During CES 2013, Samsung had demonstrated its YOUM prototype device that comes with a sloping curved screen. When the Galaxy Note 4 was announced, Samsung has taken this concept into production and the end result is the Galaxy Note Edge.
Initially launched with limited availability, the Galaxy Note Edge is finally here in Malaysia with the retail price of RM2,999. So is the Galaxy Note Edge worth the extra RM500 over the normal Galaxy Note 4? Read on to find out.
Hardware
Under the hood, the Galaxy Note Edge runs on a 2.7GHz Quad Core Snapdragon 805 processor. Meanwhile, the current Galaxy Note 4 for Malaysia is running on Samsung’s very own Exynos 5433 Octa-Core processor which appears to be better on benchmarks and battery life. We’ll talk about the performance a bit later. Despite being a more premium device, the Galaxy Note Edge surprisingly comes with a 3,000mAh capacity battery, that’s slightly smaller than the Note 4’s 3,220mAh unit.
Design
Over at the back, it features the same faux leather removable back cover that feels more upmarket with a rubber-like texture. Similar to the Note 4, the loud speaker is placed at the back, which isn’t our favourite placement but the audio playback is loud enough for most scenarios.
Edge Display
Each time there’s a notification, it will automatically display as a scrolling ticker, instead of traditional placement at the notification bar. At first it looks cool and it takes us a while to get used to reading a vertical scrolling text. To read the full details or message, you’ll have to quickly tap on the alert before it disappears.
Beyond the usual notification and shortcuts, you can add additional panels which are free to download. Some of the useful ones include a mobile data tracker, twitter trends, S-Health status bar and Yahoo News. For a little bit of fun, there are games for the edge panel like Tiny Burger and Memory Match. The edge screen is smart enough to change its display orientation depending on usage for example while lying flat on a table versus being held.
When the panel is active, you can pull up a couple of tricks by swiping from the top most portion. This brings down some tools like ruler which works in both cm and inches, a torch light, stop watch, timer and a sound recorder. To access the edge display settings, just swipe from the bottom end to reveal the settings icon.
If you’re in a meeting, you can discreetly switch on the edge display only by simply swiping from left to right repeatedly. This will activate a night clock, which you can swipe vertically to bring up other panels. At night, the edge can also be used as a bedside clock and you can set what time of the day for it to be activated. Since this is a Super AMOLED display, each pixels are lighted individually which probably takes a minimal toll on its battery life.
Before this, we had our perception that the edge display can intrusive while using normal apps. However Samsung has made it smart enough to minimise itself when the edge isn’t in use. The edge panel only appears when you’re in the home screen or if you trigger the panel by swiping it outwards. By default, the edge display on the right makes it more practical for right handed users. If you’re left handed, you’ll be happy to know there’s the option to rotate the screen 180 degrees, which brings the edge experience to the left. Then again, this would look pretty awkward as you’ll need to rotate back to the other end when making a call and if you need to access the home and back buttons.
Performance
In terms of battery life, we get an average of 15-17 hours on a single charge, which is identical with the Galaxy Note 4, but on-screen time is slightly less at about 3.5 hours, versus 5 hours on the Galaxy Note 4. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since the Galaxy Note Edge comes with a smaller battery capacity but it should be more than enough for most people. For heavy usage, you’ll probably need a charge before the day gets dark and the Note Edge also supports Adaptive Fast Charging that does 0 to 50% in 30 minutes.