Sometimes the smallest things can mean a world of a difference between two similar products. At the first glance Samsung’s Galaxy Note Edge differs just slightly from the rest of its kind, by adding a small curved surface on one of its edges, a portion of its display that bends around the right side of the phone. That tiny portion of the phone, though, adds never before seen functionality to the device.
But first let’s take a look at what’s hidden under the handset’s hood. At the first sight the Galaxy Note Edge looks and feels like a standard phablet – it has a 5.6″ Quad-HD Super Amoled display, a 2.7GHz quad-core CPU, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage that can be extended through a MicroSD card, a 16 megapixel back camera and a 3.7 megapixel front camera for selfies and video messaging, the standards sensors and some less usual ones, like a barometer, a heart rate monitor and a UV sensor, and comes with a new and improved S Pen, customary for Samsung’s Note series. The nice things start when we taker a look on the small curved area on the side of its screen, that functions as a second display.
The “second screen” can display quite some useful information – a list of apps, quick settings, notifications of all kinds, weather information, and it also has the time. It also serves as a timer, a heart tracker, a stopwatch, a Twitter feed, or even a ruler. Unfortunately most of these new features are just the usual Android services that are transformed to fit on the new screen on the side – there is no true innovation there. Aside from the curved side, the Galaxy Note Edge is very much like the Galaxy Note 4. In a world where smartphones all focus on bigger screens and better cameras, the Note Edge is like a mouthful of fresh air, showing that there are many more things to tinker with than just displays. Even if the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge fails to become the “next big thing”, it’s a step in the right direction – breaking out of the usual molds and opening up some new frontiers.