Whatever your position is on Samsung devices and how they’re designed, more specifically for their line of tablets, one things is hard to dispute and that’s the fact that Samsung hasn’t spent nearly enough time in the design department when it comes to their tablet offerings. They’re known for manufacturing some beautiful products. Their TV’s for example are gorgeous, especially most of the ones from the last few years. Some of their more high-end smartphones are tastefully designed as well. Their tablets however are a little more on the bland side. Each iteration of the Galaxy Tab line has looked relatively the same with only minor tweaks and changes. If you a look back at the very first Galaxy Tab and compare it to the most recent Galaxy Tab 3 line, they all have a fairly similar curved design with with rounded corners. They remind of giant Galaxy S Vibrant phones.
Samsung seems hell bent on providing users with a tablet that is not only elegant and beautiful so its easy on the eyes, but they also want to add in the functional aspect by making tablets easier to hold. At least, it would seem that’s what their trying to do according to their latest patent filing, since it seems like a logical reason for trying to patent the design. The patent is for a curved design of the tablets margins, which in theory sounds like it would make the tablet more comfortable and easier to hold in the hands for short or extended use. The design is such that only the rear back left and right sides of the tablet have a slight curvature to them, which is exactly where your hands would be when holding a tablet with such curved margins in landscape mode.
There are no details given with the figure drawing that were filed with the patent, so we really don’t know anything regarding what Samsung’s plans are for this particular device. The tablet in question could be anything from a new Samsung “Galaxy” branded tablet design to a potential new design for a new Nexus tablet. It really could actually be anything at this point. Nevertheless, Samsung seems to have locked this particular design feature down, as the filing is up on the USPTO website as of now. There’s no telling when we might see such a design from Samsung, but given that these design drawings were just filed it probably won’t be anytime soon.