When Samsung and LG launched smartphones with curved displays I dismissed them as a gimmick.

I didn’t get the utility of a device with a curved display. Many of you also wondered the same thing when we reported over the weekend that Apple was working on 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones with curved displays. 

But we received an email from Raymond Soneira, President of DisplayMate Technologies, the display testing, measurement and calibration experts. He clears some of the doubts raised about curved screens.

According to him based on the side-by-side comparison of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Samsung Galaxy Round, the curved screen is a very important and major innovation in smartphone display technology, and “very far from being a marketing gimmick as has been widely reported”. He explains:

The Galaxy Round screen curvature is very subtle, just 0.10 inches away from flat, which is similar to the slight curvature in a handheld magnifying mirror. But that small curvature is the key to a series of optical effects that result in significantly reducing interference from reflected ambient light by a large factor. It substantially improves screen readability, image contrast, color accuracy, and overall picture quality, but can also increase the running time on battery because the screen brightness and display power can be lowered due to the reduced light interference from ambient light reflections. To see this for yourself and understand the size and importance of this effect, turn off the display but hold your Smartphone as if you’re using it and then walk around your normal environment, both indoors and outdoors. 

He also points out that the curved screen should improve screen privacy as it makes it very difficult for other people to see the screen.

While the curved display may probably make sense in devices like the smartwatch or wearable devices, I am still not convinced we need an iPhone or a smartphone with a curved display. It just seems like a solution to a problem we didn’t even know we had. But I must admit, I am quite curious to get my hands on Samsung Galaxy Round or LG G Flex to see how well it works.

You can head over to DisplayMate’s website to read the full analysis of Samsung Galaxy Round’s curved display.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.