Samsung's curved smartphone leaked?

UPDATE: Samsung has just issued a press release confirming its mythical curved display smartphone is for real.

The Galaxy Round will go on sale in Korea only (for now) and will feature the world’s first commercialized full HD Super AMOLED flexible display.

The screen size is an impressive 5.7”, and Samsung is promising that the Round’s curved design will provide innovative integration experiences – including the ability to control music, pictures and video by simply tilting the phone, and personalized one-handed operation.

Another feature touted in the press release is Multi Window, which will allow users to use more than one application onscreen at a time, and easily share content between apps.

While it hasn’t been confirmed that the device in the pictures is actually the Galaxy Round, considering the timing of the announcement it’s looking pretty likely that the @evleaks pics are genuine.

Ever since Samsung confirmed last month that a curved smartphone was on the cards, gadget lovers have been waiting anxiously for an official announcement. Now prolific tech leaker @evleaks has posted what appear to be promotional shots of an upcoming curved phone from the Korean company.

Assuming it’s not just someone getting creative with Photoshop, the new phone curves inward vertically, which matches Samsung’s earlier hinting that a curved smartphone would be released sometime in October.

According to @evleaks, the device pictured is model SM-G910s and will be, for now at least, a Korean-only release. Other than the photo and the model name, there’s no additional detail on the handset…least of all just what real purpose the curved display will serve.

But why?

Flexible OLED displays we understand, and both Samsung and LG have been rumored to be working on prototypes since earlier this year. But if the phone is curved vertically down the centre, but otherwise rigid, we can only assume the design is for ergonomic reasons.

Samsung has already released a curved-screen phone in the Nexus S, but only the glass was curved, not the screen itself. This looks like a genuine rounded phone that presumably will either fit the curve of your face better, or sit more comfortably in a back pants pocket.

But as to whether the world needs a slightly curved smartphone, the jury’s out. Perhaps this is Samsung’s first attempt to bridge the gap between the current crop of inflexible smartphones, and the truly durable and pliable OLED devices we're hoping will hit the market soon.