Google is ready to spend a billion dollars to give the Pixel a curved display

Google is ready to spend close to $1 billion — around $880 million at today's exchange rate — to LG Display to produce curved OLED panels for its next Pixel phones, according to Korea's Electronic Times (via Reuters).

The report says that LG has not approved the offer just yet, but the move is an indicator that Google understands it needs to follow Samsung, LG and presumably other OEMs in producing thinner, more flexible OLED panels to maximize the screen space of its next Pixels while keeping overall device footprint down.

While the original Pixels use OLED panels, which are ideal for virtual reality and optimized for the Daydream platform, the phones, available in 5-inch and 5.5-inch variants, have been criticized for their bezels above and below the display, making their overall size much larger than other devices with the same usable screen real estate.