NEW
YORK—There's a delicate line between a feature that is gimmicky and one
that's functional or innovative. Samsung appears to be straddling the
edge of that border with the new Galaxy Note Edge smartphone that I've
been reviewing for a few days—and that hits some stores Friday.Note Edge is so named because of the curvy display that cascades along the right edge of the screen to provide information or icons that behave independently or in concert with stuff that appears on the main portion of the screen.
We've been hearing about curved displays for some time now; here's one of the first devices to exploit this in a potentially useful way, at least some of the time.
The latest phablet is modeled after its close sibling the Galaxy Note 4 that I favorably reviewed recently. Note Edge is an interesting product with some appeal. But given a choice between the two—for now anyway—I think I'll stick with Note 4, while continuing to watch the evolution of flexible displays.
Both Note 4 and Note Edge take advantage of Samsung's pressure-sensitive S-Pen digital stylus, which you can use, among other chores, to write on the screen or clip images. The two handsets have fast charging cables and excel at multitasking. Both have Samsung's S Health app and heart rate monitors, along with fingerprint scanners. Both have 32GB of internal memory, expandable via microSD. And both have aluminum frames that surround large, good-looking Quad HD displays—the Note 4 having a 5.7-inch screen versus 5.6 inches for the Edge.
What makes Edge different, of course, is the aforementioned narrow slice of screen that wraps along the edge of the phone like a waterfall.
Pricing is also different, with Note Edge carrying a premium over the Note 4. It will cost about $400 with a two-year contract, a $100 step-up, with various monthly options available from the carriers. All the major U.S. wireless carriers will have it in their lineups eventually; Verizon Wireless hasn't revealed its plans yet.
The customizable edge on Edge, which is scrollable, isn't so much a separate screen as an extension of the main panel. In techie terms, it adds 160 lines of resolution to the main Super AMOLED 2560 by 1440 display.
What you find along this edge area depends on what you're doing, with a swipe in either direction changing what you see.
In one edge view are icons for your favorite apps, in lieu of an apps tray that might take up room in your regular home screen. You tap an icon to open the app on the main screen.
In another view, you can summon a collection of quick tools—stopwatch, timer, flashlight, voice recorder, even a handy 4-inch long ruler that remains along the edge.
The edge can also serve as a scrolling real time information ticker for stocks, sports scores and news headlines (all provided by Yahoo), as well as Twitter trends, and the weather.
If you're listening to a song through the Google Play Music app, Samsung's own Milk or third party apps such as Spotify or Pandora, the edge displays the name, artist and sometimes the album cover of what you're listening to along with playback controls.
Similarly, camera controls turn up along the edge if you open the camera app on the phone.
Notifications appear there too, of updated apps, incoming texts, and calls--but not in every case during my tests. The idea is that you won't have to leave the app that you're working in to act on the notifications.
You can add a photo and your own text to the edge area. I was also able to play a fun little mini edge Memory Match game app.
A night clock that's visible on the edge when the phone is otherwise asleep is also available.
You can cycle through up to 7 panels and determine which of those appear by managing the edge settings, not always an intuitive process. There isn't a way to change the speed of the streaming ticker.
The edge display is visible when the phone is set down on a flat surface. Just keep in mind that the orientation of the edge is the same as the orientation on the main screen so make sure the phone is positioned properly and the edge is right side up before placing it down.
Samsung says additional edge panels are coming at launch but not many are currently available. It'll be interesting to see if and when third party developers embrace this little extra slice of screen real estate in a major way and whether Edge panels will be made available in the Google Play Store.
I worry about distractions from the edge panel at times though it is entirely possible that that is simply a matter of getting used to this new way of looking at the screen.
According to Samsung there's no major impact on battery life but I haven't had the device long enough to make that determination.
Give Samsung credit for trying something on the cutting edge. I'm just not quite ready to live on the edge.
Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow @edbaig on Twitter
The bottom line
Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
www.samsung.com
About $400 with two year contract, with monthly options available from carriers.
Pro. Duplicates functionality of solid Galaxy Note phablet but adds extra screen real estate for tools, information and notifications.
Con. Expensive. Managing screen panels can be confusing. Looking at screen this way takes getting used to.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment