The much-anticipated, and no doubt soon-to-be best-selling, Samsung Galaxy S4 was announced last month, and is said to hit virtual and brick-and-mortar store shelves very soon. That announcement has sort of quieted rumors and speculation over the technical aspects and physical design of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phablet. However, recent rumors out of Korea, Samsung’s home country, suggest that the upcoming Galaxy Note 3 may make its debut as the world’s first flexible and “unbreakable” smartphone.
Obviously, there are no end to the rumors surrounding upcoming smartphones. As smartphone shoppers and devotees, we sometimes dream out loud about the features we would enjoy on the next bigger and better device. And this latest in a long line of Samsung Galaxy Note 3 rumors surrounding the smartphone/tablet are based on technology which was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this year. At this early stage, there has been no confirmation from Samsung whether or not the Galaxy Note 3 will actually debut an unbreakable and flexible screen.
Giving this particular rumor some credence and level of acceptance is the Korean website Asiae, which this week cited “unnamed industry sources” in their claims that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 spec sheets will include the company’s flexible OLED technologies. As mentioned above this Samsung technology was first red-carpeted at the Vegas-based CES.
Samsung not only refuses to discuss the possibility of a flexible and unbreakable display on the Galaxy Note 3, the company has yet to verify the existence of the handset itself. This lack of comment comes even as recent leaks of the Galaxy Note 3 have appeared on Samsung’s official website, as well as on multiple web properties. And honestly, with a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 launch date probably not appearing until September’s IFA 2013, the number of rumors surrounding the handset are definitely expected to increase rather than dissipate.
The official Samsung website recently offered that the yet to be confirmed Galaxy Note 3 will deliver a super-large 6.3 inch display. That will be an increase from the 5.55 inch Galaxy Note II, which built upon the original Galaxy Note screen size of 5.3 inches. External sources have reported a possible 5.9 inch screen, with virtually every iteration of the upcoming Galaxy Note 3 definitely returning the popular smart stylus S Pen. Of course, with the international Samsung Galaxy S4 version offering an Exynos 5 octa-core processor, that same eight core CPU is rumored to power the upcoming Galaxy Note 3 as well.
April 1, 2013 at 5:31 pm
It’s highly unlikely that Samsung or LG will be releasing their next gen of mobile devices with the same flexible OLED technology demonstrated by Brian Berkeley at CES in Jan 2013. The model demonstrated there was a very early prototype, and both companies have some way to go before achieving an acceptable production cost.
I also don’t anticipate the “flexible screen” will not so much be a bendy folding display, more likely is that the OLED panel will be shaped around the form of the case to produce a display that wraps around the edge(s) (also demonstrated at CES) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciI5RkJLhhA which will enhance the user experience, but not particularly exciting.
An interesting point to draw about flexible panels is that since they no longer conform to standard shape viewports, there are many possibilities in digital signage & advertising that were not available before. Soon artists, photographers, marketeers, scientists, engineers, designers – everyone will benefit from technology conforming to their needs and content rather than the other way – content being constrained by the viewport.