? WHAT IS THE SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE EDGE
The Samsung Galaxy Note Edge is basically the Note 4 with one peculiar addition, a curved screen. Bizarrely, though, it's only curved on the right side of the phone and the reason isn’t really clear. Samsung hasn’t explained why it’s there and after the time we have spent with it, we are not sure either
Priced at an expensive £650, the Note 4 could well give us a glimpse of phone design in the future, in its current state though, we can't really see the benefits of the Edge to make you want to spend your money on it
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE EDGE: DESIGN
It doesn’t take long to realise how the curved edge changes the way you handle this phone. Unlike the Note 4, which comfortably balances its large frame with the slightly curved back and raised corners, wrapping your fingers around to grip in one hand has a slightly pinching effect. It’s not as comfortable to hold as the Note 4 or the iPhone 6 Plus. That’s down to the fact that it now replaces the anodized aluminium trim on that side, creating a more unbalanced feel
Surprisingly, though, the extra screen segment doesn’t make the Note Edge much heavier. The Edge weighs in at just 174g, with the Note 4 a couple of grams heavier at 176g. It’s only a fraction thicker, too – 8.5mm vs 8.3mm on the Note 4. Everything apart from that second screen is the same
Note 4 and Note Edge side-by-side
That means the Edge retains many of things that made us love the Note 4. The faux-leather plastic back – minus the horrible fake stitching of the Note 3 – gives the Edge a nice, assured grip and the back is removable so you can get to battery, the micro SD card slot and of course get your micro SIM card in place. Disappointingly, however, the slightly raised corners, which gave the Note 4 an extra degree of protection, are gone
The buttons are largely in the same place and the home button packs in Samsung’s improved Touch ID-rivalling fingerprint recognition sensor. The exception is the standby button, which is now at the top of the phone to accommodate the curved screen. That makes it more of a stretch reaching a finger up to it, which is irritating
For S-Pen users, the Wacom-powered stylus is still intact of course, housed in the same compartment. Around the back you’ll find the same small speaker and camera sensor with heart rate sensor just below
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE EDGE: SCREEN
IIf you cover up that second screen, this is the same outstanding display from the the Note 4. It’s a slightly smaller 5.6-inch Super AMOLED panel with the same Gorilla Glass 4 protection that Samsung sneakily unveiled without telling anyone
It has a 1,600 x 2,560 screen resolution, so you get an extra 160 pixels courtesy of the curved edge. The 524ppi (pixels per inch) pixel density is less than TrustedReviews Phone of the Year the LG G3 (534ppi), but what really matters here is that clarity is still exceptionally impressive. This is one of the best smartphone displays available
You get the same immensely bright, vibrant and sharp results as the Note 4 and can enjoy those fantastic black levels when watching films watching. Colours are punchy and perhaps out of the box a little too colourful, which is easily solved in the display mode options found inside the Screen settings
As we commented in our Note 4 review, most are unlikely to appreciate the jump from a Full HD 1080p display to a 2K QHD one, but having dropped down to a Galaxy S5 since, picking up the Edge really hammers home the big improvements Samsung is making with its smartphone displays
So, what happens when you add an extra curved screen to an otherwise great one? Well, aside from working independently from the main display from a software point of a view, not a great deal. There's no discernible difference between the two
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE EDGE: SOFTWARE AND APPS
The Note Edge runs on Android 4.4 KitKat with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI and it’s largely the same as the Note 4. There’s less of the bloatware than in previous years, but we'd still like to see more stripped away for future handsets. Enhanced features introduced with the Note 4, like Multi-Window, are present, but the curved display adds some unique, if far from perfect, functionality
The main use is to house commonly used apps you’d normally find arranged at the bottom of the screen. That’s things like the web browser, camera and Google Play shortcut. The little star above the row of apps allows you to edit those favourited apps, while swiping up from the bottom gives you quick access to the Edge screen Settings. You can still access this by swiping down from the top of the screen to access, but it's a handy alternative
