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Everything is better with a few curves. While the concavity of the Samsung-built Nexus phone failed to set the world alight, that's no reason to stop bending it like Beckham.

That's according to Samsung's "head of strategic marketing" who told reporters assembled for the Seoul launch of the Galaxy Note 3, including one from Reuters, that Korea would have another curved phone on the shelves within the next couple of months.

Quite why is far from clear: curving a phone's screen around a human head might seem sensible – bringing the microphone and speaker closer to the mouth and ear respectively. Yet phones have become incredibly good at noise cancellation while directional mics cut out most of the background sound, leaving the cambered glass nothing more than an exercise in product differentiation.

Which is surely the point. Modern phones all look much the same. Reducing the bezel makes the flat front look bigger, but whip out any recent smartphone and one's mates will have a hard time knowing they're meant to be impressed.

So Apple painted its flagship gold, a trick Samsung has already copied with a special Galaxy S4 in gold for the Middle East, but what we want is something which marks you out as superior without being quite as bling as a golden tooth – a trendy grill, perhaps.

A curved screen can do that, on a phone or on a TV, as seen at IFA earlier this month when all the manufacturers (including Samsung) were trying to drive the TV replacement cycle with curved sets, despite overwhelming customer indifference.

The same will apply to the curved screen of a phone. As long as it retains the strength of the original a slight arcing of the surface will have no perceptible impact on performance, but it might make your mates look twice – which is, after all, what a flagship smartphone is supposed to do. ®

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