LG and Samsung Throw a Curve TOKYO - Remember when telephone handsets were curved to bring the microphone closer to your mouth? That began back in the days of rotary dials. The smartphones of today are flat, to accommodate touch screens. But that may be starting to change. With a nod to the telephones of the past and the technology of the future, LG Electronics of South Korea on Monday announced a new smartphone with a curved screen, the LG G Flex. The move came about a month after LG's domestic rival, Samsung Electronics, introduced a phone called the Galaxy Round, which it billed as the first smartphone with a curved display. The two devices look quite different. Samsung's phone wraps slightly around the vertical axis, like a shoehorn. The LG G Flex has a more pronounced curve along its horizontal axis, like a banana. For this reason, LG is proclaiming its new phone the world's "first "real" curved smartphone."" The new devices show how smartphone makers are focusing more on factors like design and ergonomics to distinguish their products, as basic phone technology and features converge. In advertisements in South Korea, Samsung portrays the Galaxy Round as easier to hold because it matches the natural curve of the hand. According to LG, the concave shape of the G Flex display, which resembles the screens of some of the newest high-end TVs, offers a better viewing angle for videos. By employing "a curvature arc that is optimized for the average face," LG said in a statement, the G Flex improves the sound quality for voice calls. What is more, the company says, the phone fits more easily into the back pocket of your jeans. Just don't try sitting on it. Neither the G Flex nor the Galaxy Round has a flexible display. That innovation, analysts say, may be coming soon. LG said the G Flex would be available in South Korea next month, with other countries to follow, though it did not specify when or where the phone might be sold outside the domestic market.