Will smartphones armed with curved displays prove a hit during the 2013 holiday season? LG and Samsung might be hoping so, since both companies are reportedly launching such devices within the next few months.

LG confirms it already started mass production of what it claims is "the world’s first flexible OLED panel for smartphones," one replacing glass with plastic as a substrate.

“The flexible display market is expected to grow quickly as this technology is expected to expand further into diverse applications including automotive displays, tablets and wearable devices," the company states. "Our goal is to take an early lead in the flexible display market by introducing new products with enhanced performance and differentiated designs next year."

The Wall Street Journal and CNET report the LG curvy device is called "G Flex," a 6-inch number supposedly slated for a November launch. Sketches of the device probably do not show an actual flexible phone, but one with a slightly bent display similar to the company's curved OLED TVs.

LG sticks with the 4:3 screen aspect ratio as it launches the Vu 3-- a squarish Android phablet armed with a 5.2-inch display, stylus input and a processor identical to that inside the G2 flagship.

The IPS display handles 2380x960 resolutions, and according to LG the unusual design provides "optimum readability" through an aspect ratio identical to that of A4 paper and most textbooks.

The included rubber stylus comes complete with an update Notebook app, while further specifications include a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU, 13MP camera and LTE-A radio.

LG gives no mention if the Vu 3 will be available in in our part of the world. However Korean customers should be able to get the device by end September 2013 in black, white and torquise colours.

Go LG Vu 3

The company formerly known as RIM quietly launches the biggest BlackBerry handset yet-- the Z30, with a 5-inch 1280x720 295ppi Super AMOLED display.

It carries a dual-core 1.7GHz processor with quad-core graphics, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, a 2880mAh battery (one the company promises powers up to 25 hours of continuous "mixed use"), "Natural Sound" stereo speakers and wifi, Bluetooth and NFC connectivity.

The cameras are similar to those seen in the Z10, being 2MP front-facing and 8MP rear-facing with an f2.2 lens.

The best-selling Sony smartphone yet, the Xperia Z, gets a sequel at IFA 2013-- the Xperia Z1, a 5-inch smartphone packing a boosted camera complete with 27mm G lens, 20.7MP Exmor CMOS image sensor and BIONZ image processing engine.

Further camera features include an "Info-eye" visual search function, a Timeshift burst mode (takes 61 images in 2 seconds) and cloud-based image sorting and storage via PlayMemories Online.

The CPU also gets an improvement with a quad-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chip, while making a return from the Xperia Z is the 1920 x 1080 Trilumonous display.