Update: We're currently putting the
Galaxy Note Edge through our in-depth review process - but in the mean
time, here are some early thoughts and a deeper review of the curved
screen: The Samsung Galaxy Note Edge is a phone
that's got me hit under the collar. It's another evolutionary step
forward in the way we're going to be using phones, right? I
mean, it has to be. The rounded spine, with the screen curving away and
tucking itself under the chassis, is surely the blueprint for the Samsung Galaxy S6 in 2016. Well,
that is, assuming the idea of a curved display on one side isn't a
novelty and redundant beyond being a clever marketing gimmick, of
course. And it needs to be more than that. Early prices seem to have the Note Edge at around £50 more than the impressive Samsung Galaxy Note 4, with the curved model costing a huge £650. Is the curved screen worth it? Of
course there's more on offer here that makes the Edge a really
promising device: a huge 5.7-inch QHD (1440 x 2560) screen even without
the curved spine is really pleasant to look at. That's
also coupled with Samsung's Super AMOLED technology, which again makes
the Note range the best phone screen I've seen on the market. The
camera is improved, the S Pen is starting to show glimmers of offering
really useful functionality to the average consumer (not just the
business warrior hell-bent on dropping the notepad) and the raw power of
the Snapdragon 805 chipset (or the octacore Exynos option from Samsung)
means this phablet can go on, and on, and on. And while Samsung unquestionably created the phablet market, it's now got some serious competition to contend with. Apple's new iPhone 6 Plus is some people's idea of 'the only large phone' on the market, and the Google Nexus 6, while not mega-cheap as before, is still a very well specified device without the need for bells and whistles. Samsung's
also facing a profits slide that it's desperate to arrest, and that
will only be achieved through going back into its R&D labs, putting
on a stylish thinking cap, and coming up with something truly innovative
that wows the public. Last year's Galaxy Round,
the brand's first curved display in a phone, was a step towards that
but didn't really do much beyond, well, being a bit curved. The Note
Edge combines an innovative design with actual real-life usage, which
means it could be more of a hit than Samsung's other novelties.
Design
Let's
get this out of the way first: you won't like the Note Edge the first
time you pick it up. I almost want to applaud Samsung's designers for
taking such a bold step, keeping the same high resolution display from
the Note 4 but then adding in a few more pixels to bring us this clever
spine which can independently show information. But the problem is the phone gets wider as a result, and you really feel like you need to wedge it into one palm. It's
true that any phablet performs better when held in two hands, but when
pulling out the S Pen from the bottom right hand corner (which
pleasingly can be pushed in either way, a feature Samsung added in with
the Note 3 and has removed tremendous frustration with Samsung's phablet
series for me) you still have to hold the phone steady in one hand,
which can be a little tricky. That said, there is an
acceptance that the Note Edge is going to be a larger device - after
all, that's why you're buying it, right? - and it doesn't take more than
a few days to really get used to the idea. By putting
the digital spine on the right hand side of the phone though, Samsung
was forced into a big design decision: where does the power button go?
Sadly, it didn't make the right call, as the unlock key has been moved
to the top of the device where it lived many moons ago. The unlock key is terribly hard to hitWith
a phone that measures 153.5 x 78.6 x 8.5 mm, this is mightily hard to
hit and means you have to use two hands to lock the device. Hardly the
easiest. It should have either been on the left hand side, or nabbed
something from South Korean rivals LG and plopped it on the back. Failing
that, Samsung should have joined the swelling ranks of smartphone
manufacturers allowing you to double tap the screen to wake the device.
It's not a patented idea, and thankfully it's baked into Android
Lollipop (which is arriving in 2015 for this phablet) so could be an
option. The good thing that slightly helps is the home
button, which again doubles as a fingerprint scanner, will allow you to
unlock the phone and get swiping straight into the action. In
terms of the rest of the design, it's typically Samsung. Anyone that's
read any of the other reviews will realise that's not necessarily a good
thing, but it's not terrible either in this case. The
metallic rim of the Note 4 and Alpha are missing, presumably to add in
the curved spine on the right side, but the overall build quality is
good, the frame surrounded by a strong case and there's very little
creaking. I'm not a fan of the leatherette feel of the
back cover, but it's removable again and allows you to swap the battery
and microSD cards easily, which I'm pleased to see Samsung continuing
with. The infra-red port and headphone jack both reside
on the top of the device, making it easy to use the Note Edge as a daily
media device, and the speaker (which I'll talk more about in the next
section) is placed towards the bottom of the phone on the rear. The
camera on the Note Edge (a 16MP) affair) protrudes quite dramatically
from the back of the phone, although not to the point that you'd notice
it in the pocket. It's weird how much other phone brands
can get away with the camera unit sticking out the back of the phone
when Apple gets castigated for a couple of millimetres, but I'm glad
that's the case. I'd rather have a better snapper than an aesthetically
more pleasing handset, and the Note Edge does both pretty well. The
lightness of the phone, at 176g, is nothing to get excited about (it's
actually one of the heavier on the market), but then again it's not too
heavy either. In the palm it's nicely balanced, and pulling out the S
Pen is an easy task thanks to the whole thing being so grippable. That
said, I did find myself holding it in a weird way so as not to touch
the spine in general use. I never really had an instance where I
accidentally did anything with that element, but it didn't stop it being
slightly in the way all the time.
