Samsung isn’t only interested in releasing a significantly updated Galaxy S5 flagship, the company’s executive vice president of the mobile division revealed to Bloomberg in an interview. The Galaxy Note 4 may also see some major design changes including a flexible display, as the company tries to stay relevant in the high-end handset market where it competes against Apple’s iPhones but also against other high-end Android and Windows Phone devices. “We are targeting consumers who want more professional use and tend to be willing to pay more for handsets,” Lee Young Hee said.
The Galaxy Note 4, which will arrive in the second half of the year, may get a wraparound, three-sided display that will allow users to read messages from an angle, the exec said. The company has demoed its flexible Youm displays, including screens that wrap around the sides last January, although the feature is yet to be used by any smartphone in the company’s lineup. Samsung’s Galaxy Round is the first handset from the company to use a flexible screen, which curves horizontally (when held in portrait mode,) but doesn’t the display doesn’t “spill” over the sides.
Furthermore, Samsung has obtained design patents for wraparound displays, which inspired designers to come up with Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 4 concepts. While it’s not clear how a three-sided Galaxy Note 3 curved display would look like, the following video shows Samsung’s Youm display concept as demoed during its CES 2013 media event.
