Samsung really dug into its innovation kit with the Galaxy Note Edge – it’s a big leap away from the nomenclature of mobile tech. Built around a similar hardware package with the same camera and chipset options the display is different. It’s a 5.6″ unit of 1600 x 2560px resolution and features a curved edge on the right side that’s populated by an extra 160px and has various use cases. When locked, a swipe on this part of the screen will reveal the date, time and missed notifications. The main panel remains dark, only the additional 160px-wide strip will light up.
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It’s on the right side of the phone’s front face that a sharp difference appears between the two models. The screen starts to slope downward, falling off toward the edge and wrapping around the side. It’s as if two screens have been connected to each other at an acute angle, but there’s only one display here. The asymmetry of the phone feels a little odd, like I chipped part of the right side off by accident, but it doesn’t really hurt the aesthetic appeal of the phone. It’s still very comfortable, the metal body both solid and dense, and I like the way the screen curls under my right thumb. (If you’re a lefty, using the Note Edge in one hand is going to be terrible — but then again using a Note in one hand is already terrible.)
It’s on the right side of the phone’s front face that a sharp difference appears between the two models. The screen starts to slope downward, falling off toward the edge and wrapping around the side. It’s as if two screens have been connected to each other at an acute angle, but there’s only one display here. The asymmetry of the phone feels a little odd, like I chipped part of the right side off by accident, but it doesn’t really hurt the aesthetic appeal of the phone. It’s still very comfortable, the metal body both solid and dense, and I like the way the screen curls under my right thumb. (If you’re a lefty, using the Note Edge in one hand is going to be terrible — but then again using a Note in one hand is already terrible.)
Samsung uses software to separate the two parts of the display, to allow them to be simultaneously independent and connected. The sloping screen’s default status is as a quick launcher of sorts, with easy access to a bunch of your most-used apps. There are a number of widgets, though, tickers of sorts that let you flip through news or tweets or information about how many steps you’ve taken. And you can do it all without ever changing or disturbing what you see on the larger display. In some apps, the edge acts as a toolbar, offering easy access to font menus or camera modes or in-app settings. At night, it can be your alarm clock, the time displayed on the side of the phone so you can see it without taking your head off your pillow.
It’s an odd idea, turning this vertical rail into essentially an always-on secondary display. Is it best-suited as a ticker? A notification center? A quick-launch taskbar? Samsung doesn’t seem entirely sure, and in a few minutes of using the Galaxy Note Edge it was clear that while well-implemented and useful the whole idea isn’t necessarily fully formed.
Apart from the funky shape, the black or white Note Edge is almost identical to the Note 4. Specs differences are slight -- it has a 5.6-inch screen versus a 5.7-inch display), a less capacious 3,000mAh battery, and a 64GB option in addition to a 32GB version.
The unique Note Edge will be less widely available around the world than the Note 4 flagship. In the US, it'll come to AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, though there's no pricing yet and the only release time frame we have is "later this year."
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