
Ambhore says in his tweet that he’s “not sure about this one,” but it’s unclear if he’s saying he’s unsure of the legitimacy of the rumor or if he’s unsure of Samsung’s decision to work on a next-gen Infinity Display design like this. Let’s hope it’s the former, or that Samsung has the sense to let this design die on the vine.