Above the little star, you can swipe down to see additional features that work on the second screen. There’s a 10cm ruler – we measured against a normal ruler to verify its accuracy – a simple stopwatch and count down clock, a shortcut to the torch flash on the back and the ability to activate the voice search. While the ruler is a nice touch, it's safe to say you can live without most of these Edge screen features
There's scope to customize the Edge screen further, too. You can manage the panels to dictate what’s displayed, like notifications, quick access apps, phone calls, S Health data and even news delivered by Yahoo News. You can download additional panels but essentially most are news feeds. Express me handles what’s displayed on the panel when the phone is locked, while information stream lets you choose what Yahoo!-powered feeds appear
The night clock feature takes full advantage of the bedside table scenario where you don’t have to lift and awaken the display to view the time. Here you can adjust when the night clock jumps into action to save some of those power reserves when it’s not really needed. Lastly, Edge screen text let’s you adjust and personalise the text message that’s shown on the panel
There’s screen orientation support here as well, so when you flip the side upside down the panel will change as well. That makes it more accommodating for left handed users although you are still stuck with having to use phone upside down, which is slightly ridiculous
For all these options, though, we were left unimpressed by the utility of the edge screen. There's some benefit and appeal being able to free up the screen when you are watching video, for example, but most of the applications are tenuous at best
There are other problems, too. Content is displayed on the Edge screen facing in rather than facing out from the display and there's no obvious way to change this. Samsung has missed a trick here. When it's lying flat on a table, it would actually be quite useful to be able to glance over at the Edge and see messages and tweets as they come through
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE EDGE: S-PEN AND S-PEN APPS
No Note phone is complete without the S-Pen and it remains one of the key attractions of this phone. The S-Pen technology is based on a Wacom digitizer and while the look of it has slightly changed in comparison to the one included on the Note 3, it’s the changes in accuracy and pressure sensitivity that really matter
In the box alongside your Note Edge, you still get the option of removable plastic and rubber nibs depending on the type of interaction you are planning. Pressure sensitivity is an impressive 2,048dps (degrees per second) to help produce a more accurate, fluid writing and drawing experience
The app support is the same as it is on the Note 4 and pulling the S-Pen out from its cosy little compartment activates the S-Pen launcher. Here you get access to apps like Action Memo and Smart Select, while pre-installed Samsung apps like S Note and S Calendar are fully integrated with the S-Pen technology
Apps like S-Note use the edge screen area to shift the shortcuts that normally reside at the top of the screen to the edge, freeing up space. It’s nice to have a full canvas in drawing apps, but we’re sure people didn’t have that much of a problem the way things were set up already
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE EDGE: PERFORMANCE
The Note Edge has the same core specs as the Note 4. That’s means a Snapdragon 805 processor, 3GB of RAM and an Adreno 420 GPU. It’s a monster of a phone that runs just as smoothly and impressively as the Note 4. Samsung’s TouchWiz overlay doesn’t measurably impact on performance either, though we’d still prefer a pure Vanilla Android experience
The benchmarks back up just how well the Note Edge manages everyday and more intensive tasks like video streaming, gaming and multitasking. Until the 64-bit Snapdragon 810 turns up in smartphones in 2015, the 805 and the Tegra K1 are the very best Android phone chips around
Its showing in Geekbench 3’s multi-core test sits comfortably in the 3,000+ range, averaging a score of 3,200. That’s roughly the same as the Note 4 and significantly higher than the iPhone 6 Plus (2,863). If power is your main concern here, then the Note Edge is not going to let you down
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE EDGE: CAMERA
The Note Edge matches the Note 4’s camera setup, which means it includes one of the best all-round smartphones we’ve used this year. The same 16-megapixel sensor found inside the Galaxy S5 is backed up excellent optical image stabilization to boost low-light and evening shooting performance
For video recording, you can still shoot at a maximum 4K, but we'd still recommend opting for Full HD 1080p shooting, where you'll have the benefit of the most useful video-related features and the optical video stabilization really comes to the rescue when you are shooting at night
Again, Samsung has stripped away some of the features and camera modes left at your disposal, keeping hold of the elements inside the easy-to-use camera app to pick up and shoot good quality images without any performance issues getting in the way
