Samsung has revealed not just one, but two phablets at its Unpacked event – and one of them has a curved screen.
Joining the Galaxy Note 4 is the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, a curved smartphone with a unique form factor.
Its 5.6in 2560×1440 display curves off the right-hand side of the phone, creating an extra area that can be used to display notifications, app controls and widgets.
Inside, the Galaxy Note Edge packs a quad-core 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805 processor, 3GB RAM and 32GB storage (expandable by up to 128GB using microSD). There’s also a 3,000mAh battery to keep things chugging along; naturally, it’s removeable. There’s a 16MP rear camera with optical image stabilisation, and a 3.7MP, f1.9 front-facing snapper – which can snap wide-angle selfies using a new panoramic picture mode.
As the name suggests, the Note Edge is part of the Samsung Galaxy Note family; it incorporates many of the same design cues and features found on the Galaxy Note 4. That curved screen wraps around a faux-leather and metal build, lending the device a more premium feel than the plasticky Note 3 and Galaxy S5. At 8.3mm thick, it’s roughly the same size as the Note 3, and a fraction heavier at 174g (versus the Note 3’s 168g) – that’ll be the metal build, most likely.
It also houses a docked S Pen stylus, with an array of new features: fountain pen and calligraphy pen drawing modes, and Snap Note, which acts as a sort of OCR reader, letting you turn photos of documents into editable text and create a scrapbook.
Pricing and release information have yet to be revealed.