LG unveiled a curved smartphone on Monday in a move to catch up bigger rival Samsung and kicking Apple’s reputation for being the groundbreaker into touch. The curved smartphone provides a more comfortable grip than flat-screen models but they are more expensive to make.

Both Samsung and LG's curved phones are only available in the South Korean market as they seek to gauge consumer appetite. Samsung launched a variant of the popular Galaxy Note earlier this month as the world's first smartphone with a display slightly curved side to side. LG’s version is a vertically curved six-inch display. The company said the phone will be available from next month through South Korea's three mobile carriers.

This enables more immersive video watching and required a curved battery to support its form factor, LG said. LG is hoping that something will save it. Last week it reported a $75 million operating loss from its handset division for the third-quarter.

Apple is also working on a smartwatch, potentially with a curved screen, but it will be long behind its rivals when it hits the shops. In terms of specs, the G Flex has an OLED display but only 720 x 1280 resolution — at 6-inches diagonally, that pegs the pixel density at 244 ppi. Under the bonnet is a a MSM8974 (Snapdragon 800) processor clocked at 2.26GHz, 2GB of RAM, a 13MP camera, 32GB of internal storage and Bluetooth 4.0. As expected, for now this is a South Korea-only affair. And the price? Close to $1,000 in Korea.

LG says the rear of the G Flex will feature a self-healing coating, designed to automatically fill small scratches in the finish.