The curved screen changes the camera setup slightly. For landscape shooting, the Edge moves all of the camera app settings to the curved screen, which makes them slightly easier to reach. When you move to portrait mode or shooting selfies, the same options don’t in fact reposition themselves making it a little more awkward for those selfies or profile shots
It’s a shame because in well-lit conditions, up close for macro-style images or from afar, the Note Edge produces sharp, detailed images with lovely, punchy colours. Background detail is still lacking, but this is a solid performer
The same can be said about LED flash performance and HDR. Samsung only opts for a single LED flash, but it delivers rewarding results. Samsung’s HDR mode is arguably the strongest and most impressive among high end smartphones, delicately improving the lighting in high contrast photos without appearing overprocessed or destroying detail
HDR mode off
HDR turned on
Low-light shooting is where the big improvements are made. If you discount the Galaxy K Zoom hybrid smartphone camera, the Note Edge along with the Note are the first of the Samsung flagships phone to include optical image stabilisation. This is a big deal because, unlike the digital image stabilisation you find on most smartphones, optical stabilisation uses a mechanical system to reduce hand-shake in photos, which is far more effective
This means the phone can use slower shutter speeds when shooting in low light, leading to brighter and more detailed photos. It can’t eradicate noise and hand-shake entirely in all conditions, but your photos are better off with it than without
The front-facing camera's 3.7-megapixel sensor with f/1.9 aperture completes the Note 4-esque setup and is well equipped for video chat and stills. If you need to shoot video, the Full HD 1080p video recording support ensures you can still produces smooth, judder-free footage
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE EDGE: BATTERY LIFE
The Note Edge relies on the same battery as the Note 3 and not the Note 4. That’s a 3,000 mAh battery instead of a 3,200mAh one, which is something of a surprise especially when you factor the ‘extra’ screen is likely to be more of a drain on the battery
In day-to-day use, it shows. You will have to work harder to get close to two days, something the Note 4 manages easily. During a normal day, checking in on Facebook, Twitter, streaming music and browsing the web during commutes, it can drop to around 30% at 11pm – a safe buffer
A night out will see you initiating the ultra power saving mode, which will restrict features like the camera. That battery life showing is roughly around what we found with the Note 4 prior to a pre-release firmware update, which did improve performance
If you stick to standard definition video you can get 11 hours of video playback with Wi-Fi off and the screen at 50 per cent brightness. That’s two hours shy of what the Note 4 managed and an hour less than the iPhone 6 Plus..
While the battery performance might not be class-leading, the Note Edge is a fast charger. Thanks to support for Snapdragon’s Quick Charge technology, we found a 30-minute charge added 40 per cent, so an hour charge should last you most of the day
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE EDGE: CALL AND SOUND QUALITY
Call quality is good but not outstanding, but we suffered no signal dropouts and the noise cancelling mic keeps ambient noise to a minimum
The internal speaker on the back is still pretty ordinary, too. While it’s not a supremely tinny affair, it lacks the warmth we crave for when watching video. This is one area we hope Samsung improves on future Note phones, especially when these ‘mini tablets’ are so good for watching films on
???SHOULD I BUY THE SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE EDGE
Probably not. The Note Edge is a strange phone to sum up. We loved the Note 4, but for all their similarities the Note Edge doesn’t deliver. We struggled to find a real use for the curved edge. Maybe one day it will have more compelling uses and we appreciate Samsung trying something different, but it's not there yet
There's some minor issues that let down the Note Edge, too, like having to sacrifice battery life and button placement to accommodate the unique design. Perhaps worst of all is the price. SIM-free, the Note Edge costs £50 more than the £600 Note 4 and that's expensive for a feature that is yet to convince
If you have to go for a big phone, we still say the Note 4 is king here with the iPhone 6 Plus a close second. The Note Edge is an interesting idea but Samsung has a way to go before we are sold on it
VERDICT
The Note Edge ultimately fails to sell the concept of a curved screen smartphone. Maybe one day we will love it, but right now it's well wide of the mark.
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