Hands on Samsung Galaxy Note Edge gallery
Key features
While there are some cool parts to the Galaxy Note Edge, the big reason to buy it is obvious: the curved element at the side. I'm
not going to go into the other key features of the Note range, such as
the improved S Pen or enhanced camera, as these are very similar to that
which we saw on the Note 4. I'll be covering them in the review, but I
just wanted to point that while they are key features of the Edge – and
very good reasons to buy – you can check out the Note 4 review to find
out about them, or read on through the review to see where they fit in.
An all-new screen design
I'll
say it now: I can't really work out whether it's a genius innovation or
design gimmick. I'd say it falls between the two, which is still good
news as it means an attempt to evolve handset design has brought an
improvement. The reason I'm torn is that despite coming
with quite an array of features, I only used about 15% of the options
regularly. For instance, the main bar is the one you'll turn to most and
here is where you'll place your most-used apps, much as you might on
the bottom level of the phone for easy access. This
works really well, and a quick swipe or tap on the spine will call them
up whenever you need them throughout the phone. After that, there's a
sort of mash-up between the notifications panel and the most recently
installed / used apps, which is less useful beyond telling you the
weather. After that you've got the contextual menus, so
if you're listening to Spotify for instance, you'll be able to see
what's playing and skip tracks forward and back. I was really impressed
with this functionality actually, as it shows Samsung has worked hard to
bring the element from the main notification pane to the spine, as
there's no way Spotify coded that in already to its app. You're
able to download more edge tricks from Samsung as well, meaning this
area will only grow. Sports scores, stock tickers and the ability to see
how much RAM your phone is using are all options available now, and if
this notion gets popular, should result in more from third parties too.
Tools a-plenty
The
other big win here is the ever-present tool bar that's accessed by
pulling down from the top of the spine. It contains things like a timer,
a torch, the stopwatch and more. The one you'll show your friends is
the ruler, which is a nifty trick that will come in useful probably
three times during a two year contract with the Note Edge, but hey, at
least it's something novel. However, while the options are good, Samsung has a long, long way to go before getting it right. One
of the biggest irks is the way the spine doesn't seem to be able to
perform as a proper notification area. When a new song comes on Spotify,
for instance, most phones will see the notification area change to tell
you the name of the song. That's fine. It's out of the way. But
when you're using the spine to flip through tracks, and the navigation
buttons keep disappearing to be replaced by the track notification
(which you can see written on the spine already) then the whole process
becomes very long-winded and requires a lot of swiping away. That bit of wood. Too long to measure. Samsung needs to make a bigger phone.Then
there's the message alert: again, this would have started scrolling
through the notification bar at the top of the phone on something like
the Note 4. But here, it shows up on the spine horizontally. Unless
you've positioned your phone exactly in your eye line on the desk, this
is no use and forces you to twist your neck and palm to read the
message. You could just unlock the phone and have a look,
obviously, but the point of the quick view is just that: a quick view
so you know whether the missive deserves your time. I
am looking forward to seeing what Samsung does with this feature in the
future though - being able to add my own message in was fun as that's
what stays there when the spine is in standby mode, but then again
whenever I read it I realised that it wasn't doing much. I
had high hopes for it during media browsing, but unless you're watching
a video using Samsung's own video player, the onscreen buttons won't
disappear to the spine (which would allow you to see the entire screen
while navigating through your movie) which is a shame.
Night, night baby
I
will say this though: the night mode is brilliant. When a certain time
hits, the Note Edge will instantly keep the screen shut off apart from a
small clock with the weather on the spine. Plug in and lay this down on
your bedside table and you've got a very unobtrusive clock that doesn't
burn your retinas with brightness. Having used a lot of
purported 'night mode' clocks before, which still feel brighter than the
sun in actual use thanks to the LCD backlights needing to be on even in
dark mode, the Super AMOLED technology delivers a tiny fraction of
light and achieves a lot.
The heart rate monitor - rebooted
Hang
on a minute... I'm actually coming around to the idea that the Galaxy
Note Edge could have found a better use for the heart rate monitor. It
doesn't feel right. It's a useless feature, right? Well,
yes... but less so than before. Where the Galaxy S5 debuted the
technology, and props to Samsung for sticking with it all this time, I
didn't think that it would ever be something beyond a novelty. But
recent additions to the S Health app that powers it, as well as improved
functionality from the sensor, mean I was more tempted to use it during
my time with the phone. Now it doesn't just monitor
heart rate (actually, it doesn't do that at all on the model I was
using. While it could clearly do it, thanks to other tests noting my
pulse, the actual heart rate monitor failed time and time again) but
also oxygen saturation levels and stress too. It's
not the most accurate, as the fact my oxygen level is perfect in one
hand but poor in the other will attest (although I could have slightly
poorer blood on one side of my body, of course...) and the stress
calculator is a bit vague, but at least Samsung is trying to make it a
more complete system. If it is fully accurate, then it
should offer you the option to alert you throughout the day to check
these readings to get a better idea of what's going on with you. Just a
thought, Samsung. But it's not that accurate right now -
although I do like the life coaching goals, as these do pop up when you
set ideals to follow, be it through less stress or improving happiness.
It's like Samsung is giving me a digital cuddle.
Early verdict
The
Samsung Galaxy Note Edge is definitely a gimmick at its heart, is too
expensive for most tastes and won't be the silver bullet for the South
Korean powerhouse in terms of rebooting sales. But it's
not a useless gimmick. It's one that, with the right amount of polish
and development, could be the thing that sets Samsung apart from the
rest of the competition... surely it's too early to see the tech on the
Galaxy S6...right?
