SpecEagle review · Samsung

Galaxy Round review: The world's first curved-screen smartphone, in a horizontally curved body.

SpecEagle Editorial·Oct 2013·$1,000
Overall
50/100
Class rank
#52 of 87
Tier
Flagship
Buy?
Look elsewhere
The verdict, up front

The first curved-screen phone.

Galaxy Round was Samsung's first phone with a curved display — bent left-to-right for a "rock" effect on tables. Released a week before the LG G Flex, its place as the very first curved-screen smartphone is secure.

01Display

80/100

At 80/100 this is one of the strongest display showings among flagship phones of 2013 — 12 points above the cohort average.

TypeSuper AMOLED, horizontally curved (industry first)
Size5.7 inches
Resolution1,920 × 1,080 px (FHD)

02Camera

60/100

60/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2013.

Main13 MP, autofocus, LED
Selfie2 MP

03Performance

64/100

At 64/100 this is one of the strongest performance showings among flagship phones of 2013 — 8 points above the cohort average.

ChipsetSnapdragon 800 (28 nm)
RAM3 GB
Storage32 GB · microSD

04Battery

64/100

64/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2013.

Capacity2,800 mAh (removable)
Standby~ 350 hours

05Build

68/100

68/100 puts it above the 64-point average for flagship phones of 2013.

06Value

50/100

50/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2013.

What works
  • First phone with a curved display.
  • FHD SAMOLED + Snapdragon 800.
  • Premium "Luxury Brown" finish.
  • microSD + removable battery.
What doesn't
  • Korea-only at launch.
  • $1,000 luxury pricing.
  • Curve was novelty more than function.
  • Mono speaker.
Cross-shop it against
Nexus 5 (LG)
$349 · score 84/100

How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 87-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .