Crazy Consumer Electronics World: Samsung will ditch plastic for 'new materials' on a 2014 phone

Samsung will break the mold this year and release a non-plastic phone, bucking a trend it's established over several years of cheap-feeling Galaxy devices.

Not that Samsung's phones have actually been cheap, or of poor quality, but their plastic chassis have sometimes made them feel that way.

No doubt that hasn't helped the Korean firm in its battles with competitors like HTC, which has taken to using metal on flagships like the HTC One (M8).

But now Samsung Mobile Senior Vice President Kim Hyun-joon has informed investors and analysts that Samsung will release two more phones this year, one of which will be made from "new materials," reports The Wall Street Journal.

So metal

One of those phones will be a large device, possibly the Galaxy Note 4.

The other could very well be the rumored Galaxy Alpha, which could be a Galaxy S5 spin-off with metal sides and a textured, plastic back.

In addition an unknown Samsung phone being used for research and development purposes popped up in April with what was thought to possibly be an all-metal body, so that could be it too - or those could be the same phone.

Samsung revealed in its latest quarterly earnings report that profits have fallen, though not by any fault of the successful Galaxy S5.

It seems the company will try to pick up its fortunes with a metal or at least partially metal phone, a strategy that's worked just fine for its competitors.