Today, via a brief press blast, Samsung Mobile Display announced its big intentions for this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Sammy’s mobile display unit hopes to make a splash with two, very distinctive products: a 4.5-inch WVGA flexible AMOLED display and a 19-inch qFHD transparent AMOLED display. As Samsung explains:

SMD is presenting a prototype of the most advanced flexible AMOLED display. Only 2mm thick, the 4.5 inch flexible AMOLED runs at a WVGA 800 x 480 resolution and can be rolled down to a one centimeter radius.

At WVGA, this new concept prototype offers a display resolution four times that of the previous most flexible AMOLED prototype in the industry, thanks to the use of a new plastic substrate that can withstand the 450-500 degree temperatures required in the manufacturing process.

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SMD is showing the world’s first large transparent AMOLED Display prototype, designed for use in applications from PC monitors to TVs.

Whether the prototype AMOLED display is turned off or on, it maintains up to a 30% transparency. The average amount of transparency elsewhere has been below 10 percent.

SMD’s transparent AMOLED prototype provides the highest resolution on a transparent large screen TV (over 19 inches) or monitor display.

Look for more information about the two displays next week on January 5th.

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It’s July 4th — America is celebrating its independence at the grill, policemen across the country are turning a blind eye to fireworks, liquor store owners are swimming in the day’s take… And two new Sony Ericsson handsets are getting detailed. Maybe. Consider these unconfirmed rumors for the time being, but it looks like SE’s first Android handset could be a gem and its first transparent display-equipped handset could be the ugliest thing we’ve ever seen. Let’s start at the top… After the jump.

Thanks, Staska and origins81!

Pictured above is a sleek full touchscreen handset codenamed “Rachael”, reported to be the Sony Ericsson’s first Android offering. According to rumor, it will bear the Xperia brand and will feature a big ‘ole touchscreen resting atop Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor, an 8 megapixel camera with auto-focus, a 3.5mm audio jack, 7.2Mbps HSDPA and 3D graphics capabilities. Hot. It will be announced later this year and, if all this holds up, could very well be the first truly drool-worthy SE handset we’ve seen in quite a while.

Next up from the mill, a hideous handset reportedly codenamed “Kiki”. Beyond the unique design, the Kiki is said to feature a glass display that can be viewed from either side of the device. The handset doesn’t seem to feature anything resembling a traditional keypad so we’re not sure how interfacing is going to work. Bottom line — this is likely a very early mock up that will be changed drastically if and when it ever reaches market.

[Via Unwired View]

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Uh oh. The often accurate Carphone Warehouse has just updated its site to include the LG GD900, tagged as the GD900 Crystal, complete with an expected arrival time frame in mid-May. Yeah, we’re excited. While LG hasn’t yet announced an official release date for any region, we can only hope that other areas are slated for around the same — though we doubt any US availability would fall into that time frame. As you might recall from our brief but entrancing encounter with this sexy little piece of kit, the GD900 is the world’s first handset to feature an illuminated transparent keypad with multitouch gesture support. Coupled with LG’s new S-Class UI under a nice bright touchscreen display, we can’t get our hands on it quickly enough. Everything else — like the slim form and class-topping 8 megapixel camera — is just gravy.

[Via T3]

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We first posted about the LG GD900 back in February and now that we’ve finally had a chance to play with it, we’re not ashamed to admit we’re a little enamored. Say whatever you want… This thing is awesome. In a nutshell, it’s the fashion phone to end all fashion phones with some killer functionality on top. The transparent touch-sensitive illuminated keypad (with gesture support!) is sexier than you can imagine, and in fact the entire slide mechanism that runs up the back is the same clear material. The handset is super thin and yet manages to pack an 8 megapixel camera into the rear of the case. LG’s new S-Class 3D UI fantastic — responsive, attractive and logical. Think of it as TouchWiz on crank. It supports gestures, multi-touch and features tons of 3D transitions and menus. Hit the jump for some more pics and, if you’re comfortable with your masculinity, drool over the GD900 along with us.

Falling into the not earth shattering but definitely noteworthy category at MWC today, LG previewed a very cool upcoming handset that definitely caught our attention. LG rarely comes up short when it comes to the design element of a handset and the GD900 takes things to a new level. As you can see in the image above, the handset has a slider form factor that reveals a completely transparent keypad. When open, the keypad “illuminates a cool glow that reflects the phone’s sleek and polished silver body.” That’s cool and all but let’s take things a step further. Think about the possibilities here – how about a thin transparent keypad that sits atop a full-color LCD display? In other words, Optimus Maximus-like functionality without Optimus Maximus-like pricing. But we digress. Details on the GD900 beyond its design are forthcoming but we’re going to guess that this will be a pricey feature phone that probably won’t travel far outside the Asian market, at least for a while. Initial release is slated for Q2 2009.

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