LG and Samsung both have smartphones with curved displays, but there’s still no clear reason as to why one would want such a device over smartphones with regular screens. In a patent application made public this month, Samsung explains why you would want a “blended display” smartphone over a normal one.

A blended display, if you’re unaware, curves to the sides of a device, and its curvature is much higher than the displays on the LG G Flex or the Galaxy Round.

Samsung’s patent application, titled “method of operating functions of a portable terminal having a bended display,” reveals a number of uses of the additional screen space on the sides of the device:

• Slide to unlock the device from the side rather than the front.

• Slide in the reverse direction to lock the device. This is traditionally done via a power button located at the top or at the side.

• Know how much your phone is charged by seeing the battery meter on the side.

• Paginate through eBooks using the page/chapter numbers on the side.

• Browse your photo collection by date, place or person by using actual bookmarks.

• Find contacts easily by their first letter.

• You can also use the side portion of the screen as a persistent dock to assign shortcuts for various applications. Samsung shows the area dividing into five regions, with the first one for the previous app, the second for the next app, and the other three assigned to user-defined apps. Additionally, you could also configure actions when two regions are tapped simultaneously.

• You can also use the side area as a clipboard, where you can drag items into the region, and subsequently drag it out when using a different app.

• Why waste the main screen’s real estate to display attachment size when you could do it at the side

• Scroll easily through a list (which in this case is photos) on the basis of the date the photo was taken.

Samsung lays down a number of reasons for using blended displays in smartphones. Are you convinced or do you think it is a solution in search of a problem?

If you are, then you’ll have to wait until the second half of 2014, which is when Samsung will reportedly launch such three-sided smartphones.