Samsung Galaxy Note Edge officially announced with curved side screen

Samsung surprised everyone at their IFA event by introducing not one, but two new Note devices. The Galaxy Note 4 and a new Galaxy Note Edge. The Samsung Galaxy Note Edge stands out with its curved screen (the curve is right around one of the edges).

This unique design comes with three main advantages: first, you can save battery life by just looking at your missed notification on the edge of the display, without having turn on the full display; next, you can easily see your updates on the side display; and lastly, you have additional level of control over your device with new buttons and other customizable features.

Display

The Galaxy Note Edge maybe slightly smaller than the Galaxy Note 4, but you still get a large screen 5.6 inch Super AMOLED display with a Quad HD (1440 by 2560 pixel) resolution with an additional 160 pixels for its sidescreen.

This edge screen is Samsung's new vision of what a display can do for you... It offers 7 scrollable, customizable panels which the company refers to as its Revolving UX. These panels can display just about anything and even work as a ticket for your latest stock, sports, news or social updates.

The edge screen can even extend the features of an app and display your video playback controls, camera controls and more without getting in the way of your content. Samsung will event release two special Flip Wallet cases which will take advantage of the edge screen.

Samsung will be releasing a special SDK to developers, so that they too can take advantage of the Edge screen on the Note Edge and develop apps which can make use of the extra screen real estate.

Camera

On its rear, you are once again presented with a 16 megapixel ISOCELL rear camera which includes Smart optical image stabilization (OIS). OIS is very useful for video and image capture (compensates for hand shake), as it allows the camera to snap photos at higher shutter speed without having to worry too much about blur. That's great to have when doing night shots. The 'Smart' part in the name is attributed to the camera combining both Optical and Digital stabilization to lower processing time.

Samsung has also included a 3.7 megapixel front camera with a very wide f/1.9 lens. This front camera is capable of capturing 60% more light and has a 90% wider viewing angle than its predecessors. With a new 'Wide Selfie' mode you can now capture 120 degrees of panoramic selfies.

Samsung has managed to double the heart rate sensor as a shutter button for the front camera, allowing you to capture photos by placing your finger on the sensor to focus and letting it go to capture your photos

Sensors

The Galaxy Note 4 features an improved version of the fingerprint sensor found on the Galaxy S5. The heart rate monitor from the Galaxy S5 is also present and adds some new camera functionality we mentioned before.

Samsung has also included a new UV sensor, which is a first on a mobile device. will be used to measure the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. There are a five UV index levels: Low, Moderate, High, Very High and Extreme, and the S Health app will issue tips for tanning and sun exposure, based on the place and time you are using the sensor to measure the radiation rating. For the measurement to happen, one will have to maintain more than a 60 degree elevation angle against the sun with the back of the sensor.

In certain markets will apparently also see a model with an SpO2 sensor that can measure the oxygen saturation in your blood. Right now, we don't know exactly how that one will work, as you'll likely need external accessories to do that

Processor

Samsung will be using two different processors to power their Galaxy Note 4. First we have the quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor from Qualcomm, which is clocked at 2.5GHz. This processor is coupled with Adreno 420 GPU, which not only introduces a non-trivial performance boost over Adreno 330, but also allows for a higher-end graphics content to be rendered by the unit. The new silicon is also capable of category 6 LTE, which can theoretically reach speeds of 300 Mbps. That's more bandwidth than you can hope to get from carrier.

Samsung's own 64-bit Exynos 5433 chip powers a separate variant of the device. This 64-bit chip is of the octa-core flavor and utilizes four Cortex-A57 and four Cortex-A53 cores in an ARM big.LITTLE configuration, meaning that loads are transferred between the two clusters, depending on the lightness (or heaviness) of the task. If maximum power is required, the two clusters work together for superior speed.

Both processor variants of the Note 4 come with 3GB of RAM, which should help manage the resource intensive apps and services exclusive to the Note family.

The Note Edge comes with a smaller 3000mAh battery compared to the Note 4, the curved edge makes it more economical, so it should offer a similar, if not more efficient battery life than its larger sibling. The battery also features Fast Charging (Adaptive Fast Charging & Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0) which should allow your Note Edge to be charged 50% faster than the previous generation Note.

In terms of software you get the latest version of Android 4.4 KitKat, which has been customized with Samsung's TouchWiz user interface. Being a member of the Note family means you also get Note specific apps and services with the S Pen stylus.

The S Pen on the Galaxy Note Edge is meant to help achieve tasks more efficiently that your fingers. This new S Pen offers a much more authentic pen experience, with a more natural brush effect that perfectly emulates writing on paper with a fountain or calligraphy pen. The S Pen also introduces a more user-friendly Air Command functionality along with other intuitive features such as Action Memo, Screen Write, Image Clip and Smart Select that allow users to create and collect content with ease. A new Smart Select feature enables users to easily piece together content from different origins, and share it with ease.
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​The Galaxy Note Edge also provides users with a choice of multiple, seamless note-taking methods integrated with Samsung’s S Note application that allows everyday tasks to get done faster and more easily. In addition to typing and writing, the innovative Snap Note feature allows users to take a picture of their notes on a paper or a classroom board, and then quickly and easily convert to the S Note. They can also further unleash their creativity by jotting down their thoughts quickly with the Voice Memo.

Samsung did not reveal the official pricing for their Note Edge, but we expect it will cost slightly more than the Note 4. The Note Edge alongside the Note 4 will be released around October.

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	Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
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